To the editor:
As a property owner I feel the same concern as Nancy M. Hyde ('Pipeline Injunction is filed" May 5) fearing the loss of rights to protect my own land against Enterprises Liquid Pipeline.
Their goal is to gain access, without any interference, to the liquid ethane produced from Marcellus and Utica shale formations formed in Pennsylvania and Ohio across country to ethylene manufacturing plants already existing in Texas and Louisiana.
Not only is Hyde losing the privacy in her own yard to construction workers, she is also losing her way of income. Where ELP plans to dig takes over her best hay field. Recently her farm was deemed an agricultural district, and alternate routes must be planned.
With more research I have also discovered the danger of pipeline drilling so close to home. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports hundreds of miles of high-pressure pipelines have already been built with no government safety checks, construction standards or inspections.
Digging further I found an article in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that earthquakes in Ohio were tied to pipeline drillings.
The instances occurred three months after initial drilling in Youngstown and Mahoning County, where no fault line had previously been mapped.
The earthquakes registered in magnitudes of 2.7 to 4.0 in this case only rattling dishes, but what could happen if ELP is granted access from our Tri-State Area all the way to Texas? Almost too frightening to imagine.
Cassandra Waldron,
New Cumberland
