Grave costs

The sickening British Petroleum disaster now occurring in the Gulf of Mexico will look like a day in any of Pennsylvania's state parks if the mad rush to crack into the Marcellus shale gas bonanza isn't put under some kind of significant restrictions on how these gas companies are permitted to operate.

At the present time drilling permits are flowing out of Harrisburg as fast as the politicians get those little white envelopes sent to them by the drilling companies. The federal Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Environmental Protection, you must remember, are appointed by the politicians who take all the money from the permit seekers to sink new wells. So they parade out people like John Hanger, the head of the DEP, who gave a little speech to about 250 at a public hearing about the perils and damage being caused from blowing apart the Marcellus shale and toxic wastewater that occurs being dumped all over the state ("Red Flags Raised Over Gas Wells," May 4). At the present time there is no way or facility to clean this water and make it potable.

At Mr. Hanger's little gathering 99 percent of the attendees were the top brass of all the drilling companies. They turned the whole thing into a comedy hour. All we got was that if new restrictions were to be enacted it would take a few years.

If the water and shoreline in the Gulf of Mexico are close to a state of ruin in 30 days, what will your state's water be like in a few years? Someone besides the PG better step up and awaken the people to the grave cost that may be heaped upon them when this madness is finally wrung out.

RAY FIGOLA
Liberty