(image: perfil via flickr.com)

Controversy surrounding drilling in the Marcellus Shale formation in the American Northeast is heating up again. On Wednesday, PoconoNews.net reported that the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) will intensify their inspections of natural gas drilling sites. Rather than just responding to incidents such as the pollution of waterways and wetlands, they will inspect natural gas wells in an effort to prevent those incidents. According to Dr. Douglas Austen, the PFBC executive director, “we are now taking a proactive approach to identify possible problems at a drilling site and to work with the company to ensure necessary measures are in place to minimize the possibility of damaging nearby waterways.”

The concern over damaging waterways and wetlands comes from the way in which natural gas is extracted from the Marcellus Shale gas wells. The process is called hydrofracking, an extraction method in which a cocktail of chemicals are used to break up the rocks and release the natural gas. According to HeatingOil.com, the chemicals used in hydrofracking are known to infiltrate water supplies and have been implicated in killing livestock.

Concerns over the impact of hydrofracking are not new. On Tuesday, HeatingOil.com reported that a roundtable discussion would be set up in New York to debate the pros and cons involved in the extraction of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale bed.

While it is good that the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission are becoming more aggressive in limiting the harmful effects of drilling in the Marcellus Shale bed, it is clear that the debates between environmentalists and drilling proponents will not end any time soon.