With natural gas drilling on the horizon in Western Maryland, dairy farmer Billy Bishoff welcomes the chance to supplement his income by collecting lease or royalty payments on the natural gas that lies beneath his family’s 330 acres a few miles northwest of Deep Creek Lake. The gas, locked far beneath the surface, is a “tremendous resource,” he said, that could bring jobs and prosperity to Garrett County, which many residents now leave to find work.
Not far away, Elliott Perfetti worries that drilling for gas could foul the region’s air and water, crippling the tourism and outdoor recreation industries, which have become linchpins of the local economy. “I think it could quickly erode the reasons that people come to Garrett County,” said Perfetti, operations manager at Blue Moon Rising, an eco-friendly resort overlooking the lake.
Bishoff and Perfetti symbolize a broader debate in this mountainous county over the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing — or “fracking” as the drilling technique is commonly known. Now that Maryland has proposed sweeping new rules for oil and gas exploration and production, residents are debating how — or whether — fracking can be done safely.
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