Paul Battista is the owner of Sunnyside Supply. Paul is one of the people in the area that has seen his profit margin rise since the gas companies entered his area in Slovan, PA.  © Scott Goldsmith/MSDP 2011

The hole in the middle of this drilling rig platform (yellow area) is where the drill is inserted. Extension pipes are attached as they add length to achieve a depth of about a mile. Most of the extension pipes are rusted and corroded from the caustic chemicals used in the drilling process. One of the chemicals used helps fight corrosion. © Scott Goldsmith/MSDP 2011

An underground pipeline stretches like a ribbon into the distance. Workers ready the top of the pipeline to plant grass as the final phase of the pipeline built to transport the gas harvested from the Marcellus Shale. Mt Pleasant Township, PA. This section of the pipeline was completed in 2010 and opened again in 2012 for updates. © Scott Goldsmith/MSDP 2012

Looking up at a natural-gas drilling rig in Washington County, PA, through a ceiling window of the control room on the drilling platform. The flag is used to help the people working on the rig determine which way the wind is blowing, to help avoid airborne contaminates when present. © Scott Goldsmith/MSDP 2012

A gas-drilling rig in Hopewell Township area of Washington County, PA. Nearby residents complained of extreme noise, seismic activity, and dust from truck traffic along with polluted air and water. © Scott Goldsmith/MSDP 2012

A double flare on Fort Cherry Road in Hickory PA.  The toxins from flares such as these may present many health hazards.  © Scott Goldsmith/MSDP 2011

A flow-back water containment pond holds polluted and radioactive water from the drilling industry. This water evaporates and lands on crops and farm land in the form of dew condensation. These ponds have leaked and flown into creeks, streams, and rivers. Birds land on the ponds and small animals have consumed the water. © Scott Goldsmith/MSDP 2012

John "Denny" Fair, aged fifty-eight, was among several Butler County residents who lost their water supply when gas driller Rex Energy ended water shipments to several families in Connoquessing Township, Butler County. Workers hauled away two tanks from his backyard that supplied water to three homes. Fair is in the middle helping workers remove his only supply of water that is portable after boiling. © Scott Goldsmith/MSDP 2012

After workers hauled away two water tanks that supplied three homes from his backyard, John "Denny" Fair went inside his small home and became teary-eyed. When Fair reconnected his water well, it pumped out orange-brown water that he and the neighbors don't want to use. Fair said the water turned brown and "stinky" shortly after the fracking started. © Scott Goldsmith/MSDP 2012

Lee Zavislak of Amity, PA, during a truck-driving class at the Western Area Career & Technology School in Canonsburg, PA. The school is helping gas companies fill their need for truck drivers with graduates  of the truck-driving program. Lee made it well-known that she would not drive for the gas companies because of the environmental damage they are doing. © Scott Goldsmith/MSDP 2012

The Hallowich family in Hickory, PA.  © Scott Goldsmith/MSDP 2011.

© Scott Goldsmith/MSDP 2011

This water truck is making a delivery to the Hallowich family water buffalo. The family could not use their water because of contamination that started after drilling and fracking near their property. The water being delivered was for bathing only and cost the family more than 300 dollars a month, not including bottled water for drinking. © Scott Goldsmith/MSDP 2011

Stephanie Hallowich leads a bus tour of Washington County, PA to educate the public and show the dangers, pollution, and contamination brought to the area by the gas companies. © Scott Goldsmith/MSDP 2011

A hearing in downtown Pittsburgh, PA called by US senator Bob Casey, D., PA, to discuss action plans for accidents caused by gas drillers. Hallowich is crying as she listens to testimony from a person with severe health problems thought to be caused by water and air contamination from fracking. © Scott Goldsmith/MSDP 2011

In Homestead, PA, a freight train carries underground transport pipe for thewestern PA natural gas drillers. © Scott Goldsmith/MSDP 2012

A gas flare at night, industry traffic in the foreground.  © Scott Goldsmith/MSDP 2012

Jeannie Moten shows her hands. She thinks the scaling skin comes from washing dishes and plans to use gloves from now on. She didn't have this problem before fracking. Moten also lost her portable water from contamination and members of her family have had respiratory problems and nosebleeds that she and others feel is the result of fracking near her property. © Scott Goldsmith/MSDP 2012

Water transport pipes use gravity to take water from one site to the next. In 2011, Red Oak, the company that laid this set of pipes, was consolidated into a larger, Houston-based company named Rockwater. © Scott Goldsmith/MSDP 2012

Lighting water on fire due to the natural gas bubbling up from a natural spring. The gas showed up in the spring after David Headley's property was fracked in Smithfield, PA. Headley owns horses and discovered the bubbles when his horses stopped drinking water from this location after the fracking. © Scott Goldsmith/MSDP 2012