Letters to the Editor, July 2, 2010

Published: July 2, 2010

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Bad idea

EDITOR: The Sayre Borough Council and its planning board are considering the idea of changing the zoning on Keystone Avenue from light commercial to downtown commercial. I would advise them to think that decision all the way through. If CVS is allowed to gut that residential area, then the next project that we will probably see will be an attempt to build a brand-new Dandy Mini Mart complete with gas tanks across the street from the CVS project. The residents in that neighborhood fought that before and prevented that from happening. However, changing the zoning will open up that avenue once again. On Jan. 4, 2008 at the Dandy Mini Mart in Rome Township, there was a 1,200-plus gallon gas spill that occurred at 3:30 a.m., when a driver from William's Oil had mistakenly overfilled the storage tank. The fuel that spilled out of the tank had gone across the parking lot onto Route 187; then along a drainage ditch for approximately 50 yards. The fuel funneled right across the road and into the drainage ditch. Of course that's not what will happen on Lockhart Street if it were to occur. Being on a hill it would run down the street toward the Sayre High School which is only one block away. At the same time it would drain into the storm sewers creating a gas fume chamber and an inadvertent lit cigarette thrown from a passing car could create a catastrophe. Keep in mind that the natural gas lines run adjacent to and in some cases parallel to the sewer lines of the residences that have gas service.

There must be better choices for CVS to locate a new store. Further down Keystone Avenue at another light there are already three corners of commercial development. A large portion of that is just a parking lot and the money saved in excavation costs could probably more than compensate the businesses that would have to relocate. Better yet keeping CVS in the downtown area would be an even better idea. And I'm sure the merchants in the downtown area would agree. It's too bad they couldn't relocate a new store at the old JJ Newberry site. The Zaremba Group LLC claims that 1,166 vehicles will be making daily trips to the CVS facility. The downtown merchants would surly welcome that much customer traffic and it would perhaps encourage other small business ventures to fill the empty storefronts that are now there. It may also increase traffic at the Railroad Museum.

The Sayre Council used common sense and refused to buckle to the county pressure of the renumbering of the addresses on Lockhart Street Let's use the same common sense in regard to this decision. Are our council members a government of the people, by the people, and for the people? Or are they a government of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations? I hope they are the former.

E. Michael Dugan

Sayre

Bad news for Bradford County

EDITOR: I have some bad news to share with my fellow Bradford County residents, most whom are tolerating the 24/7 gas drilling taking place in our backyards.

First bit of bad news. Every gas well has become a repository, an underground storage tank, for as many as 30,000 gallons of a cancer-causing cocktail (CCC). What I'm talking about is the water that's injected into the wells to fracture the shale. Guess what? Up to 85 percent of that contaminated water remains underground! This polluted water contains organic chemicals such as benzene and formaldehyde. Both of those are known carcinogens.

This means there's only a few thousand feet between the CCC and the water we drink. Mix the CCC along with gas under high pressure whose tendency is to rise to a higher level and, well, you get the picture.

If that isn't enough to rattle your sense of well-being, imagine the fragile barrier that actually exists between the CCC and the water table...a mere inch of metal and a few additional inches of cement. What happens to that stiff barrier when the ground shifts? Recent history shows Pennsylvania has not been immune to earthquakes.

Here's the other bit of bad news. Did you know the gas lobby bought off Congress in 2005 and managed to get their industry exempted from the Safe Drinking Water Act? Every other industry who injects anything underground has to meet stiff requirements for safety but not the gas companies. So they evade federal oversight before drilling, during drilling, as well as after they've packed up and left. Any regulation is left up to the states who, as we've witnessed, have been woefully slow getting up to speed on this critical life-and-death issue.

This is one of the reasons why New York has called a moratorium on gas drilling. They're watching us Pennsylvanians who are blissfully serving as guinea pigs to see how many streams get ruined (check), how many drinking wells are ruined (check), how much farm land is permanently destroyed (check), and how many health problems arise from the CCC (this one will take time to ascertain -check).

So the next time you drive by an innocent-looking gas well, remember that each and every one is storing a potential cancer-causing time bomb at its base.

Lynne Whelden

Canton

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