Nice article Erin, but can you actually substaniate your findings. I believe it is difficult to make a decision on whether fracking is detrimental. I am not sure who to believe.
I am not sure that fracking will cause more servere asthma cases, since asthma has been on the rise for years. Can we actually blame fracking?

Are there other alternatives to fracking? Perhaps there are, but I haven't seen any that a cost effective for the average middle class American. Solar energy would work, but that is excessively expensive. With rising health care cost, taxation and excessive spending the paychecks are looking emaciated.

More information is needed to make a decision,

I don't see that the author made any "findings", most of her bullet points are factual matter of record and can be looked up (dumping wastewater into regional water treatement plants, requirement of 4 million gal water per well, etc.)

The point is that if "more information is needed", and there is a potential for health impact, why are we drilling first? Why the "ready fire aim" approach? Easy to see it's because of the money to be made by the industry, if they hurry, while the Republican governor is willing.

if you factor in the additional pollution from truck traffic, transporting the gas, and all of the other externals involved in fracking, gas is not the "clean" solution we are led to think it is. We should be taking a page from so many countries around the world and also investing in true renewable energy sources as a complement to the "dirty" energy industry.

I completely agree we need more information and it is tough to know what to believe when you see ads for natural gas all over TV and on billboards. The EPA is currently working on studies of both potential air and water quality issues, but no conclusions have been made and we are proceeding anyhow.
We know that air pollution in general is a cause of increased asthma cases. I don't think it can be single-handedly blamed, but certainly it is a culprit. The EPA has released clean air standards for 2015 for the fracking industry. Until then, "An estimated 13,000 new and existing natural gas wells are fractured or re-fracturing each year. As those wells are being prepared for production, they emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which contribute to smog formation, and air toxics, including benzene and hexane, which can cause cancer and other serious health effects. In addition, the rule is expected to yield a significant environmental co-benefit by reducing methane, the primary constituent of natural gas. Methane, when released directly to the atmosphere, is a potent greenhouse gas—more than 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide." http://www.epa.gov/airquality/oilandgas/pdfs/20120417fs.pdf
The University of Delaware has shown the the US can be powered 90-99% of the time with a combination of solar and wind and storage options, at costs comparable with fossil fuel and nuclear mix used today. http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2013/01/renewable-energy-solution

I agree that the industry has done a fine job of appearing "healthy and safe." But if we look a little more closely that is NOT the case. There is no doubt confirmed danger involved with fracking. There is a real-life list of the harmed that is published - go to http://pennsylvaniaallianceforcleanwaterandair.wordpress.com/the-list/
This tells close to 800 stories of real people suffering from natural gas drilling. These are real families reporting that their drinking water has been contaminated with methane, that their kids have unexplained nose bleeds and rashes, that their cows are unable to carry live calves to term, that their land values are plummeting and they can't afford to leave. There is a cost for diving into the profits of fracking without any real health impact study federally or otherwise. Once we further pollute our air and groundwater there is no way to "undo" the damage. There needs to be increased awareness on the dangers of fracking - to balance out those wonderful, "natural" ads we see on tv. Education is KEY!

It is a fact that there are concerns about the unknowns of fracking....impact on drinking water, possibly creating minor earthquakes and the question of where the wastewater from the fracking process will go. Erin...I appreciate the article and the information. You are so right...we need to be part of the process and have answers to our questions BEFORE fracking expands in PA.

I think one of my most basic feelings is that with wind, solar and geothermal energy, we don't have nearly these same issues. We are not debating the lesser evil of injecting benzene, tolulene, arsenic, lead mercury and other carcinogens and endocrine disruptors or treating it in waste water plants; if these chemicals contaminate groundwater during any of the drilling process; what to do with substantial 1-5 millions of gallons) freshwater withdrawals per frack; if there are air quality repercussions do to VOC emissions; what to do when the drilling boom is over (we still will need energy and now we will have towns with infrastructure to support drilling and no drillers left to occupy it)
We should be forcing the government to build the infrastructure to support renewables. The university of Delaware has shown the the US can be powered 90-99% of the time with a combination of solar and wind and storage options, at costs comparable with fossil fuel and nuclear mix used today.

