From just the local knowledge I have, someone else may know better.

There are pockets of gas from prehistoric ages, kidda like the coal belts. In the Northeast, the area I know, they are buying up, or "renting" land making farmers and folks pretty rich on these leases.
They drill into the pockets, right through the water levels, and using the water to cool the drills.

In our area, the wells and water has been undermined to the point if people light a match under or near the water facet it will turn into flames.

The landscaping is dug up, roads destroyed from the heavy trucks. A few moths ago a huge truck going too fast in the rurual areas failed to drive at safe speeds and ran into a woman killing her.

In northeast PA we had anthricite coal mines. Many of the men were digging in shafts they shore up with beams between the "veins" of coal and shale. As they go across the veins not down through them they pull it out. What ende up happening was the stability, methane gas, and greed with the owners.

In our town, they kept going, getting too close to the Susquehanna River. The pressure inward burst through the mining in the 60's and closed the coal mining in our area...
Then natural gas took over for heating homes and demand was down.

Now the fracking is taking out of the earth in the same way. I can't help but feel if large amounts of this gas is removed, WHAT is holding us together, and is that why all the odd earthquakes in previous unaffected areas?
Thanks for asking,
di

Wilkes barre Times Leader (Assoc Press)

Gas pipeline firm in Pa. pulls utility application
MARC LEVY,Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The company that's building a 30-mile pipeline to transport natural gas from northern Pennsylvania wells says it's no longer seeking public utility status, which would have been a step toward taking private property without an owner's approval.
The chairman of Laser Northeast Gathering said Monday the company's business model has changed.

Laser's application to state utility regulators was the first to coincide with Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale gas-drilling boom, although other applications are pending.

Public utilities have the ability to go to court to seek eminent domain on private property. But Laser says it's now planning to serve a limited number of customers.

Laser was forced to halt construction temporarily on its $55 million pipeline into New York state recently after crews spilled drilling mud into a pristine stream.

Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/Gas-...#ixzz1XnVfv8EX