Drill Baby Drill: Pittsburgh Edition

This is not an anti-Marcellus Shale drilling rant. I have to admit, the siren song of Marcellus Shale drilling is an alluring one. The prospect of cash money flowing into the state and the jobs drilling would create are compelling, to say the least. Even more exciting would be the city of Pittsburgh being a hub of the Marcellus Shale drilling industry. It’s enough to conjure images of the golden days of Pittsburgh, where the population was high, and the smoke pouring out of the stacks at the many local steel mills was shaped like dollar bill signs.

However, nothing is ever that simple. Much like how the former economic heart of this region also helped to cause environmental damage that lasts to this day; Marcellus Shale drilling is not without its negative side effects. My issue is not with the concept of drilling, but the question of whether it’s right for the city of Pittsburgh. A drilling company taking up residence here is one thing, drilling within the city limits is another one all together.

Like with drilling in general, drilling in the city is alluring, especially when topics like pension and legacy health care costs continue to rear their ugly heads and threaten to sink the city’s budget. Drilling seems to be the easy answer for a much needed cash infusion for the city.

However, before you start building a derrick in your back yard, here are a couple of things you might want to think about:



Fracking fluid: Not an expert, but if you don’t know what it is; here you go. Fracking fluid is mostly water, about 95%. The problem is the other 5%. The other 5% may contain a toxic or corrosive cocktail that helps to break up the shale and free the natural gas (By the way, drilling companies don’t want to tell anyone, and by law they don’t have to right now, what exactly is in their fracking fluid). Big deal right? Well, unfortunately it is a big deal. A well in Lawrence County recently had what’s called a blow out. Long story short, a blow out occurs when natural gas and fracking fluid violently gush back out of the drilling bore. About 35,000 gallons of Natural Gas and Fracking Fluid (which it was determined was a mixture of water, salt and chlorine. Gee, that sounds like it would be great to release in the city of Pittsburgh.) spilled onto the ground during drilling.

Isolated incident right? Not so much, Check out this and this.


In Colorado, where Marcellus Shale drilling is more established, over the last 2.5 years, over 5 MILLION gallons of “drilling liquid” was dumped during drilling. Not to say that a well in Pittsburgh would dump 5 million gallons, but, if one well can dump 35,000 gallons, and mishaps seem to be common place in a state with GREATER drilling regulation than Pennsylvania, then it seems a near certainty that it would happen in Pittsburgh.

A spill in the middle of nowhere is bad enough. Imagine a spill in a city with an approximate population density of 6000 people per square mile. In addition to local evacuations, The FAA instituted a flight ban on the Clearfield County spill on any flights below 1000 feet because even a small spark from an airplane engine could ignite a MASSIVE explosion. Don’t you think any of those 6000 nearby residents may have a lighter or a source of flame that could make a massive KABOOM before all proper evacuations would occur???!!! Bad juju all around.



Groundwater contamination: This point is up for debate, and obviously the different points of view are pretty polarized. Those for drilling say that there is no chance it could happen; those against drilling say that not only is it possible, but is already happening. Check out this Vanity Fair article.
If it’s true, that’s some scary shit! I’m not convinced either way, but the potential after effects are scary enough, that we better be goddamn sure! A drilling company telling me that it won’t contaminate isn’t gonna cut it. They have an agenda. We need independent verification that drilling won’t contaminate ground water. Again, with 6000 or so people a sq mile, we as a city can’t afford a single instance of ground water contamination.

Bottom line, I’m not convinced drilling is bad, but I sure as hell am not convinced that drilling is without damaging side effects. The city of Pittsburgh stands to lose too much if something goes wrong with drilling. We need to be sure that NO ONE will be adversely affected by drilling before we “drill baby drill.”

This is Too Good to Pass Up!

Saw this on the PG today.

I couldn't resist. First, here is the text of the comment that set me off:

"And that's a good thing. Pennsylvania needs to worry about balancing it's budget, creating jobs, keeping the streets safe and reducing taxes. Our politicians should not be worried about questionable bans of our personal liberties.
Slowly but surely, if we sit back and let them tell us what we can do from day to day, we will soon find ourselves no longer living...in the land of the free."


Any guesses on what my tea-baggin buddy is refering to? Is it the second amendment? Could it be railing against "socialist healthcare"? No, Uncle Sam is worried about a law making it illegal to text while driving.

You sir are a moron! You alllllllmost had me that the state has a lot of worthy issues on its plate currently. Almost... You completely lost me in that last paragraph. How in the hell is a ban on an unsafe activity "questionable"?

Let me explain something to you, and I need you to try to pay attention as if Rush or Glenn were typing this. If you are texting while driving it is dangerous. It is dangerous because you could rear end another car, or you could lose control of your car and slam into another car, or you could drive through a red light and get T-boned. Do you catch my drift there homeslice?

