Gathering Line - a special pipeline that transports gas from the field to the main pipeline.

The Gathering Line is a round-up of oil & gas drilling news brought to you by National Alliance for Drilling Reform (NA4DR), a broad alliance of grassroots activists from states across the nation that are affected with drilling development.

January 11, 2010

Express Energy Uses Mafia Like Tactics On A Fellow Blogger NEW Information On Express Energy! Express Energy Being Sued For MULTIPLE Employment Violations Read it at Cheap Tricks and Costly Truths.

Take a photo-tour of some of the wells in our backyard in Upstate NY at Marcellus Effect

The Texas Department of State Health Services is looking into a possible cancer cluster in Flower Mound. 5 children and 2 adults have been diagnosed with Leukemia. All live near gas drilling activity. Read about it at www.stopthedrilling.blogspot.com

How does Texas compare with other states? A statistical analysis with graphs reveals the truth at Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

How do yoga, the Bible, and hydrofracking relate to each other? Peacegirl sees a connection. If it were an answer by Karnak the Magnificent (you would have to be a certain age to know about Karnak!), it would be amusing, but it's not. Yoga, the Bible, and Hydrofracking brings up the issue of doing harm. Is hydrofracking harmless? No. Another question: Who will listen? There are many people who are telling their stories about how gas drilling has adversely affected their lives. Is anyone listening? From Peacegirl at Gas Wells Are Not Our Friends.

From atop the Marcellus Shale, Splashdown reports that a recent PA Supreme Court ruling states local municipalities can regulate where gas wells are located through zoning ordinances, pre-empting PA's Oil and Gas Act. Read how Greenfield Twp. stopped Exco Resources from drilling a misplaced well, despite their DEP permit.

December 22nd, 2009
The National Alliance for Drilling Reform wishes you a Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas
and plenty of clean air and safe water for all!

Whodunnit? The New Mexico Environment Department reached a $5.1 million settlement over "alleged" air emission violations. Find out at Northern New Mexico Conservation Project.

BARNETT SHALE GAS THREATENS HUMAN HEALTH !!! TXsharon posted the Final Results of the DISH TX health survey at Bluedaze.

Citizens for Environmental Clean-Up sets the record straight: The Exxon back out clause is purely industry spin aided by lazy journalism because there is nothing in the FRAC Act or anywhere else about banning hydraulic fracturing.

Flower Mound Town Council denies temporary suspension of Natural Gas Production until TCEQ and EPA releases their study results and recommendations. It appears Council members Dixon, Levenick, and Wallace aren't buying the recent concerns and results of the studies already conducted by the TCEQ, the Federal EPA, and Town of Dish! Read about it at stopthedrilling.blogspot.com.

Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope has been spotted traveling around the country promoting natural gas's environmental benefits with none other than Aubrey McClendon, chief executive of Chesapeake Energy Corporation. Read more at Marcellus Effect

Peacegirl read a powerful blog post this week from Don Young of Texas who viewed the recent film "Flame and Citron," a true story about a pair of heroic resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied Denmark. The film tag-line is haunting in light of what is happening when gas drillers come to your town: "Do you remember when they came?" Check out Peacegirl's post, Do you remember when they came? and visit her blog at Gas drillers are occupiers, and they are in charge. Do you see the parallels?

December 15th, 2009

TXsharon @ Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS helps you follow the money to see why Governor Perry and others want Texans to keep breathing toxic air.

Some think cold weather caused this pipeline to become weak and brittleTruth be known, it's just old as the dirt it's been buried in! Read it at Cheap Tricks and Costly Truths.

Flower Mound receives applications for 18 new gas wells and a compressor station in the last 30 days. These wells will be in the same 5 mile radius area where 5 children have been diagnosed with Leukemia in the past few years. Read about it at www.stopthedrilling.blogspot.com.

How can towns protect their roads and bridges once gas drilling begins? Given the thousands of truck trips expected to develop one well site, upstate NY highway supervisors are struggling to protect taxpayer investment in infrastructure. Read about it at Marcellus Effect

Hydraulic Fracturing contaminates groundwater. Environmentalist say government slow to monitor and not looking hard enough for contamination. Citizens for Environmental Clean-Up

December 7th, 2009
We're back from the holidays!

Another Pipeline Rupture!!! We can be thankful that only the soil is contaminated! Read it at Cheap Tricks and Costly Truths.

Texas is the first state to conduct testing of citizens to determine if their health symptoms are caused from exposure to drilling toxins. But TXsharon is not sure this is such a great idea. Find out why on Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

Gas leasing in upstate NY has become the number one land use issue. The access roads and pipeline right-of-ways that accompany development threaten to fragment the agricultural landscape. Read more at Marcellus Effect.

