Drilling Scrutiny Spurs Battle
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
6 March 2012
By Associated Press
DIMOCK -- Tugging on rubber gloves, a laboratory worker kneels
before a gushing spigot behind Kim Grosso's house and positions an
empty bottle under the clear, cold stream. The process is repeated
dozens of times as bottles are filled, marked and packed into
coolers.
After extensive testing, Grosso and dozens of her neighbors will
know this week what might be lurking in their well water as
federal regulators investigate claims of contamination in the
midst of one of the nation's most productive natural gas fields.
More than three years into the gas-drilling boom that's produced
thousands of new wells, the Environmental Protection Agency and
the state of Pennsylvania are tussling over regulation of the
Marcellus shale, the vast underground rock formation that holds
trillions of cubic feet of gas.
The state says EPA is meddling. EPA says it is doing its job.
Grosso, who lives near a pair of gas wells drilled in 2008, told
federal officials her water became discolored a few months ago,
with an intermittent foul odor and taste. Her dog and cats refused
to drink it. While there's no indication the problems are related
to drilling, she hopes the testing will provide answers.
"If there is something wrong with the water, who is responsible?"
she asked. "Who's going to fix it, and what does it do to the
value of the property?"
Federal regulators are ramping up their oversight of the Marcellus
with dual investigations in the Northeastern and Southwestern
corners of Pennsylvania. EPA is sampling water around Pennsylvania
for its national study of the potential environmental and public
health impacts of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the technique
that blasts a cocktail of sand, water and chemicals deep
underground to stimulate oil and gas production in shale
formations like the Marcellus. Fracking allows drillers to reach
previously inaccessible gas reserves, but it produces huge volumes
of polluted wastewater, and environmentalists say it can taint
groundwater. Energy companies deny it.
The heightened federal scrutiny rankles the industry and
politicians in the state capital, where the administration of
pro-drilling Gov. Tom Corbett insists that Pennsylvania regulators
are best suited to oversee the gas industry. The complaints echo
those in Texas and in Wyoming, where EPA's preliminary finding
that fracking chemicals contaminated water supplies is forcefully
disputed by state officials and energy executives.
Caught in the middle of the state-federal regulatory dispute are
residents who don't know whether their water is safe to drink.
EPA is charged by law with protecting and ensuring the safety of
the nation's drinking water, but it has largely allowed the states
to take the lead on rules and enforcement as energy companies
drilled and fracked tens of thousands of new wells in recent
years.
In Pennsylvania, that began to change last spring after The
Associated Press and other news organizations reported that huge
volumes of partially treated wastewater were being discharged into
rivers and streams that supply drinking water. EPA asked the state
to boost its monitoring of fracking wastewater from gas wells, and
the state declared a voluntary moratorium for drillers that led to
significant reductions of Marcellus waste. Yet a loophole in the
policy allows operators of many older oil and gas wells to
continue discharging significant amounts of wastewater into
treatment plants, and thus, into rivers.
The state's top environmental regulator, Michael Krancer, says
Pennsylvania doesn't need federal intervention to help it protect
the environment. He told Congress last fall that Pennsylvania has
taken the lead on regulations for the burgeoning gas industry.
"There's no question that EPA is overstepping," said Katherine
Gresh, Krancer's spokeswoman. "DEP regulates these facilities and
always has, and EPA has never before shown this degree of
involvement."
The American Petroleum Institute urged the Obama administration
last week to rein in the 10 agencies it says are either reviewing,
studying or proposing regulation of fracking.
"The fact is that there is a strong state regulatory system in
place, and adding potentially redundant and duplicative federal
regulation would be unnecessary, costly, and could stifle
investment," API Vice President Kyle Isakower said in a statement.
EPA says public health is its key focus and insists it is guided
by sound science and the law.
"We have been clear that if we see an immediate threat to public
health, we will not hesitate to take steps under the law to
protect Americans whose health may be at risk," said Terri White,
an EPA spokeswoman in Philadelphia.
The EPA investigations are being conducted amid reports of
possibly drilling-related contamination in several Pennsylvania
communities.
In recent years, methane migrating from drill sites into private
water supplies has forced scores of residents to stop using their
wells and rely on deliveries of fresh water. Some residents
complain the state agency has failed to hold drillers to account.
In heavily drilled Washington County, near the West Virginia
border, EPA staff are inspecting well pads and natural gas
compressor stations for compliance with water- and air-quality
laws. In Dimock, a village about 20 miles south of the New York
state line, EPA stepped in after a gas driller won the state's
permission to halt fresh water deliveries to about a dozen
residents whose wells were tainted with methane and, the residents
say, heavy metals, organic compounds and drilling chemicals.
Dimock holds the distinction of being Pennsylvania's top
gas-producing town, yielding enough gas in six months to supply
400,000 U.S. homes for a year. Some residents contend their water
wells were irreversibly contaminated after Houston-based Cabot Oil
& Gas Corp. drilled faulty gas wells that leaked methane into
the aquifer -- and spilled thousands of gallons of fracking fluids
that residents suspect leached into the groundwater.
Cabot first acknowledged, then denied responsibility for the
methane it now contends is naturally occurring. It also asserts
that years of sampling data show the water is safe to drink.
The EPA looked at the same test results and arrived at a different
conclusion.
The well water samples "led us to conclude that there were health
concerns that required action," White said. EPA said its tests
showed alarming levels of manganese and cancer-causing arsenic and
that Cabot's own tests found minute concentrations of organic
compounds and synthetic chemicals, suggesting the influence of gas
drilling.
Cabot says its drilling operations had nothing to do with any
chemicals that have turned up in the water. It points to a Duke
University study last year that found no evidence of contamination
from fracking.
Yet the company racks up state violations at a far higher rate
than its competitors in the Marcellus -- 248 violations at its
wells in Dimock alone since late 2007 -- most recently last month,
when the company was flagged for improper storage, transport or
disposal of residual waste. State regulators levied more than $1.1
million in fines and penalties against the company between 2008
and 2010. And it is still banned from drilling any new wells in a
9-square-mile area of Dimock.
While EPA agreed last month to deliver water to four homes on
Carter Road, the agency said the tests did not justify supplying
water to several other residents who had been getting their water
from Cabot and who have filed suit against the company.
The plaintiffs still don't trust their wells, instead relying on
water from the nearby Montrose municipal supply.
Twice a day, six days a week, Carter Road resident Ray Kemble
drives about eight miles to a hydrant in Montrose, fills a
550-gallon tank strapped to the back of a donated truck, and
delivers water to as many as five homes -- including his own.
Anti-drilling groups are footing the bill, estimated at $500 per
week.
Kemble said his well water turned brown and became unusable in
2008, shortly after the gas well across the street was drilled and
fracked.
At his home, he filled a large plastic container dubbed a water
buffalo from the tank on the truck.
"Never had a problem before until Cabot came in," Kemble said.