Hey asshole; the next time a 16 year old broadsides your car because they were texting, make sure you don't get mad at them. Make sure you get out, shake their hand, and thank them for exercising their freedom to operate a motor vehicle in a dangerous and irresponsible manner.

That's in the constitution....right?

Going Down the Tubes…or maybe not.

There’s been a lot made of the tomfoolery that occurs weekendly (I know it’s not a word) in the Saaaaaath Side. There’s also an increasing effort to curtail it. See a couple of examples here and here.

Here’s my take. The South Side is the youngest “hippest” thing(like Pittsburgh has such a thing) going on in Pittsburgh. Does it have its problems, absolutely, but so does every other neighborhood.

In my extremely well informed opinion, the rub in the South Side comes because it is the youngest neighborhood in Pittsburgh. In a lot of other neighborhoods, the silvertop to 20-30 something ratio is much higher in favor of the silvertops. In the South Side, it’s totally different. The 20-30 somethings outnumber the silvertops by a lot. When the 20-30 somethings engage in things that 20-30 somethings do (get drunk, fight, screw), it leads to friction. The silvertops want a quiet peaceful neighborhood. The South Side is not that place.

At the risk of sounding like an ass, maybe it’s time for the silvertops to move on. A great thing about Pittsburgh is how stay put, and while I don’t think that should change, we need to move forward as a city, and to do that our neighborhoods need to be allowed to do the same. If you don't like it there, maybe you shouldn't be there. There are plenty of 20-30 somethings who would be glad to take your place.

What makes the South Side crazy with a lot of urinators and occasional fighting morons is also what gives it its eclectic feel. The South Side is the only neighborhood in the city to boast everything from corner bars, to dance clubs, high end retail, high end dining, and corporate headquarters (to name just a few of the diverse aspects of the neighborhood). Other neighborhoods can claim a few of those things but no other neighborhood can really claim the mix of all those things (and more) which the South Side does. It’s also the only neighborhood to really “complete” a transformation from its industrial past to a popular present day destination.
You want to crack down on a lot of the negative shit; then by all means, get more police, put up more cameras, whatever. However, don’t change its character. This city is a lot less of a city without the South Side.

Pittsburgh 1984...Or is it?

Put on your tinfoil hats everyone, Pittsburgh wants to put more cameras on the streets.

The “government is watching me” faction has made themselves known. (Apparently their spokesperson doesn’t live in the city that wants to emplace the cameras but was still so offended by the notion he had to write to the PG) Check it out here.

Here’s a few of thoughts on it:

First one isn’t mine, it’s from the comments section of the The Radical Middle, and takes a jab not only at the letter itself, but at the mocking sarcastic tone of the letter.

“David Noble's well-honed sarcasm doesn't go nearly far enough. It isn't just our "privacy" at stake with these intrusive cameras, it's something far more important. After all, the cameras would only be in places where police might also be able to personally witness criminality.
Let me help Mr. Noble better articulate his concern: the reason the cameras are such an awful idea is that they interfere with the time-honored tradition of getting away with things when cops aren't around.
That might sound counter-intuitive, so let me explain. I can't tell you how many times I have seen a criminally reckless driver zip past me and almost kill someone, and I invariably say to myself, "I hope there's no cop around to see that! Good thing there are no cameras taping this!" I remember uttering that very thing when I was victimized by a hit-and-run driver.
Another example: a girl claims a brute quarterback raped her. Damn if I want to see a video of her demeanor immediately after-the-fact. I prefer to let the truth emerge via the incisive clucking tongues on populist radio. Or better yet, the blogosphere, where reasoned analysis always prevails.
You see, you and I have a reasonable expectation of privacy when there happens to be no cop around. The damn cameras would destroy all that.
I hope I helped you make your very excellent point, Mr. Noble.”

Second, why don’t you save your opinions for when the borough of Swissvale tries to put cameras on their streets? Why the hell do you care unless you are planning on regularly venturing into the city to commit crime? As a resident of the city of Pittsburgh who lives in an area where crime has happened and is on the rise, I would feel a hell of a lot safer knowing there are cameras watching the streets. Oh yea, I also don’t plan on committing any crimes.

Lastly (and take off your tinfoil hat for a second to think about this one), does anyone really, honestly, truly think that the city of Pittsburgh will be spying on you when you tuck your penis between your legs and do that creepy dance like Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs in your basement/living room? Really?

The cameras are probably fixed and do not give any sort of views into any homes. Second, if the city or any city employee were foolish enough to even attempt to film inside someone's house, the ACLU and several other agencies would be all over the city faster than you can say “Bill of Rights”.