Gas drilling listed as concern

By FRITZ MAYER

UPPER DELAWARE VALLEY — Before the election two years ago, most residents and politicians had never heard of horizontal drilling or hydraulic fracturing. Now, many politicians running for office in November list gas drilling as one of the top concerns facing the region.

With the public split about whether gas drilling will bring more harm than good, no politicians came out with a hardy endorsement or condemnation of it, but listed it as a concern on questionnaires supplied by The River Reporter.

Ben Johnson, the incumbent running for another term as supervisor in the Town of Tusten, wrote: “While gas drilling has been a topic of great passion for many people either for or against, the town has maintained that we must be involved to help protect the safety of our citizens and the integrity of our infrastructure. To this end, the Town of Tusten was pivotal in the formation of the Multi Municipal Gas Drilling Task Force that is comprised of six neighboring towns, whose purpose is to address the sustainability of the town’s infrastructure while allowing responsible gas development.”

Margaret Harrison, who is challenging Johnson for the seat, wrote: “The Marcellus Shale find is not limited to impacting the environment, but the community as a whole. Our community will be faced with more than just environmental drilling issues, but also the indirect fallout from the regional drilling, impacting our roads, county taxes and land valuation.”

Larry Richardson, the deputy supervisor of the Town of Cochecton, who is running for supervisor, wrote, “Gas drilling and the potential impacts to our infrastructure. I’ve spent many hours in meetings and seminars and working with neighboring towns to try to put in place safeguards to protect our roads when drilling activities begin.”

Gary Maas, the councilman who is also running for the Cochecton supervisor position, wrote, “The possibility of gas drilling in the town of Cochecton is a concern for our residents economically, and possible damage to our infrastructure and natural resources.”