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Game changer?

She reaped a $489,000 (U.S.) initial payment, plus the promise of future royalties.

But the 65-year-old farmer has yet to cash in on her 371-hectare property in neighboring New York state, where she has lived for the past 12 years with her husband. Regulations in that state prevent energy companies from employing the technology they need to unlock the natural gas trapped in the shale rock thousands of metres below the surface.

Companies rely upon a drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing that shoots chemical-laced water deep underground to crack open the shale rock so the gas can escape. They must then dispose of waste water that flows back up the wells.

Echoing concerns from residents across the region, Ms. Westcott fears that hydraulic fracturing will taint the aquifers that feed local water wells. “I am really concerned about the water – I think it’s got to have an effect on the water when you start drilling like they’re doing in Pennsylvania,” she said. “I don’t know how something is not going to happen because they have to go down through the aquifer.”

The recent shale gas boom has been called a “game changer” in the North American energy picture. It promises to deliver abundant, cheap natural gas for decades to come. Utility companies are counting on it to generate electricity with half the greenhouse emissions of coal, while gas producers are touting it as the truck fuel of the future.