Fracking’s promise: When it comes to impact fees, NEPA drillers get off cheap

Pennsylvania’s natural gas rush fueled an array of economic and social side effects – some of them welcome and some not.

Although many of drilling crews have left northern Pennsylvania gas fields for now, there was a time when the rush of workers created higher rents and more crime.

While the streets of Montrose, Tonawanda and Wellsboro didn’t exactly reflect a crisis of homelessness and lawlessness, they were suddenly much busier, and with more people came more problems.

In Bradford County – one of the busiest drilling communities – new criminal cases filed with the district attorney’s office jumped more than 40 percent from 2007 through 2013. In the next two busiest places, Susquehanna and Tioga counties in Pennsylvania, criminal caseloads grew by more than 20 percent and 40 percent, respectively.

At the same time, housing agencies and community groups reported a flood of complaints that tenants were being priced out of apartments.

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At the height of the gas rush in 2010, Chesapeake Enegy Corp. built a residential complex and training center — commonly known as a man camp’ — in Athens Township to help ease the housing crunch due to the influx of workers. The dormitory-style bunk houses that can hold about 280 workers, a cafeteria, recreation center and laundry facilities, now sit idle.

https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_635826867100225266-mancamp3.jpg.optimal.jpgAt the height of the gas rush in 2010, Chesapeake Enegy Corp. built a residential complex and training center — commonly known as a man camp’ — in Athens Township to help ease the housing crunch due to the influx of workers. The dormitory-style bunk houses that can hold about 280 workers, a cafeteria, recreation center and laundry facilities, now sit idle. Tom Wilber | Press & Sun-Bulletin