[Taz's Master]

I lived about 1-1.5 hrs north of Eric 951. I heard fracking used in conversations better than a decade ago, so I guess location or how you define new is relative.

Are there alot of environmental questions regarding drilling/fracking which need regulated and answered--yes.

Is it as dangerous and reckless and certain groups would have you believe--no

Are drillers looking out for the land-owners best interests--no

can you as a landowner have a good relationship with a drilling company--yes

This is an issue I take seriously and have invested alot of time and effort to understand.

That is a better summation than most sources are likely to provide.

As far as lighting faucets, I owned property between Titusville and Oil City Pennsylvania where petroleum leaked out of the ground. I assume that there are aquifirs in the area that are naturally contaminated with methane. I also believe that there is a risk that through faulty installation a well could contaminate an aquifir. Much of the current fracking discussion centers on very deep methane deposits, well below domestic water sources, and I have not seen information that would lead me to believe that fracking would lead to higher incidences of water contamination (other than through surface spills).

They've already asked for exemptions from water pollution laws, so I'd say they aren't planning to extract the gas with minimal pollution.

Possibly. I'm not familiar with the exemptions the gas companies want or the reasoning behind those requests. Water is definately my biggest concern, usage, the impacts on aquifirs of the drilling and contamination, but my understanding is, as far as fracking goes, the extreme usage demands are the most serious, the drilling or contamination impacts (aside from surface spills) would be there absent the fracking.