Sayre Morning Times file photo

According to Steve Reilly at the Sayre Morning Times, the hits are already here and will keep coming. I'll link the whole article, but let me just cut to the good stuff (emphases mine):

Several incidents and fines related to natural gas activity, including notable a spate of arrests stemming from overweight and oversize trucks, were reported in February:

• On Feb. 2, DEP fined Talisman Energy $3,500 for violations at its “Cease” well pad in Troy Township discovered during inspections in 2009. A February 2009 inspection revealed that the company had not publicly posted the permit number and other required information at the entrance of the well pad. During a follow-up inspection in June 2009, a DEP statement explains, “flow-back fluids — or the fluids that are used to break up underground rock and then return to the surface — were found discharging into a drainage ditch, an adjacent sediment basin, and eventually through a vegetated area into an unnamed tributary of the south branch of Sugar Creek.”

• On Feb. 3, Pennsylvania State Police arrested and jailed four drivers employed by TK Stanley, a rig moving company headquartered in Waynesboro, Miss., for driving a convoy of oversized trucks through North Towanda Township on U.S. Route 6.

• On Feb. 6, state police cited three men employed by T.A.W. Inc. of Wysox for driving trucks with weight, size and permit violations.

• On Feb. 7, Arthur H. Dawes of Blossburg, Pa., was arrested and jailed after his overweight and oversized truck was involved in three separate accidents as he traveled through Bradford County. Dawes and his employer, Todd Berguson Trucking, received over $15,000 in citations as a result of the incident.

• On Feb. 8, James Matusek of Shavertown, Pa., and his employer, Latona Trucking, were fined over $31,300 after state police discovered a truck driven by Matusek to be 49.7 tons overweight.

• On Feb. 23, Arron Waddy, an driver for MARMC Transportation of Caspar, Wyo., was cited with $24,089 in fines after state police stopped his vehicle on U.S. Route 220 in Albany Township and discovered it was 71,707 pounds overweight.

To all the new gas-lease millionaires in Bradford and Tioga counties: this is just begun. Nice job.  And before you say anything, I understand. If someone dangled what seemed like free money in front of my nose, I'd likely take it, especially if I lived in these traditionally poorer counties still. But you're risking turning the way of life you so value into a horror-show. For those of you who haven't leased yet, please don't.

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