And I Know Why........

First a rant............

This early morning I rushed to town with my two baskets of laundry to get it washed before the laundromat became crowded. I have been doing this since 1997 when we moved into the cabin.
I'm lucky to have nice weather today and they will dry on the line well. It's a beautiful day!

Usually, I stay in the small laundromat, reading, but this morning I decided to sit in my car while listening to the radio. The laundromat is 5 miles from our place at the lake and I don't often go into town except for laundry and grocery shopping chores. That may be why I never before noticed how many gas drilling trucks travel to, through and from our little town. They sure caught my attention with their oversized loads and number! And it is SUNDAY!

I observed these huge and invasive, to my thinking, carriers traveling fast and furious on the main avenue. They were all in transit hauling water, frack sand, frack fluids, fracking pumps, residual waste and more.

Some call them soup trucks or kettle trucks and I call them AWFUL. Their stacks emit black stuff to pollute my air. They're noisy. They cause damage to the roads. Some nearby counties have had their roads put off limits to natural gas drilling trucks by PennDOT until the roads are repaired.

The natural gas extraction in my area has grown and I don't like the activity at all. People jumped at the chance to earn money by leasing their land and now the cost is very evident.

In 1900, 1,827 people lived here, and in 1910, 1,914 people lived here. The population was 1,664 at the 2000 census. A 2007 estimate states that the population is 1,843. This town of Montrose was laid out in 1812 and incorporated as a borough on March 19, 1824. It sure seems a shame that it has changed so much in the name of "Progress."

The truck that was involved in yesterday's accident is owned by Casa Grande, Arizona-based Southeast Directional Drilling LLC according to the Times Tribune. I noticed that many of the tags are also from Texas, Wyoming and others.

Fatal Crash

By WBNG News

July 30, 2011

Updated Jul 30, 2011 at 5:18 PM EDT

Liberty Township, PA (WBNG Binghamton) A Susquehanna County man has died in a crash near the state line.

Pennsylvania State Police say 57 year-old John Jones of Brackney was killed when a Mack Truck used to haul natural gas drilling materials overturned on to his car.

The accident happened around 8:00 p.m. Friday night on Route 29 near the intersection of Laurel Lake Road in Liberty Township.

Jones' passenger was an unidentified seventeen year old. She sustained moderate injuries.

50 year-old James Hoffpauir of Montgomery, Texas was driving the truck for Southeast Directional Drilling, based in Arizona.

State Police are continuing their investigation.

Man Killed in Susquehanna County Crash

• By WNEP News

9:04 p.m. EDT, July 30, 2011

We now know the name of a man killed in a crash in Susquehanna County.

According to state police, John Jones III of Brackney died Friday night when a mack truck overturned on his vehicle.

It happened around 7:00 p.m. on Route 29, just north of Montrose.

The driver of the mack truck was injured.

Troopers are still investigating what led to that deadly crash in Susquehanna County.