In March the Pennsylvania-based company Rex Energy proposed drilling for natural gas under the Mars Area School District’s campus, where about 3,200 elementary, middle and high school students from four surrounding municipalities attend classes each weekday.

“We knew the benefit of the drilling would be money for the school district, and that’s a great thing, but at what cost?” Nassif said. “The chemicals, the VOCs [volatile organic compounds], the diesel exhaust … Distance is really the only thing you can provide as a buffer.”

She petitioned her school board to vote against the drilling, but before the school board voted on the proposal, Rex went ahead and began the permitting process to get six wells drilled less than a mile from the school. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection issued a permit for Rex Energy’s facilities last month. The natural gas formation under the schools won’t be accessed, but the gas from surrounding properties will.

“DEP conducted an extremely thorough review of the permit, considering all public comments, and is confident that the proposed well pad does not pose any threat to the health or safety of local residents,” Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Morgan Wagner said in an email. “There is no legal basis for dismissing the permit application.”

Rex Energy declined to comment for this story

Stories like Nassif’s are increasingly common as hydraulic fracturing infrastructure expands across the U.S. into places once largely untouched by the oil and gas industry, where many proposed wells, waste sites and compressor stations are running into community opposition.

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