Sujie
Just curious BeenThereDoneThat .... How many gas wells do you have on your property?
 

Absolutely none, on my new to me location nor previously owned properties of 15 & 30 acres.

But I do have 66 years of experience, living the oil & coal fields of NW PA.

The first 18 years were the days of orange water running the ditches through neighborhoods with oil laden pools anywhere the brinewater slowed down. The days when the ditches drained into the small water streams dumping into French Creek and the Allegheny. The days when mine drainage followed similar routes, turning streams so acidic, nothing including aquatic plants could live in the waters. The days when raw sewage dumped directly into the creeks making it's way into French Creek and the Allegheny River. The days when oilfields viewed from above looked checkered by patches of thick tar and crude where wooden seperator barrels collected the brine and oil, pumped deep from the ground. The days when walking to school you could smell crude oil, mixed with the morning air. The days when thick black coal smoke could be seen wafting from chimneys of residential homes 8 months out of the year and pouring into the air, from industrial smoke stacks.

During that same time period I saw the Clean Water & Clean Air laws enacted and over the years, I've witnessed the same waterways going from polluted to sustaining life. Watched as residential homes & industry no longer pump black smoke from the chimneys. Drainage ditches no longer running orange and in many cases, if no longer needed to control surface run off, the ditches no longer exist.

During the years prior to the clean air/water acts, should an accidental spill occur, nothing was done. Today we see specialized clean-up companies along with heavy fines and cost associated for clean up.

Oilfields I walked as a youg person no longer checkered with black tar and wooden seperator tanks dumping brine water onto the ground. Many of the oilfields of yesteryear, still producing oil today, would not be recognized as such if not for the pumping jacks.

So what's my problem with keeping our water and air clean?

People who paint boogeyman stories written in such a manner to scare people, for the mere purpose of bolstering the sales of thier article/paper/magazine.

People who "cherry pick" a report, or a conversation from an interview, looking for a key word or phrase the writer can spin to their advantage as they paint their boogeyman.

Writers whose intension is to impose their personal will onto others, using twisted or false information.

You see, not only am I for clean air and water, I am also 100% for cleaning up the news media including, holding the media responsible for any pollution created.

In my book, an apology for false or inaccurate (printed or spoken) info doesn't qualify as clean-up. Fines and other penalties need be imposed.

Thanks and should you have questions in the future, please feel free to ask. 😊

BeenThereDoneThat.
Like you, when the oil & gas industry attempts to do things in the right manner, the author looks up the asz of a dead horse, in search of data he can use, to paint pictures of his boogeyman.

Translation: I can’t be bothered to back up any of my arguments with facts and logic. When people say stuff that doesn’t fit the insular worldview I have built for my myself, they are wrong just because.

Also, the oil and gas industry would never lie to us.