“Our Forever Home”: Loss of Place and Shale Gas Development in Western Pennsylvania

Abstract

The Marcellus Shale is a sedimentary rock formation that lies beneath most of Pennsylvania as well as portions of Ohio, West Virginia, New York, and Maryland, and holds one of the world’s largest natural gas reserves. It has been known that the Marcellus is a sizeable gas reservoir, but until the recent development of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, it had not been economically feasible to exploit it. These unconventional drilling methods currently used in Pennsylvania and other Marcellus regions are deeply controversial, with both experts and laypersons disagreeing over their threat to the environment and public health. The result has been great scientific and public uncertainty over the risks and rewards of Marcellus Shale development. This dissertation explores how Marcellus Shale development in Western Pennsylvania impacts the social lives of residents, and the ways in which residents respond to these impacts. In particular, I emphasize the social and cultural challenges of communities and how place-based meanings influence resident behavior. The data come from a comparative case study of two rural areas in Western Pennsylvania with differing intensity and duration of local shale gas development, Washington and Lawrence Counties. Washington County had its first unconventional shale well in 2004 and had 709 shale wells at the start of my fieldwork in October 2013. In contrast, Lawrence County had its first shale well in 2011, and had 20 shale wells when I began my research. Through multi-sited ethnography—which included field observations, participant observation at various public events, and open-ended interviews with residents and community stakeholders—I examine how variations in the duration and intensity of development may influence resident experiences and response with local shale development. This research finds that the main social and cultural challenges for Washington County residents were conflicts between old-timers and newcomers. Specifically, old-timers and newcomers experienced discord over the differences or perceived differences of opinion on local shale gas development. In Lawrence County, there was less conflict between old-timers and newcomers, and the conflicts that arose were often in response to the actions of outspoken anti-drilling activists. In both study counties, residents with primary ties to the physical aspects of place were dissatisfied with landscape changes brought about by local shale development and engaged in collective action in the attempt to change the way shale development was occurring, or to stop it altogether. While residents in Washington and Lawrence Counties had similar motivations for engaging in collective action—the protection of family, others, and home—they differed in their actions and strategies. Resident experiences with and actions toward local shale development varied between the two counties, which may be due to the differing intensities and duration of development. Washington County residents focused their collective strategies on encouraging local industry to conduct drilling more responsibly and Lawrence County, where collective action emerged at the exploratory stages of drilling, aimed to stop intense shale development before it began. The place-based variations uncovered between the two study counties raised important questions that warrant further study. In particular, is Washington County a unique case because it was the first county to experience shale development, or will we see similar experiences in communities with similarly long duration of drilling and intensity? How do counties in other Marcellus Shale regions respond to the occurrence of shale development? What other place-based characteristics should be taken into account when examining response to local shale development?