In rural Maryland, fracking divisions run deep
FROSTBURG, Maryland: The small towns and mountainous rural areas of western Maryland are dotted with scores of well heads, a reminder of the copious natural-gas reserves that lie underground.
Here, amid farms, faded industrial sites and a growing number of wineries and tourist attractions, the debate over whether to allow hydraulic fracturing seems far more immediate than in the State House in Annapolis, 170 miles to the southeast.
The controversial drilling method, better known as “fracking,” could bring thousands of jobs and tens of million of dollars in revenue to communities located along the massive rock formation known as the Marcellus Shale. But those benefits would be relatively shortlived, and there is some degree of environmental risk, despite guidelines that state officials say would be among the most stringent in the nation.
The four Republican lawmakers who represent this independentminded part of the state solidly support fracking and oppose a proposed ban being pushed by downstate lawmakers. But their constituents are deeply divided.
Many longtime landowners, especially struggling farmers hoping to supplement their incomes with gas royalties and land leases, want in on the fracking boom. Other residents are reluctant, afraid of potential harm to the environment, public health and property values.
The ambivalence was evident one recent afternoon when Delaware Wendel Beitzel, RGarrett, visited the home of Aaron Miller, who was splitting firewood with his sister Heather and wife, Jacey, not far from a natural-gas well head.
All three Millers are Republicans, but none agree with their representative on the merits of fracking, especially given recent news reports about fracking-related earthquakes in places such as Oklahoma and Pennsylvania.
“It’s not a partisan issue,” Heather Mi l l e r sa i d. “It ’s a hometown, loving-yourenvironment thing.”
Hydraulic fracturing involves injecting huge quantities of water, sand and chemicals deep underground at high pressure to release natural gas from rock formations. The industry provides more than two-thirds of US natural gas production now, up from a small fraction in 2000. It has helped the United States keep energy prices low and leapfrog Russia as the world’s leading naturalgas producer. A two-year state moratorium on fracking is set to expire in October. The House environmental committee held a hearing on the proposal for a permanent ban last week , and the corresponding Senate committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on Tuesday.
The two bills have 90 cosponsors - none from Allegany or Garrett counties.
The legislature is also considering bills to extend the fracking moratorium for another two years, and a proposal, introduced by Beitzel and Sen George Edwards, R- Garrett, to create a fund to compensate landowners who cannot sell or lease their natural gas interests if a ban takes effect. The latter measure has seven co-sponsors in the House, all Republicans from rural parts of the state, and none in the Senate.
A 2014 Towson University study found that fracking could support more than 2,500 jobs, add about US$ 80 million a year in wages and generate more than US$ 16 million in annual revenue - from taxes on gas extraction and income - during the industry’s first decade of activity in western Maryland.
After 10 years, however, fracking would support fewer than 200 jobs and generate less than US$ 2 million in annual tax revenue, because relatively few workers are needed to manage wells once they are created and the supply of gas becomes depleted over time. Critics also say that a substantial number of fracking workers could come from out of state.
“I don’t like all the propaganda about jobs, because it’s all temporary work,” said James Strawser, 71, a fracking opponent who owns a 70-acre berry farm in Garrett County.
He and others say they are concerned about environmental risks, pointing to greenhousegas emissions and a growing list of man-made earthquakes and water- contamination incidents. Industry supporters say activists exaggerate the impacts of drilling to drum up fear. “This issue has been sensationalised all along, and that’s difficult to accept,” said Joyce Bishoff, 68, whose family owns 300 acres in Garrett County, including gas rights.
A 2014 Stanford University report concluded that gas and chemicals from fracking rarely migrate to drinkingwater aquifers. It also said that producing and burning natural gas instead of coal reduces water consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions. A Rice University study found that fracking wastewater is less toxic than similar waste from coal production. — WP-Bloomberg
Many longtime landowners, especially struggling farmers hoping to supplement their incomes with gas royalties and land leases, want in on the fracking boom. Other residents are reluctant, afraid of potential harm to the environment, public health and property values.