This is how oil and gas recovery is done in the Allegheny national forest and surrounding mountains. The pump jacks-some decades old and others brand new- number in the thousands, connected by dirt roads and ATV tracks by which the owners check them. The jacks are powered by electricity or gasoline, diesel, propane or natural gas, and are scattered throughout the forest. Power sheds shelter engines of one kind or another to burn the fuel to generate the electricity for the pumps and are located in isolated areas, and electric lines fan out to the pumps. The lines are often attached to trees with nylon rope and propped up with 'Y' shaped branches where they cross open areas. I have not noticed any leaking current in all my walks, so this crude system seems to work and at any rate is cheap and fast to erect.
The oil is pumped to holding tanks such as in the picture, around which a dirt berm is built to contain potential leaks. Sometimes small ponds are near the tanks, although I am not sure what their purpose is. This is not fracking water and is clean enough to support salamanders. When the tanks are full, oil is transferred to a refinery. The raw natural gas is often piped to large transfer stations where it can be purified and sent on to consumers. As the pictures to the right show these pipes are strung across rivers and diverted back underground all across the landscape. Thousands of miles of old and new pipe are buried or laying on the surface, and the smell of gas can be noticed near some jacks and tanks, but is not usually offensive. Neither have I heard of any explosions or major leaks in the field since I moved here ten years ago. As I mentioned in earlier posts the oil and logging roads and ATV trails offer the only hiking and biking access to much of the forest around here, and time quickly erodes and covers them over with vegetation when they are abandoned.
I am not necessarily pro fossil fuel, but neither am I a hypocrite, for I burn oil and gas for my transportation and Beth and I heat the house with natural gas.( Solar power simply is unfeasible in this cloudy part of the country) Observing all the controversy surrounding oil and gas exploration, I also see the healing power of time, and know that nature doesn't give a shit about human beings in the long run. If we kill ourselves one way or another, we will be just one more failed species. The mountains around Warren were totally stripped of trees and filled with oil derricks in the 19th century, and some of the rivers were filled with more spilled oil than water. Today those same rivers are well regarded trout streams and the mountains are forested over. I am more concerned about the invisible pollutants and pesticides that seem to do all kinds of insidious damage, and the sheer scale of the human population. Yet with all the potential threats to the planet it is still best to take care of your own little space and live by example. Although I do not see the average American changing their lifestyle much, eventually reality has a way of prevailing either way.
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