Citizens for Environmental Clean-Up reported on the TCEQ water discharge hearing.

Flower Mound amends Oil and Gas Ordinance to prohibit seismic testing on public roads and right-a-ways read about it at www.stopthedrilling.blogspot.com

November 9th, 2009

Splashdown wants to encourage everyone to get behind the 2 Action Alerts to clean up the Chesapeake Bay and all inflowing waterways.
1. You can send an easy click message to Congress to urge them to join in sponsoring this critical Clean Water legislation.
2. Beginning Nov. 9th, public input (also easy click to comment) is being sought on strategic plans for President Obama's Executive Order for cleaning up the Bay. So please, hop to it!

TXsharon continues to report from a backyard in the Barnett Shale. Despite all the local and national press on drilling related toxins, carcinogens and neurotoxins in our air, Aruba Petroleum Refuses a Simple Step to Improve Barnett Shale Air and thereby recklessly and willfully endangers public health and safety. Read it on Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS. The New Energy Army Pickens Proposes to force his plan upon the nation Read it at Cheap Tricks and Costly Truths.

Peacegirl writes about the situation in Clearville, PA, where compressor stations are causing serious environmental problems. Read Compressor Stations Wreak Havoc in PA. Watch two videos, and see for yourself what it looks like to have tiny oily spots on every surface, every plant, farm equipment, a pond- everywhere. It is unbelievable! See the cemetery adjacent to a Clearville compressor station where local residents hope someday to "rest in peace." They are wondering if that day will come sooner rather than later because of the serious health threats they now fear from the gas industry. Who will help the residents of Clearville? Is the PA DEP doing its job? Visit Gas Wells Are Not Our Friends. Reader comments are always welcome.

Flower Mound Citizens Against Urban Drilling urges everyone to read the Environment Texas study to learn how excessive waste of fresh water and toxic chemicals gas drillers use in the extraction of the gas are threatening our drinking water in the Barnett Shale area.

November 2nd, 2009
This week's Gathering Line is too scary for Halloween!

Peacegirl writes about gas drilling in Bradford County, PA. Welcome To Bradford County, PA, calls attention to an article in the Fall 2009 issue of Save the Bay, the magazine of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation which features the North Branch Susquehanna River in Bradford County. From the blog Gas Wells Are Not Our Friends where your comments are always welcome.

Aruba Petroleum is drilling a Barnett Shale gas well in the backyard of Tim and Christine. Their property was taken, it's value diminished, they were threatened and now Aruba Petroleum spilled toxic drilling waste a few feet from where their daughter plays. Another tale (with VIDEO) about the Victims of the Shale on Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

Allegheny State Forests Littered!! Park Management Tries To Bring Drilling To A Halt And Are Met With IntimidationRead it at Cheap Tricks and Costly Truths.

Today’s environmental horrors could lead to a scary Sci-Fi future. Drilling Santa Fe offers an excerpt from Apocalypse Soon by Laura Paskus. Meanwhile, Splashdown says, Kiss myGas!

Williams Petroleum wants to pipe drilling waste water under our homes in Flower Mound, TX to a huge tank farm. Flower Mound Citizens Against Urban Drilling we discovered an alternative that is safer and greener. Williams claims to be a "good neighbor." Here's their chance to prove it.

WWJD on Carter Avenue? TXsharon wants to know if Chesapeake Energy or anyone in Fort Worth government has stopped to consider the answer to that question. Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

Some upstate NY landowners are wondering whether they can sell their property if it has a gas lease. Check out the Marcellus Effect for a short review and a link to interviews with realtors.

NEWS FROM PENNSYLVANIA: Laceyville, PA, Getting Nearly $100,000 in Gas Revenues: Is This Good News? Peacegirl at Gas Wells Are Not Our Friends combs the newspapers of Bradford and Susquehanna Counties in Pennsylvania and talks with local people from these areas to find out what is really happening. This week the focus is on Laceyville, Wyoming County, PA. Will the people of Laceyville survive the invasion of the gas industry?

How Many Natural Gas Explosions Does It Take?!! One Too Many! Read it at Cheap Tricks and Costly Truths.

For the first time in decades, New Mexico Senators sacrificed migrating big game with their vote to allow drilling during the winter in the Jicarilla Ranger District of the Carson National Forest. Drilling Santa Fe asks if we have forgotten the high price of deregulation and offers something for consideration.