“No is no is no,’ A tiny township’s fight against oil and gas disposal

This original article by Laura Legere appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette November 13, 2017.

The natural gas wells in the cornfields and woods here are a fact of the landscape, more numerous than houses. Obvious markers of the business, like tanks and pump jacks, are usually painted green to make them less obtrusive.The Marjorie C. Yanity well is different — beginning with its color. Its visible stack of valves is bright red.

The well’s purpose is being reversed: instead of pulling fossil fuels up from buried rock as it did for 15 years, it will send liquid waste from other oil and gas wells down 7,500 feet to fill the rock’s empty pores. MORE…