EPA: Water Quality OK in Pa. Gas Drilling Town
Contamination in Dimock wells within safe levels, it says
Associated Press
15 March 2012
By Michael Rubinkam
SCRANTON, Pa. -- Federal environmental regulators said Thursday
that well water testing at 11 homes in a northeastern Pennsylvania
village where a gas driller was accused of polluting the aquifer
failed to show elevated levels of contamination.
The Environmental Protection Agency, which is sampling well water
at dozens of homes in Dimock, Susquehanna County, said initial
test results "did not show levels of contamination that could
present a health concern."
Dimock has been at the center of a fierce debate over the
environmental and public health impacts of Pennsylvania's
Marcellus Shale drilling industry.
State environmental regulators had previously determined that
Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. contaminated the aquifer
underneath homes along Carter Road in Dimock with explosive levels
of methane gas. Residents who are suing Cabot assert their water
is also polluted with drilling chemicals. Many other residents of
Dimock say that the water is clean and that the plaintiffs are
exaggerating problems with their wells to help their lawsuit.
The federal environmental agency began testing the water in
January, more than a month after the state Department of
Environmental Protection allowed Cabot to stop delivering
replacement water to about a dozen families.
The EPA said water samples from six of the 11 homes for which it
received initial test results showed sodium, methane, chromium or
bacteria, but at levels that did not exceed primary or secondary
drinking water standards. Arsenic was found in the well water of
two homes, but at levels that did not present a health hazard,
regulators said.
EPA has been delivering fresh water to three of the 11 homes,
where it said previous test results had showed alarming levels of
contamination. EPA said it will continue supplying water to the
homes "while we perform additional sampling to ensure that the
drinking water quality at these homes remains consistent and
acceptable for use over time."
Dimock resident Scott Ely, who is among the plaintiffs suing
Cabot, disputed the EPA interpretation of his test results. He
said the results showed a range of contaminants at unsafe levels,
including sodium and arsenic.
"We've had hundreds of tests done out here, and we've had so many
different scientists say you have bad water here, there's not a
doubt about it. And yet when the state and feds test our water,
they say we can drink it," said Ely, who plans to meet with the
EPA to review the test results. "Absolutely not."
Cabot said in a statement that it is pleased by the EPA test
results and that it is "steadfastly committed to environmental
stewardship, collaboration with state regulators, and compliance
with all applicable federal, state and local laws."
The EPA is awaiting test results from more homes. Meanwhile,
emails obtained by The Associated Press show that borough council
members from nearby Montrose opposed an arrangement by which some
Dimock residents have been using water drawn from Montrose's
municipal supply. In one email, Councilman Sean Granahan wrote to
other council members that Dimock residents were "looking to
pirate our water and pocket the proceeds from their royalties and
settlements."
The email was sent Feb. 7, one day after council members abruptly
walked out on a meeting where two Dimock residents and two
anti-drilling activists showed up to observe and record the
council's discussion of the privately owned hydrant. Granahan did
not immediately return a phone message left by the AP on Thursday.