Tests: Drilling Town’s Water Still Fouled in PA
Morgantown Dominion Post
16 October 2011
Associated Press
DIMOCK, Pa. —Three years after residents first noticed something
wrong with their drinking-water wells, tanker trucks still rumble
daily through this rural northeastern Pennsylvania village where
methane gas courses through the aquifer and homeowners can light
their water on fire.
One of the trucks stops at Ron and Jean Carter’s home and refills
a 550-gallon plastic “water buffalo” container that supplies the
couple with water for bathing, cleaning clothes and washing
dishes. A loud hissing noise emanates from the vent stack that was
connected to the Carters’ water well to prevent an explosion — an
indication, they say, the well is still laced with dangerous
levels of methane.
Recent testing confirms that gas continues to lurk in Dimock’s
aquifer.
“We’re very tired of it,” said Jean Carter, 72 — Tired of the
buffalo in their yard, tired of worrying about the groundwater
under their house, and tired of the fight that has consumed Dimock
every day since the fall of 2008.
Like everyone else here, the Carters are eager to turn the page on
the most highly publicized case of methane contamination to emerge
from the early days of Pennsylvania’s naturalgas drilling boom.
Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., the Houston-based energy firm held
responsible and fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for
polluting the groundwater, is just as anxious to resume drilling
in a 9-square-mile area of Dimock that has been placed offlimits
to the company until it repairs the damage.
State regulators blame faulty gas wells drilled by Cabot for
leaking methane into Dimock’s groundwater. It was the first
serious case of methane migration connected to Pennsylvania’s
3-year-old drilling boom, raising fears of potential environmental
harm throughout the giant Marcellus Shale gas field. Drilling
critics point to Dimock as a prime example of what can and does go
wrong.
Methane from gasdrilling operations has since been reported in the
water supplies of several other Pennsylvania communities, forcing
residents to stop using their wells and live off water buffaloes
and bottled water. Though gas companies often deny responsibility
for the pollution, the state has imposed more stringent
well-construction standards designed to prevent stray gas from
polluting groundwater.
Dimock’s long quest for clean water may finally be reaching a
critical stage.
After a series of false starts, Cabot, one of the largest drillers
in the Marcellus, said it has met the state’s Oct. 17 deadline to
restore or replace Dimock’s water supply, installing treatment
systems in some houses that have removed the methane.
Residents who have filed suit against Cabot disagree, saying their
water is still tainted and unusable. Another homeowner claims the
$30,000 treatment system that Cabot put in failed to work.