Residents: Bradford County commissioners should focus more on preserving agriculture, gas impacts
Review Photo/JAMES LOEWENSTEIN Dan Natt of Macedonia says the Bradford County commissioners should focus more on the environmental effects of natural gas drilling.
TOWANDA - Carol French of Sheshequin Township says that 10 months ago, her well water began turning white from time to time, which she believes was caused by gas drilling in her area of the county.
And, she says, if she lets the water stand for a few hours, a gel forms on top of it.
French says she only drinks bottled water now, but says her cows still drink the water.
French and several other Bradford County residents attended the Bradford County commissioners' meeting this week to ask the commissioners to do more to address the issues facing agriculture locally and the environmental impacts of natural gas in the county.
The fact that the county helped finance a four-day trip last week by the commissioners to attend a natural gas conference in New Mexico, which was focused primarily on economic development, drew criticism from two of the residents.
"This whole (natural gas) industry is going to change our air, water, and soil quality" as well as impact the health of area residents, said Sheshequin Township resident Carolyn Knapp, "When will the county earmark money to spend on trips on those types of (environmental) issues, the issues that my family is going to face, that my farm is going to face, the kind of contamination she (French) is facing? ... Our county faces contamination from spills, from (problems with gas well) casings. Those are real things happening in our county that this conference neglected to talk about."
The environmental impacts of gas drilling in Bradford County, such as methane migration, were discussed at the conference, Bradford County Commissioner Mark Smith had said earlier in the commissioners' meeting.
But Knapp said that environmental issues were not the focus of the conference, and that they would have only been discussed a "minimal amount."
She said that not one environmental organization had been brought in to participate in the conference.
Bradford County Commissioner Doug McLinko said the Bradford County commissioners had been invited to the conference. He said it is important for him to attend conferences such as the one in New Mexico in order to learn about how other areas are dealing with issues related to natural gas development, and that traveling to New Mexico was particularly important, since it has a long history of natural gas drilling.
French urged the county to do more to address the loss of dairy farms in the Bradford County.
She said that two farmers near where she lives are selling off their cows, which she said has occurred at many other farms in that area of the county.
"Agriculture has been the Number One (industry) in the county. We've been Number Two in selling milk (Bradford County has been ranked Number Two in the state in terms of the amount of milk sold). That's going down the tubes," she said.
McLinko said he would not dictate whether a farmer should sell his or her herd of cattle, but said he is working to create a "healthy atmosphere for agriculture" by trying to get state and federal regulations changed so that regular stream maintenance can be done to help prevent erosion and flooding along streams.
James Loewenstein can be reached at (570) 265-1633; or email: jloewenstein@thedailyreview.com.
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