EPA agrees to test well water for gas-drilling contamination
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced this afternoon it will begin testing well water supplies at 60 homes in Dimock, in Susquehanna County, where residents say Marcellus Shale gas drilling operations have contaminated water supplies with methane and other pollutants.
The EPA also said that start delivering water to four homes on Friday where the well water is undrinkable. Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. stopped supplying the residents with water on Nov. 30, after the state Department of Environmental Protection ruled that the gas company had met its obligations under a 2010 consent agreement.
The residents say their aquifer is still unusable. About a dozen have sued Cabot, claiming the water was contaminated by company well drilling that employed hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," which pumps millions of gallons of fluid, 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.
According to the findings of a state investigation, 18 water wells in Dimock were contaminated following the start of Marcellus Shale gas drilling in Susquehanna County in 2008.
The EPA has taken weeks to decide what to do in Dimock, or whether to do anything.
First Published January 19, 2012 12:00 am
