Oct 3, 2024 2 min read

Rick Shrum should have gotten both sides for his story “‘Shale Revolution’: A look back at 20 years of gas drilling in the region,” in the Sept. 22 edition.

Speaking with Mount Pleasant Township residents who have been negatively impacted by shale gas development would have painted a different picture.

From the beginning of the boom, residents have been misled. Representatives of oil and gas companies pressed leases on farmers, telling them that fracking was harmless. When the community began to see and question harms, nuisances, and decreased property values, Range Resources pushed back, using intimidation tactics. They sent letters to Mount Pleasant Township leaseholders threatening to pull out of the township. Elected officials were pressured to remove protective ordinances that industry felt hindered fracking activity. Locals trying to object to activity were not granted standing in their own community. The industry effectively divided the township.

Over the past 20 years, cancer incidents in students in the Fort Cherry School District living near fracking facilities have made headlines. Residents’ contaminated water and land and their exposure to benzene from shale operations were reported on. Containers labeled with radioactive waste sat on properties in the township. Property values near shale development have decreased. A study from the University of Pittsburgh and the Pennsylvania Department of Health showed ill effects from the industry. And yet, residents continue to fight to have the industry abide by Mount Pleasant Township ordinances.

Focusing on the Chamber of Commerce’s view of economic prosperity does not show the industry’s threat to Mount Pleasant Township’s right to clean air, water and the preservation of the environment’s natural value.

Shrum’s article is one-sided.

Cathy Lodge

Bulger