Marcellus Areas See Increase in Drunk Driving, Lesser Crimes

A statistical certainty is that as the population of an area grows, there’s bound to be more drunk driving arrests and more crime in general—one of the “hazards” of an increasing population. And so it is in Bradford County, PA and other regions in the Marcellus Shale where the Marcellus drilling boom is happening. The increase in crime is not caused by drilling, according to law enforcement officials, but is a simple fact that where there’s more people there are bound to be more criminal incidents. It’s one of the negatives of drilling, like industrialization of rural areas (more trucking, more noise, more traffic) that must be recognized and if possible, mitigated or at least anticipated.

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