Wow, the impact will be short in duration and the main threat to streams is silt. Short in duration is not the case at all, neither is your hypothesis that silt is the largest threat to streams. The largest threat to a stream is dumping flow back and pit water right into a stream, or mowing over tributaries with heavy equipment. Which happens all the time. As well as dumping waste onto state forest and state game lands, which runs off into streams, which was documented.
And then of course, you can buy the whole, "the water down the hole never comes into the ground water" scam if you want, but that has clearly been a case of regulatory capture as we see some environmental agencies coming out claiming pollution and others claiming pre-existing conditions.
The industry will attempt to drill as much as possible and restimulate as long as possible with infrastructure in place. That is what hydraulic fracturing is about- that is, beating that piece of geology to have it give you everything its got. And that uses water as we know, millions of gallons-over time, not just once.
And the compressors and storage tanks, well they do a hell of a lot of air pollution volume. Barnett shale in Texas produces volumes of air pollution that are comparable to entire sections of the metroplexes traffic.
The Wyoming state gas drilling has lead to ozone and sulfur pollution with readings of ozone higher than Los Angeles. The Green River Basin had very high quality before drilling and now the compressors and storage tanks are creating haze and visible pollution clouds, excluding the dangerous levels of ozone.
And in Pennsylvania you don't have to ask to many people in this state about the destruction to their health, beyond well water pollution.
For instance: As air pollution from fracking rises, EPA to set rules
Posted on Monday, April 16, 2012 Renee Schoof | McClatchy Newspapers
Pam Judy of Carmichaels, Pa.., says she fears that her family already is at risk from fumes from a large natural gas compressor station 780 feet from their home in the hills. When they built it, they were far from everything. Three years later, a natural gas compressor station was built on neighboring property.
“We have fumes that are in our yard almost constantly,” she said. “There are times when it smells like diesel or a kerosene smell. It’s very difficult to pinpoint the exact smell. Then there are times we get a smell like chlorine. When we get that chlorine smell it literally will scorch your eyes and your throat.”
Air tests found 16 chemicals in her yard, including benzene, a chemical the EPA classifies as a carcinogen. She said test of her blood also showed exposure to benzene and other chemicals. Benzene can cause dizziness and headaches, symptoms she’s had. Her adult children have had runny noses, headaches and sore throats that go away when they aren’t at their parents’ home.
The family worries about long-term exposure and is wrestling with whether to stay. Their land was handed down in her family since her great-grandparents’ day, Judy said. “It’s really heart-wrenching for us to make the decision to move.”
Paul Parker, a retired vice president of an engineering company who worked with energy companies, has lived for 36 years in an area south of Pittsburgh where natural gas development has sprung up in the last few years. Parker said no to leases on his own property, but sees the development around him and says the area has been ruined.
“When you go outside, it’s like living in a chemical complex,” he said. He said pollution comes from vents on storage tanks near his property, as well as nearby flaring to burn gas in early stages of well development and the diesel emissions of hundreds of trucks needed to haul water and equipment to well sites.