Pennsylvania based blog. Includes a quotes page unique to blogs on the environment, highlighting the struggle between citizens, corporations, and government regulations, providing a larger historical context.
It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment. ~ Ansel Adams
“In the woods we return to reason and faith” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
See also: “Fracked Dry“, a citizen’s blog from Herb Baldwin, still online in 2025. (editor’s note)
About
I live in an area called the Back Mountain. It is upland and northwest of a large and populated valley. The Back Mountain comprises over 100 square miles and is home to approximately 27,000 humans. It is a verdant and pastoral quilt of relatively thriving communities and two college-sized universities. There are cows, sheep, and horses in the fields. Bear, deer, coyote, and fox roam the forests. The eagle and hawk patrol the skies. There are two large reservoirs; myriad ponds, lakes, streams, and creeks – all draining into the Susquehanna River, which drains into the Chesapeake Bay. Each foot of the way was once Paradise.
Recently, EnCana Corporation was given permission to drill three “exploratory” natural gas wells in the Back Mountain. If this goes the way it has elsewhere, it will have major long term consequences for our good communities. We must educate ourselves and our decision makers.
I will be posting information and links. I invite you to learn along with me. I also encourage your comments and submissions.
Thanks for reading, hope to hear from you!
About | Frack Mountain
Herb Baldwin
2/3/10
Over the next thirty years, given the present technology, 500 billion gallons of water will be retired underground in Pennsylvania through the process known as horizontal fracturing. This is according to email discussions I have had with Penn State’s Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research.
500B is equivalent to 68 Harvey’s Lakes, or 263 Huntsville reservoirs, or 200 Wallenpaupacks (a relatively shallower but more expansive body of water).
This water will no longer be available for human use. It will lurk in the shattered caverns below. This dispersed sea will be waiting for a flaw, a break, an errant burst of pressure…
…Recently, EnCana Corporation was given permission to drill three “exploratory” natural gas wells in the Back Mountain, near Herb Baldwin’s property.
See: Gas Drilling Trucks
See: EnCana Buries Hydraulic Fracturing Pit Sludge in Unlined Pit May 14, 2009
See: Property Rights and Drilling
See: Pennsylvania Gas Drillers Dumping Radioactive Waste in New York
See: Western PA landowners regret deep gas wells deals
See: The Costs of Natural Gas, Including Flaming Water
See: Hazards posed by natural gas drilling are not limited to below ground
See: Gasland Trailer 2010
See: Under the surface : fracking, fortunes and the fate of the Marcellus Shale
