http://www.lancasterfarming.com/-Couple-Reeling-From-Natural-Gas-Mess-The headline puts it mildly. Actually, they sound shell-shocked.
Couple Reeling From Natural Gas Mess
Sorry there seems to be a problem with the link. Thanks to PDJane for a new link below, but that doesn't work for me either. You may have to go to the home page and find the story from there.
http://www.lancasterfarming.comIt's worth reading the whole thing.
11/26/2011 10:00 AM
By Chris Torres Staff Writer (Lancaster Farming)
More than a year after a natural gas fluid spill caused a mess on their farm, Don and Carol Johnson have yet to fully recover from the incident. Now they regret the day they ever let a natural gas company come onto their property. “Now we wished we’d never seen them,” Don said. The Johnsons have been farming their property in Shippen Township, Tioga County for 53 years.
In April 2010, water from an impoundment pit on the farm leaked into a pasture where the couple’s Simmental/Hereford crosses grazed, killing grass in an area measuring 30 feet long by 40 feet wide. The impoundment, which East Resources (now known as Shell Appalachia), a natural gas company, was using to store flowback water from the hydrofracture or fracking process, was located 100 feet from the pasture.
Even though no one actually saw cattle walking through or drinking any of the leaked water, tracks were found throughout the pool. Fearing that some of the cattle might have ingested contaminated water, The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture quarantined 28 head of cattle from the farm, including 16 cows, four heifers and eight calves. It was the first animal quarantine related to Marcellus Shale drilling.To this day, 11 head of cattle, mostly young stock at the time of the spill, remain quarantined and will remain quarantined until at least May 5, according to the department.
This past spring, eight of 11 calves born from cows once quarantined at the farm died at birth. Subsequent tests have yet to prove the deaths were caused by anything related to the spill. But the Johnsons aren’t convinced.
much more>
By the way, Lancaster Farming, a weekly farming newspaper, usually features articles extremely favorable to the fracking companies. A lot of farmers see fracking as their last possible lifeline for staying on the land. This front-page article is unusual for them.
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