Arguments About Extracting Natural Gas From The Marcellus Shale Region Heat Up
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Conversations about extracting natural gas from the Marcellus Shale region often turn on taxes, jobs and potential pollution. But KYW's John Ostapkovich talked with a drilling foe whose main concern is tourism.
Maybe Charlie Gerlach's gripe is also a little about jobs, his. As an organic farmer and bed-and-breakfast operator in Pennsylvania's Northern Tier Endless Mountains, he says guests looking to get away from it all find it, all in hot pursuit.
"Particularly what affects them is the incessant truck traffic that we have, these water-tankers, these trucks hauling stone and water."
It happens often on tiny, winding roads. Gerlach says he can see 40 miles from his mountainside place.
"So if you can imagine a pristine, continuous forested area with big gouges just eaten right out of the forest with roads and then they have ponds and all the stuff you can see. This beautiful area is going to be eaten up completely."
Gas opponents are now trying to stop construction of a 39 mile pipeline.
Reported by John Ostapkovich, KYW Newsradio
