Feds to Expand Dimock, Pa. Water Investigation

EPA to ship water to township families

Binghamton NY  PressConnects.com
19 January 2012
By Steve Reilly

DIMOCK, Pa. -- In an apparent rebuke of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's handling of the issue, the federal government announced Thursday it is expanding its investigation into gas drilling-related public health concerns in Susquehanna County.

Starting Friday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will arrange for shipments of fresh water to four Dimock Township families with contaminated water wells, and in the coming weeks will conduct testing at approximately 61 water wells in the community.

Since contamination concerns emerged in 2008, the DEP has played the lead role in trying to settle the fray between Cabot Oil & Gas and a group of landowners who have said the company's nearby drilling and hydraulic fracturing operations destroyed the water.

Now, it appears, the federal government is taking the lead.

The EPA indicated in a statement issued Thursday that the agency decided to conduct the new testing based on its review of data supplied by residents, Cabot and DEP.

The sampling is contingent on homeowners granting EPA access to their properties, and results will be available within about five weeks following the sampling, the agency said.

"We believe that the information provided to us by the residents deserves further review, and conducting our own sampling will help us fill information gaps," EPA Regional Administrator Shawn M. Garvin said in a statement. "Our actions will be based on the science and the law and we will work to help get a more complete picture of water quality for these homes in Dimock."

Dimock landowner Craig Sautner, whose family is among the four to receive water shipments starting Friday, said the EPA's decision raises questions about the DEP's work.

"It makes you wonder: How come the EPA can find something in the data but the DEP couldn't?" Sautner said. "Was somebody overlooking something or they didn't want to say something? I really don't know."

While Cabot has maintained the contaminants are naturally occurring, an EPA memo released along with the announcement Thursday indicates EPA investigators may believe otherwise.

"A number of home wells in the Dimock area contain hazardous substances, some of which are not naturally found in the environment," states the memo, which was dated and signed by a top EPA official Thursday. "Inorganic hazardous substances are present in four home wells at levels that present a public health concern."

A Cabot spokesman could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Binghamton Mayor Matthew T. Ryan, who spearheaded efforts to have nonprofit agencies pay for at least nine shipments of City of Binghamton water to Dimock families -- and whose offer of direct aid to Dimock was shouted down by Dimock residents at a December town hall meeting -- said he was heartened by Thursday's announcement.

"I just hope that EPA works swiftly to deal with all the other families," Ryan said. "I understand they're moving rapidly to try to assess the other situations and test data that's available is being analyzed, and I hope that the other people get water as well very soon."

Problems emerged in Dimock Township soon after Cabot began drilling for natural gas in 2008, with the explosion of a concrete slab at a Dimock home on Jan. 1, 2009, triggering a DEP investigation.

As indications emerged 18 water wells were affected by contamination issues, Pennsylvania officials initially decided to order Cabot to pay for an $11.8 million municipal water line from Montrose to Dimock.

Those plans were eventually jettisoned in favor of less expensive options.

In November 2009, the DEP signed a consent agreement with Cabot ordering the company to provide fresh water deliveries to 18 affected families and install methane mitigation systems in their homes. A number of families refused the methane mitigation systems and began a federal lawsuit against Cabot.

While the original consent agreement required Cabot to provide water shipments until testing indicated the water problems had been resolved, a revised agreement signed in 2010 removed that stipulation.

As a result, on Nov. 30, the DEP allowed Cabot to stop shipping water to the affected families.

Federal documents released

Along with its announcement, the EPA released a trove of documents Thursday that shed light on its decision to broaden its investigation.

» A Dec. 28, 2011, document connected to a federal public health review indicates the EPA became involved in Dimock in November 2011, after residents requested help interpreting testing data.

According to the document, the EPA's subsequent home visits and a data review led to concerns about the adequacy of the methane removal systems; the presence of other contaminants besides methane; and potential contamination of untested homes.

» A Jan. 13 memo from an EPA toxicologist who reviewed data from eight private water wells states that four of those wells contain contaminants including sodium, manganese and arsenic at levels "representing a public health concern."

» A Jan. 19 EPA memo states that a "chronic health risk" exists for most of the wells covered by the original agreement between Cabot and the DEP. The memo indicates EPA's work in Dimock will cost an estimated $208,912.