‘They Are Afraid Their House Could Blow Up’: Meet the Families Whose Lives Have Been Ruined by Gas Drilling
1 min read“We’re not asking for a lot and now they’re taking it all away. In a million years, I never would have thought that people could do this and get away with it.”
From AlterNet by Nina Berman
Cassie Spencer said she nearly “had a cow” when she returned home one day and saw her yard sprinkled with little red flags, like land mine markers in a war zone. Her 5-year-old daughter was playing in the midst of them. The family property had become a methane field.
The cause: two Chesapeake gas wells 3,000 feet away that she never saw and doesn’t profit from had somehow been sending methane onto her property and into her water, and onto her neighbors’ properties on Paradise Road in Wyalusing, Pennsylvania. Testing by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) traced the methane to Chesapeake wells but the company has denied responsibility.
The Spencers’ house, once valued at $150,000, is now worth $29,000.
