There are no risk-backed setback requirements for shale gas development around dams in Pennsylvania and, as a result, hundreds of shale gas wells are close to and occasionally running under the state’s dams, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Pennsylvania has quickly grown into the second biggest natural gas producing state in the United States with more than 11,500 Marcellus and Utica shale gas wells drilled and fracked, another 10,000 permitted, and the potential for tens of thousands more in the future. However, it has no buffer zones fort dams, while other shale gas drilling states have buffer zones of 3,000 to 4,000 feet around dams.

If Pennsylvania had a 4,000-foot buffer around its dams, 303 shale gas wells would be within that exclusionary zone Of those, 167 are drilled and fracked wells within 3,000 feet of 27 dams in 10 counties.

Learn more: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette > Buffer zones debated for drilling near state’s dams