EPA Steps In to Test Pa. Town's Tainted Well Water
Contamination blamed on drilling
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
20 January 2012
By Don Hopey
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday it
will begin testing well water supplies at 60 homes in Dimock, Pa.,
the small Susquehanna County town where residents say Marcellus
Shale gas drilling has contaminated their water.
In a move at odds with the state's environmental department, the
EPA also said it will start delivering water today to four homes
where the well water is undrinkable.
Craig Sautner, who with his wife and two children, lives in one of
those four homes, said he is "ecstatic" about the EPA's decision
to take a more active role in Dimock.
The community was featured in the 2010 documentary "Gasland" about
the natural gas drilling boom in the United States.
On Nov. 30, Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. stopped filling residents'
550-gallon water "buffalo" tanks after the state Department of
Environmental Protection ruled the gas company had met its
obligations under a 2010 consent agreement. The EPA began its own
review of the well water problems in Dimock in mid-December and
has taken weeks to decide what to do there or whether to do
anything.
Dimock residents and environmental activists last week
demonstrated outside a conference where EPA administrator Lisa
Jackson was speaking in Philadelphia's Academy of Natural
Sciences, imploring the agency to act.
EPA regional administrator Shawn Garvin said health concerns due
to the contamination prompted the EPA's decision to provide water
to four families immediately while additional water testing is
done.
"We believe that the information provided to us by the residents
deserves further review," Mr. Garvin said, "and conducting our own
sampling will help us fill information gaps." He said any future
actions by the agency "will be based on the science and we will
work to help get a more complete picture of water quality for
these homes in Dimock."
The EPA said the sampling will begin in the next few days and take
at least three weeks to complete. Results of the testing won't be
available for another five weeks. The agency said it will reassess
the decision to provide water to four of the residences based on
the new sampling results.
Separate from the Dimock action, the EPA has, under the direction
of Congress, started a national study of the impacts fracking may
have on drinking water resources.
Katy Gresh, a spokeswoman for the state DEP, said it is reviewing
data submitted by the EPA, but hasn't found anything new to
justify the agency's water supply actions in Dimock.
She said the DEP agrees that additional sampling should be
conducted in Dimock and is working with the EPA to do that
sampling.
Mr. Sautner, who has been getting water supplied by grass-roots
environmental groups and neighbors since Cabot stopped delivering
almost two months ago, said his well water and that of some of his
neighbors contains unsafe concentrations of methane gas, heavy
metals, arsenic and toxic chemicals.
"We waited to let the science and data speak for itself and now it
did," said Mr. Sautner, who hasn't been able to use his well water
for more than two years. "I don't understand how the EPA sees our
water is contaminated while the DEP and Cabot do not. It must be
pretty bad to have the EPA step in."
About a dozen residents have sued Cabot, claiming the water was
contaminated by the gas well drilling that employed hydraulic
fracturing or "fracking," which pumps millions of gallons of
water, sand and chemicals more than a mile underground to crack
the shale and release the gas.
Cabot has denied causing the contamination and contends that many
water wells in the area contained methane before Marcellus Shale
gas drilling began in the area, and that the well water in the
area meets drinking water standards.
A statement released by George Stark, Cabot director of external
affairs, said the company has sampled more than 2,000 wells in the
area and "looks forward to helping educate the U.S. EPA on the
ground water and geological features of Susquehanna County."
"Cabot believes that the U.S. EPA has a flawed interpretation of
the data and has taken it out of context; this has resulted in an
unwarranted investigation by U.S. EPA regarding water quality,"
Mr. Stark's statement said. "[The] PADEP has extensively
investigated alleged groundwater concerns in the Dimock area and
concluded, using sound science, that it was safe."
A state investigation had found that 18 water wells in Dimock were
contaminated following the start of Marcellus Shale gas drilling
in Susquehanna County in 2008, and the DEP cited and fined Cabot
for faulty well construction that allowed methane to migrate into
drinking water supplies.
Ms. Gresh said DEP's enforcement action against Cabot a year ago
recognized the water contamination and established a fund for
homeowners to have a water treatment system installed that could
"provide water that meets and exceeds safe drinking water
standards."
But Mr. Sautner said Cabot already tried that solution in 2008,
installing a filtration system in his home that didn't work.
"In October 2009 DEP took it off line because it wasn't doing the
job," he said. "We've been living off a water buffalo ever since
and I want to tell you it's not a good way to live."
Don Hopey: dhopey@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1983.