Archive: News

Last year, I drove to see the gas drilling in Dimock, PA.  Last week, I took another trip to Dimock to see what had changed.

Last year, there were drilling rigs on every road.  Now, where did all the gas wells go?  Surely they were still there since I was on the same roads and I could see signs of gas pipelines. At least 75% of the wells were no longer visible from the many roads I drove.

Last year, almost all sites were actively drilling and had 150’ high drilling derricks with construction vehicles and equipment around the sites.  Now, the few sites I found are completed with pipes sticking up 6 to 8 feet and a half-dozen buildings, (each the size of a big, back-yard shed).

During drilling, the sites are construction sites and pretty ugly - as are all construction sites.  But when construction / drilling ceases, most disappear into the trees and hills.  We see pictures of landscapes ravaged by drilling, but they are not Dimock.  Those are pictures of treeless, grassless, flat, open areas.  As mentioned earlier, Dimock’s are hidden by trees and hills and well spaced.

Finished sites and remaining staging areas are cleared areas of 100 to 150 yards in diameter.  Nature returns adjacent areas to the wild but visible sites need more help.  Some screening trees or a berm would do it.  But since the sites are mostly in the country and spaced far apart in pastures and trees, very few sites are an issue and need help.

Water trucks are not big semis such as those that collect milk.  The trucks are a little bigger than garbage trucks.  During the height of drilling, I saw a few water trucks and no traffic jams.  A year later, I saw three trucks in over three hours.

Trucks find any weak spots in roads and make them worse.  Half the roads in Dimock are dirt roads and dirt roads do not hold up well, especially in wet weather, with or without drilling.  These dirt roads get the publicity.  Last year, in March, they ranged from bad to worse.  This year, they looked like normal dirt roads that get some care; I saw few ruts or potholes.  One dirt road, leading to an active site, was one of the best dirt roads I have ever driven.

Paved roads fared better, but I cannot say what they looked like before drilling (a base line).  My guess is, Dimock has never taken good care of its roads.  In some areas, today’s roads were well patched but should have been repaved.

Wells need to be connected, so they bury pipe lines.  The only way one can find the pipelines is that occasionally they pop up and immediately pop back down into the ground.  Pipelines are not an aesthetic issue.

Basically, Dimock has pretty much returned to pre-drilling normal, except gas wells keep producing energy and money, 24 / 365.  Don’t believe me?  Dimock is only 1 ½ hours away.

Tom Reynolds
Newfield
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