Protect Drinking Water From Gas Drilling

Please say NO to Polluted Water in Your County!

This petition is to say NO to UNRESTRICTED Natural Gas Drilling in Luzerne County.
Because the Marcellus Shale gas reservoir runs under our homes, water aquifers, state parks and forests,
Natural Gas companies have been flocking to the area to drill deep wells right through our water sources
that supply both public drinking water and private well water.
Here are the facts:
The gas companies have leased thousands of acres from Benton to Dallas and plan on drilling for natural gas by using a method called hydraulic fracking. This process uses between 3 & 9 million gallons of water per well, forced under very high pressures, mixed with toxic chemicals including hydrochloric and sulfuric acid, benzene, toluene, and very high salt concentrations. This is done to break up the shale and release the gas.
They say the practice is safe, but since 2005, they have been exempt from the Safe Drinking Water Act, by the Halliburton loophole which exempts gas and oil companies from the same standards as other industries when it comes to contaminating underground sources of water.
Gas companies are already seeking permits to drill through our water sources in areas that are close to housing developments in Dallas and Lehman, Lehman High School, private wells and about 1.5 miles from the Huntsville Reservoir which supplies water to many of the communities in the Wyoming Valley. Underground water aquifers can travel for many miles and pollution in one area can be found miles away in water in other underground water supplies.
If there is an accident, as there have been in many parts of the country with this activity, where cross contamination from drilling has allowed methane and other pollutants to seep into drinking water supplies, we will be without clean water to drink.
This is just one problem with this activity. There are other issues of environmental degradation, noise and air pollution from venting the gas, and a lack of facilities to treat the waste water.

By signing this petition, you are asking your state legislators to close the Halliburton loophole and to modify state laws to allow restrictions on drilling in populated suburban areas or in areas close to public drinking supplies or the Huntsville Reservoir, by at least 5 miles. Please sign. We all need safe drinking water.