The sad state of Middlesex Township’s budget almost makes me want to cry.

The Nov. 22 report (“Middlesex budget shows cost of lawsuit defense”, Page 3) would have us believe that the poor supervisors of that municipality didn’t foresee some residents might challenge a reckless decision to open 90 percent of the township to drilling, and didn’t adequately plan for litigation.

Now they are without air conditioning and a police car.

This sad state of affairs actually reflects a prior decision on the part of the supervisors. They were derelict in their duties when it comes to planning, period. That’s the part that saddens me.

The budget shortfall in Middlesex is actually quite small when you consider the externalized costs of their wanton disregard for most residents.

A study released in June out of the University of Pittsburgh linked proximity to fracked wells and low birth weights; an October study out of Johns Hopkins University linked proximity to fracked wells and premature births and problem pregnancies; a University of Pennsylvania study released in July linked proximity to fracked wells and increased cardiovascular admissions to emergency rooms; the Southwestern Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project has linked proximity to fracked wells to many health impacts, from minor to acute.

Drilling doesn’t belong near people or the water, air, and soil they depend on.

Residents of Middlesex and neighboring townships will pay the high cost of impaired health that will dwarf the minor costs associated with litigation.

These and more are the costs that the neglectful supervisors didn’t factor into their irresponsible decision to permit drilling.

The pro-drilling cabal in Middlesex would have us believe that the right to develop property trumps the constitutional rights of neighbors.

That is, of course, silly. We have a right to develop our property but we don’t have a right to degrade the health and well-being of others when we do so.

When faced with such an assault, who wouldn’t challenge it? Not anticipating a challenge wasn’t some minor oversight, it was an act of great hubris and official malfeasance.

The budget shortfall in Middlesex isn’t only monetary. Supervisors apparently had a moral deficit.