http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2013/01/renewable-energy-solution

The link (below) provides a list of some of the people who have been harmed by fracking. Personally, I'd rather be cold and poor, than hurt or kill anyone, or their animals. The people who don't see the harm in this are either looking for a buck, or don't want to see it for what it is. Our Pennsylvania government is in the process turning our state into a superfund site and is willfully sacrificing its citizens. The irony, is that with the methane release from this process, particularly in PA where fracturing can encounter abandoned wells, makes using natural gas dirtier than coal or oil. http://pennsylvaniaallianceforcleanwaterandair.wordpress.com/the-list/

Fracking is not bad for anyone when it's done properly. It's silly not to consider extract ing a HUGE resource right at our fingertips. But it's for each community to allow and for individuals to decide for themselves.

BECAUSE they are dumping Fracking TOXIC waste water in Rivers, Streams, on Roads, in Lakes etc., killing animals, fish and PEOPLE. I sent Ed Rendell a few letters chastizing him for going after Gov Cuomo about Banning Fracking in New York AND if Rendell was any kind of a conscientous former Governor of PA, he would be busy helping his former supporters, taking GAG ORDERS off Drs in PA, but instead he is hiding out in DC. Neither Democrats, or Republicans will fight this issue as they have sold their souls to the BIG Gas/Oil/Mining Companies, creating a Dictatorship against the people. Buy the DVD "Koch Brothers Exposed" whose father earned his money from the Bolsheviks in the 1920-1930s and came back to the US with his money, wanting to run the US like Russia, he taught his sons well, who are trying to BUY every election. Switzerland is hosting a meeting setting up a Global Mercury Treaty, yet we here in the US are forced to use only the Mercury Spiral lights, which causes cancer when working under them daily and which when thrown in the garbage is going to sky rocket Mercury levels in the US. Since you support Fracking, WHY don't you go live on the poisoned toxic land in PA, or some of the other States. Drink, cook and bathe in the water coming through your faucet that you can set on fire, eat only food grown on the toxic land, eat only animals raised on the toxic land, like the ones that die within four hours from drinking water at fracking sites. Gerry Seger, MI

Mike, You must be hiding under a rock, not reading the news, like the New York Times for instance, or any other news sources. I hope the day comes that no family member, or relative of yours will be poisoned by Fracking. Did you get some money from the Gas Companies since you are in such denial about the TRUTH???? There have been numerous Newspaper articles telling the stories, you should really keep up on the times, before professing such denials, but then again, if you have sold your soul for a few dollars, there is no amount of facts, nor the Truth that will convince you, but I am sorry to say, you are going to have to eat your words you are saying at the expense of the ruination of our environment and the deaths of a lot of people. Every time you go to the grocery store, I want you to look at the food your are buying and wonder, did any of these animals drink the toxic water, did your fruit, veggies, greens get watered with toxic water, did the fish live in a toxic lake, or stream, did the beverages you are drinking come from a toxic area??? It will take a little while before your symptoms start to show up, then I wonder what you will think, when you start having different symptoms and will wonder "what is wrong with me?" Enjoy your next trip to the grocery store. Gerry Seger

a). I'll note for the record that you provided NONE of the information I requested. Not even a SINGLE article about fracking problems in Pennsylvania. Not even a link to a NY Times article about PA fracking issues.

b). I have never received money from any fracking venture. Perhaps had you read my comment you would have seen that I simply know people who live in PA's fracking region. So a HUGE portion of your argumentative attempt to render my observations invalid goes right out the window.

c). Add this to the list of information requested: Links to articles or claims that our food chain is being treated or grown with tracking waste products.

Emotion only takes an argument so far without hard data to back it up.

For the future, Gary, when you want to post emotional rants - even ones that may very well be true - you should be prepared to be challenged on facts and conditions as they exist, especially relative to the area in which you want to make an impact.

All I asked for was backup to the claims you made. All I got back was dismissiveness and emotional attacks. Not exactly a compelling argument ...