Pennsylvania Lawsuit Says Drilling Polluted Water
Reuters
9 November 2009
By Jon Hurdle
AVELLA, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - A Pennsylvania landowner is suing an
energy company for polluting his soil and water in an attempt to link a
natural gas drilling technique with environmental contamination.
George Zimmermann, the owner of 480 acres in Washington County,
southwest Pennsylvania, says Atlas Energy Inc. ruined his land with
toxic chemicals used in or released there by hydraulic fracturing.
Water tests at three locations by gas wells on Zimmermann's property --
one is 1,500 feet from his home -- found seven potentially carcinogenic
chemicals above "screening levels" set by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency as warranting further investigation.
Jay Hammond, general counsel for Atlas, said Zimmermann's claims are
"completely erroneous" and that the company is in compliance with
Pennsylvania's gas-drilling regulations. Hammond said Atlas will
"vigorously" defend itself in court and declined further comment.
But Zimmermann says he has evidence that chemicals used by Atlas
contaminated his land.
"There are substances that can't be made by nature and that's what's in
the ground," he told Reuters during an interview in his
12,000-square-foot house on a remote hilltop.
Atlas is exploiting the Marcellus Shale, a vast gas reserve that
underlies about two-thirds of Pennsylvania and parts of West Virginia,
Ohio and New York State.
Experts estimate it contains enough natural gas to meet total U.S.
demand for at least a decade.
The gas is being extracted by hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking", in
which a mixture of water, sand and chemicals is forced a mile or more
underground at high pressure, fracturing the shale and causing the
release of natural gas.
Development of the Marcellus, together with other major shale fields in
Texas, Louisiana and other states, is being aided by advances in
fracking combined with horizontal drilling, which provides more
exposure to a formation than a vertical well and leads to less surface
disturbance.
If Zimmermann wins his case, it would be the first in America to prove
that hydraulic fracturing causes water contamination. Such a finding
could slow the development and use of cleaner-burning natural gas that
would reduce American dependence on overseas energy.
Perfect Baseline Tests
Baseline tests on Zimmermann's water a year before drilling began were
"perfect," he said. In June, water tests found arsenic at 2,600 times
acceptable levels, benzene at 44 times above limits and naphthalene
five times the federal standard.
Soil samples detected mercury and selenium above official limits, as
well as ethylbenzene, a chemical used in drilling, and trichloroethene,
a naturally occurring but toxic chemical that can be brought to the
surface by gas drilling.
The chemicals can cause many serious illnesses including damage to the
immune, nervous and respiratory systems, according to the Endocrine
Disruption Exchange, a researcher of the health effects of chemicals
used in drilling.
Zimmermann's suit, filed in September in the Washington County Court of
Common Pleas and obtained by Reuters, follows claims by residents in
many gas-drilling areas of the United States that fracking pollutes
private water wells with toxic chemicals and threatens widespread
contamination of aquifers from which many rural households draw
drinking water.
Although communities as far apart as Pennsylvania and Wyoming complain
that their water has become unusable, they have been unable to prove a
link to gas drilling. Energy companies refuse to say what chemicals are
used in so-called fracking fluid, saying the mixture is proprietary.
Companies are not required to disclose the composition of the fluid
because of an exemption to a federal clean water law granted to the oil
and gas industry in 2005.
Many local residents have been deterred from fighting the gas companies
by the expense of legal action and water testing. Zimmermann says he
has spent about $15,000 on water tests and will spend whatever it takes
to prove his case.
Rural residents who live near gas drilling say their water has become
discolored, foul-smelling, or even flammable because methane from
disturbed gas deposits has migrated into water wells.
Deaths, Mutation of Livestock
Farmers in southwest Pennsylvania blame cattle deaths and mutations on
local fracking. Other complaints attributed to tainted water include
children's sickness, skin rashes and neurological disorders.
The industry says the chemicals used in fracking are injected through
layers of steel and concrete thousands of feet below aquifers, and so
pose no threat to drinking water. Spokesman argue there has never been
a documented case of water contamination as a result of fracking.
On Zimmermann's property, the presence of water and soil contaminants
that exceed EPA screening levels risks wider pollution of drinking
water supply, wrote Cleason Smith, a consultant with Hydrosystems
Management, which tested the soil and water, in a letter explaining the
test results.
Atlas rejected Smith's report, saying in court documents that the
findings were inadmissible.
Smith said further tests are needed to confirm the source of
contamination but that some chemicals seem to come from fracking or
related activity. Benzene, for example, is unlikely to be found on land
that was previously forested, he said.
Zimmermann's suit says his land has become "virtually valueless"
because it is permanently contaminated with toxic chemicals as a result
of the 10 wells that Atlas has drilled.
The suit accuses Atlas -- which is able to drill on the land because it
acquired the mineral rights from a previous owner -- of negligence. It
is seeking an injunction against further drilling, and unspecified
financial damages.
With a wife, an eight-year-old son and eight-month-old twins,
Zimmermann, 66, worries about air and water quality.
He said he has invested about $11 million in the estate, which includes
a winery and an heirloom-tomato business, but he now just wants to walk
away because he believes it has been ruined by gas drilling.
He rates his chances of selling the property as "slim to none" in light
of the proven water contamination.
"I don't want to live here any more," Zimmermann said. "I'm afraid of
the chemicals."
(Editing by Mark Egan and Philip Barbara)