Natural Gas Pipelines Are Next
First it was well pads, frac ponds and access roads. Now, that gas is coming out of the ground, the industry is ratchetting up its efforts to build the infrastructure necessary to get gas to the markets where people and industries use it. So, it's pipelines. In our area of Pennsylvania, pipeline construction -- and the land leasing efforts associated with this -- are up and running.
There's short term financial gain for land owners whose territory has been picked by gas companies. However, there are some longer term financial, environmental, health and safety downsides, too. Finding the responsible way to transport gas is just as important as finding the way to extract it responsibly by striking the balance of economic upside with economic and environmental downside.
The following is copied from: http://dothemountain.wordpress.com/2010/02/18/pipelines-are-next/ where there is more information and links to additional articles about the pipeline issue.
Pipelines are next
Posted on February 18, 2010 by dothemountain
"There are so many different aspects of the gas and oil industry. At first we worried about the visual issues surrounding the gas drilling. Later we realized that our water and air qualities were at stake and that issue still takes a precedence today. As the production of natural gas progresses in this area we will see some new stages erupting this summer and with them new concerns. Things we have not yet considered because we are still investing all our time and energy into the water battle and some things that we will not know about until they start to happen. The nature of this industry seems to be in secrecy and quick movements, like a tiger, (isn’t that Exxon’s logo?) that make it difficult to see what’s coming head on, like a run away truck on a dark, rainy night.
One thing that has come up in the last months for me has been the pipeline infrastructure. Did we know drilling for gas entailed pipelines? Sure we did, but I at least did not consider the full effect of this single aspect of natural gas drilling. Here are some links to informative sites and articles that are discussing this topic."
http://rnrext.cas.psu.edu/PDFs/FLWinter2009.pdf
The above link offers some good explanations of pipelines, how and what they are used for and what sort of effects they can have on PA forests.
The fifth story down this page gives some idea as to when this stage may begin and what we might see, at least for Potter County, PA.
http://today.pottercountypa.net/
See also: http://www.elpaso.com/tgp300lineproject/
