Card Creek’s Exceptional Value Wetland
Potter County, Pa.
Excerpt from “Shalefield Stories - Personal and Collected Testimonies”
Published by Steel Valley Printers
January 2014
Because of my immaculate quality, which has been naturally preserved within the mountains by which I am fed and sheltered, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania had declared me Exceptional Value. But despite being classified among the best quality water in the Commonwealth, my wealth is not valued by all, in common. In fact, risk-laden activity is permitted by the Commonwealth to take place within my watershed - and one natural gas company even built right on top of me.
In August 2009, a major violation was issued to Pennsylvania General Energy (PGE), a gas company the Commonwealth permitted to horizontally drill and fracture in my watershed, uphill from my tributaries, which feed public and private drinking water systems in the valley below. Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued the violation, as they are the ones charged with my protection.
PGE had built their well site on top of me, an Exceptional Value wetland, by not building its site according to plans approved by the DEP and adding an impoundment pond to hold fluids. Despite these acts, PGE was allowed to continue operations - until the National Army Corp of Engineers overrode the Commonwealth and issued a cease order - stopping further work by PGE until the matter was resolved.
PGE hired a company called Moody & Associates to assess me. They determined that, contrary to what the Commonwealth and Army Corp of Engineers said, I am not a wetland, and therefore not of Exceptional Value. After over a year of back and forth PGE was eventually allowed to continue their work, drilling and fracking several more wells and adding buildings, pipes, and large tanks.
All this was allowed to happen even though the company had broken the law, not just by building on top of me without permission, but for other illegal construction at other Exceptional Value watersheds not far from me.
The United States of America, the Nation I “find myself” in, has a collective Clean Water Act, since we, water systems, don’t adhere to the artificial borders of individual States. This National law requires States to protect and preserve the quality of the waters within those borders.
Pennsylvania has classified “its” waters based on their uses according to humans, such as Potable Water Source, Habitat or Recreation Area. I and all other EV water bodies qualify for the most stringent regulations in the state in order to protect our delicate and pristine ecosystems.
Despite these laws, I and my EV neighbors will never be the same. We can’t, because once shale gas extraction infrastructure, taking up many acres, is in place - it never goes away.
You can see me, my story, and those of my neighboring EV waters, in Triple Divide, a new documentary. Visit www.TripleDivideFilm.org for more...
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