Agencies Differ on Testing
DEP told woman health department examines water
Morgantown Dominion Post
19 May 2011
By Michelle Wolford
KINGWOOD — Joyce Shahan has seen water trouble before and she’s not
anxious to see it again. So the Fellowsville resident, a retired
postmaster, plans to have her water tested before drilling begins on a
neighbor’s land.
“There’s a gas well going in about a half-mile away,” she said.
Recently, she learned the company is about to begin “setting off
charges” for that well.
The Shahans own 57 acres — “my husband’s home place” — with mineral
rights on Marquess Road.
She said she is concerned about the impact Marcellus shale drilling
will have on the farm’s drinking water, and she has seen water problems
before.
The land is near the Whitetail mine. The mine’s owners are still
embroiled in a lawsuit by local residents who lost their wells when the
mine went in.
“We kept our water monitored then,” Shahan said, for fear blasting
would destroy the stream.
A neighbor lost his water supply when blasting from the mine took the
bottom out of his well.
A man who the mines hired “came out every month or so” to test the
water in the area.
A report arrived about a week later, she said.
Shahan said she read a story in The Dominion Post this week about water
testing, and called the state Department of Environmental Protection
(DEP).
The article was about a Preston County Commission meeting at which
county Health Department administrator Denise Knoebel explained that
her department does not do water testing associated with Marcellus
shale drilling.
Concerns over bacteria are for the health department, she said;
concerns over contamination from drilling are not.
She gave the names of two labs that can help with testing at a cost,
and said water testing related to drilling was DEP’s realm.
The health department has had about 16 calls about water testing over
the past month.
Shahan said she called the state DEP and was told that water testing is
up to health departments.
Drillers have responsibilities to some landowners before drilling
begins, according to Kathy Cosco, DEP spokeswoman.
“If a water well is determined to have been contaminated by a drilling
operation, the company is required to replace the water supply for the
well owner,” she said.
“All well owners within 1,000 feet of a well are to be contacted by the
company and offered to have their well tested before the project begins
at the company’s expense,” Cosco said. “It is advised that owners take
advantage of that offer so that any issues that arise later can be
addressed more easily.”
And if you don’t live within 1,000 feet of a well?
“There’s really nothing the state can do to help them,” Cosco said.
“But there’s nothing to stop them from asking the company. A lot of
them are trying to be decent corporate citizens and may step up to do
that.”
If landowners think their water is “tainted or contaminated by oil or
gas activity,” Cosco said, they can call the DEP.
The DEP staff will either collect a water sample or ask the company
that is drilling to do it.