Right behind Norma Fiorentino's house, they have been drilling for natural gas. Some of the gas is coming from under Norma's property, so she gets a little money for it (not all that much so far, though). She also got a present on New Year's Day. Her water well exploded all over her yard. Now she can't drink the water from her tap anymore and she's worried that her kitchen might blow up.

Good times, right? And when the checks stop coming, the gas won't stop. It will still be there in the water table. Totally ruined. Won't that be great when she her or her heirs try to sell her land?

Clean Water Action is meeting with people and talking to them about their experience living nearby or around natural gas drilling rigs.

So what can you do? Watch this video, then I have two quick things for you after the jump.

First, tell the Environmental Quality Board to pass a regulation that says that development alongside streams needs to protect or restore 100 feet of natural, wooded buffers alongside the water. 100 feet of woods does an amazing job of cleaning up run off, nurturing stream health and keeping the temperature in the water where it needs to be. Many communities have similar rules already, so let's go statewide.

And... if 100 feet of wooded area has to be preserved alongside streams, it would make it harder for drillers to kill thousands of fish like they have in the last month in Western and Northern Pennsylvania.

Second, tell the senate to act on the Safer Drinking Water Act. SB 777 would make it much harder for drillers to set up rigs in watersheds that provide drinking water to municipalities. This would cover a lot of Marcellus country. It wouldn't be a ban, in most cases, but it would make DEP be more careful about which well pads they approve. And any little bit would help this DEP at this point. Sheesh.

I wish I could tell you about some legislator who's really pushing good legislation to curtail drilling, but I haven't seen it yet. There's been a lot of so-so stuff that hasn't gone anywhere, but we're working on it.

More Marcellus news and more videos to come. Stay tuned.