GOP Candidates in Bradford County say "Slow Down the Drilling"

Increased trucks in motel parking lots may look like a boon to local economists, but according to Jim Loewenstein at the Daily Review, candidates running for Bradford County Commissioner want to see the pace of drilling slow down. At a recent TEA party meeting John Morningstar, coordinator of the TEA party group, said that drilling was out of control. Putting the brakes on the number of permits issues would allow the county more time to assess what damage is being done to groundwater by drilling.

Two candidates for county commissioner, both running on the Republican ticket, agreed that regulating the number of drilling permits could be beneficial. Don Fitzwater, who has worked as an assistant highway manager for the state DOT, would like to see permits limiting oversized loads on the highways.

Doug McLinko, who is running for re-election, agreed that drilling traffic is much heavier than the county ever expected it to be. Traffic is so bad on Route 6 that firefighters in Wysox Township can’t respond quickly, he said.

PA Drilling to Increase Heavy Truck Traffic on NY Roads

You don’t have to have drilling in your town – or even in your state – to experience heavy truck traffic associated with drilling. At least that’s what residents of Owego, NY are learning. Last month the Owego Village Board discussed plans for selling wastewater to drilling concerns – a business opportunity, for sure, but one that will bring in a lot of additional water-hauling trucks.

Then, earlier this month Mark Clark, Town of Owego highway superintendent, reported that Talisman Energy has expressed a great desire to use four of the town’s roads. The company is looking for access to drilling sites in Pennsylvania, just across the town border.

According to my colleague Patricia Bence, Talisman has asked the town for permission to use four roads to carry 700 of their tri-axle trucks full of gravel for drill pad construction. Once the proposed well is operational, Talisman explained that heavy tanker trucks would haul water to the well, and frack-and waste-fluid from the well.

The problem, says Clark, is that the roads can’t take the weight. He urged the town to get a bond to insure that Talisman repairs any damage. Given that the county and neighboring towns have been moving on a multi-municipal road agreement at a snails pace (or as my mama used to say, “slower than molasses in January”) it looks like Owego-ites will have to fend for themselves if they hope to keep their country roads drivable.

You can read Bence’s full article here.

36 Trucks in 20 Minutes in Troy

On Saturday I headed south of the border with a friend - we wanted to see some of the Marcellus effects first hand. We headed to Troy, a small, historic borough of about 1500 smack-dab in the heartland of Pennsylvania's Endless Mountains.

It's a lovely old town, with a castle for a bank and wonderful brick buildings lining Main Street. Lively, too, as two separate Girl Scout troops vied for customers to purchase Thin Mints and Lemon cookies.

We stopped for subs at Vinnies Pizzaria, and were lucky to find a free table. Within the first fifteen seconds of sitting down, three trucks hauling residual waste passed by.

For the next twenty minutes we kept a tally of trucks heading through the center of town. We counted 36, most hauling drilling waste fluids. A few hauled fresh water and some were transporting pipe to well sites. We didn't count pick-ups; there were too many.

If you grab a calculator you'll see that 36 trucks in 20 minutes is close to two trucks a minute. And they go like this all day long, said the locals who were eating lunch next to us.

Two trucks a minute may not sound like a lot of traffic, but they do raise a dust cloud. And they did have a tight squeeze around the corner.