Uploaded December 2011 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
But a different source of potential water pollution troubled most of the nearly 100 packing the East Mountain Inn's largest banquet hall for the meeting.
Opponents of hydraulic fracturing, the controversial process used to extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale, urged SRBC not to approve 26 applications for water withdrawal permits within the Susquehanna River Basin on its agenda, most of which were submitted by gas drillers.
SRBC regulates water withdrawals within the basin through permitting.
The commissioners approved 24 of those applications, denying one driller's application and deferring another from an individual, and in doing so prompted angry shouts of "this proceeding is a joke," and "you're not taking our water."
The meeting closed with about protestors chanting an apparently prepared statement read from cards and nearly chasing commission members from the room.
"Members of the Susquehanna River community, this is a crisis," they chanted. "The Susquehanna River is being sacrificed. Natural gas drilling is poisoning our water. We know this. We will stop this. We have no choice. We will protect our water. We are here to help, and everyone must help. Our future depends on it. We honor the river; we honor our lives." The entire list of Pennsylvania water contaminations from fracking. files.dep.state.pa.us/OilGas/BOGM/BOGMPortalFiles/OilGasReports/Determination_Letters/Regional_Determination_Letters.pdf
But a different source of potential water pollution troubled most of the nearly 100 packing the East Mountain Inn's largest banquet hall for the meeting.
Opponents of hydraulic fracturing, the controversial process used to extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale, urged SRBC not to approve 26 applications for water withdrawal permits within the Susquehanna River Basin on its agenda, most of which were submitted by gas drillers.
SRBC regulates water withdrawals within the basin through permitting.
The commissioners approved 24 of those applications, denying one driller's application and deferring another from an individual, and in doing so prompted angry shouts of "this proceeding is a joke," and "you're not taking our water."
The meeting closed with about protestors chanting an apparently prepared statement read from cards and nearly chasing commission members from the room.
"Members of the Susquehanna River community, this is a crisis," they chanted. "The Susquehanna River is being sacrificed. Natural gas drilling is poisoning our water. We know this. We will stop this. We have no choice. We will protect our water. We are here to help, and everyone must help. Our future depends on it. We honor the river; we honor our lives." The entire list of Pennsylvania water contaminations from fracking. files.dep.state.pa.us/OilGas/BOGM/BOGMPortalFiles/OilGasReports/Determination_Letters/Regional_Determination_Letters.pdf
