By MICHAEL RUBINKAM
Associated Press Writer
A few hundred yards from Louis Matoushek's farmhouse is a well that could soon produce not only natural gas, but a drilling boom in the
wild and scenic Delaware River watershed.
Energy companies have leased thousands of acres of land in Pennsylvania's unspoiled northeastern tip, hoping to tap vast stores of gas in a sprawling rock formation - the Marcellus shale - that some experts believe could become the nation's most productive gas field.
Plenty of folks like Matoushek are eager for the gas, and the royalty checks, to start flowing - including farmers who see Marcellus money as a way to keep their struggling operations afloat.
"It's a depressed area," Matoushek said. "This is going to mean new jobs, real jobs, not government jobs."
Standing in the way is a loose coalition of sporting groups, conservationists and anti-drilling neighbors. They contend that large-scale gas exploration so close to crucial waterways will threaten drinking water, ruin a renowned wild trout fishery, wreck property values, and transform a rural area popular with tourists into an industrial zone with constant noise and truck traffic.
Both sides are furiously lobbying the Delaware River Basin Commission, the powerful federal-interstate compact agency that monitors water supplies for 15 million people, including half the population of New York City. The commission has jurisdiction because the drilling process will require withdrawing huge amounts of water from the watershed's streams and rivers and because of the potential for groundwater pollution.
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