I find myself gritting my teeth on my daily drive to work. It's still a beautiful drive, but now my view is marred by brightly colored flagging dotting the roadways. The ribbon itself is fairly benign. I know what it means and that's what bothers me. Seismic testing is being conducted in the townships North, East, and West of Williamsport. It means an invasion. It represents an assault on our way of life, our sense of community, and our land. Following the seismic testing will be more applications for gas wells, pipelines, compressor stations, and odorant injection stations. This industrial activity and infrastructure encroaching upon our residential communities is absurd. The gas industry consistently demonstrates lack of consideration and respect for those of us that live here. 

We received a letter from Inflection requesting permission to access our property and to conduct seismic testing. In reply, we sent Inflection a letter denying them permission and clearly stating we would not allow Inflection or their contracted companies on our property. A few days later, my wife found a man taking a reading from a telephone pole. He parked his four-wheeler in our driveway and was on our property. He said he was with Inflection. She politely told him he was not allowed here, but let him finish getting readings of the pole. He was cordial and left. We came home from work a few days later to find brightly colored flagging hanging from a bush alongside our driveway (not our property, but footprints in the snow to the flagging came from our driveway). Once again, several days went by and we saw a four wheeler and a tracked vehicle enter our driveway and disappear up into the neighbor's fields. It was too quick for us to do anything about it. 

I called the seismic group conducting the testing to ask questions and express concerns about the "sources" they use. The supervisor I spoke with scheduled to meet with me but never showed up for the meeting. We have written Inflection a letter stating we don't want them on our property and yet, here they are. What recourse do we have? Call the police? They would be difficult for the police to find and follow up with. Call the company again? It may make us feel like we did something, but they obviously don't make changes to their operation. Call a lawyer? Spend lots of money to have the company say "sorry." Confront them? That's about it. Once again, we've done that and they smile and nod their heads and say "sorry," then do it again. Just as the three stooges muddled their way through every television episode, so goes the seismic testing through our township. 

My wife and I spend more of our waking hours outside on our property than inside our house. Our land is our home. Watching the seismic testing crews walk on our property is a helpless feeling. It's frustrating, infuriating, and flies in the face of individual property rights. This is a small glimpse at how our community is changing. This is only the beginning of the impacts of shale development upon our way of life. Unfortunately, the worst is yet to come.

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