A Pennsylvania Village Is Without Water After Fracking Allegedly Destroyed Its Wells

Business Insider ^ | 01/07/2012 | AP

[SeekAndFind]

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Residents of a northeastern Pennsylvania village where a natural gas driller has been accused of tainting water wells with methane and possibly hazardous chemicals say the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is promising to deliver fresh water.

Homeowners in Dimock Township have been without a reliable supply of clean water since Houston-based driller Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. stopped making daily deliveries more than a month ago.

Three Dimock residents say the EPA told them Friday it's hiring a private contractor to deliver water to their homes about 20 miles south of the New York state line. The EPA says no decision has been made.

Cabot has been blamed for polluting an aquifer but denies responsibility for the contamination.

[SeekAndFind]

See also here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/residents-epa-promises-to-send-fresh-water-to-pa-town-with-tainted-wells/2012/01/06/gIQAYqqpfP_story.html

TITLE:

Residents: EPA promises to send fresh water to Pa. town with tainted wells

[Grunthor]

My water is supplied by a well. I’d be pretty pissed off if someone poisoned it.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I’d almost wonder if the fuel extraction company volunteered to do that (not hugely expensive) and the EPA basically said no, we want this to be a Superfund case with all the obese weight of Uncle Sam on it?

[HiTech RedNeck]

And then you have to wait on an intrusive Uncle Sam to make it right... would not know what’s worse.

[Sacajaweau]

If the wells were never tested for those chemicals etc prior to the fracking than there is nothing to compare the results with/to. It sounds like the water has been tested and it is fine and that there's just an agitator.

Hell, we had all kinds of cr** in our water. We were constantly changing plumbing...in fact, I'm now a pretty good plumber.

[TLEIBY308]

Well drillers in this area have been hitting methane gas for years.

[jonno]

bookmark

[BfloGuy]

This case is much like the woman who claimed that the HPV vaccine caused her daughter's mental retardation. When something bad happens, it's human nature to search for the cause. And if some unusual occurrence happened to coincide with the misfortune, the unusual occurrence is assumed to be at fault.

Fracking may have caused the contamination, but it's by no means certain. And when did the EPA turn into a welfare agency? Oh, never mind. I answered that one myself.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Anybody who also uses a water softener would have had at least rudimentary tests performed on their water to determine what the softener has to deal with, and county code doubtless requires health testing when a well is dug unless, maybe, it’s a very old one grandfathered in.

Anyhow, it’s theoretically possible the company f-ed up the aquifers and then went dancing la la la, but that sounds like an extremely foolish move on their part with Uncle Sam breathing down their necks all the time right or wrong.

[Lion Den Dan]

Rock formations in that country hold all kinds of methane. Some water well drillers will not drill in certain areas due to risk of gas fire. Fracking goes on at incredible depths below any water structures and the bore holes are so sealed that cross contamination is, for all practical purposes, impossible.

[waynesa98]

I’m calling BS commie spin on this one. there has been exactly 1 contamination event from fracking(a holding pool issue) The vid w/homeowners lighting taps on fire was proven to not be related to fracking. Fracking fluids are basically salad dressing with ultra fine sand.

[reefdiver]

Damn straight, this has to be regulated, or it’s not going to fly. No one wants this BS if they can’t post the bonding to cover the losses they should not be on any job.
This is going to be a mess, the no drill crowd will be all over the news on this, where is the guy who drilled ?

[Abby4116]

Residents were furious when the EPA told them in late November that sampling data reviewed by the agency did not show that their well water posed an “immediate health threat.” EPA officials returned to Dimock last week to reopen the probe and said they may begin their own sampling of residents’ water.

I didn't see that there IS a problem with the water/wells. It sounds like a "suggestion" that there "may" be.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Welfare agency? This sounds a lot like the modus operandi of the Superfund system which fixes alleged problems then goes and sues the alleged offender for the cost. Which situation Rats would have been drooling to have go down at a fracking site. They will probably kill this contractor or make him say uncle with court costs even if the case evidence itself is dubious. Every fracker from coast to coast would be wise to get behind this guy.

[cripplecreek]

In 1911 Michigan's first commercial natural gas well began production. The tabulation of "Reported Discoveries of Gas in Michigan" in the Geological Survey Bulletins is longer than the oil well list and included 116 wells. These were mostly located in ­southeastern Michigan, including Macomb, Oakland, St. Clair and Wayne counties as well as in Manistee County in western Michigan. Many of the early natural gas discoveries were most likely made not as a result of a search for oil or natural gas but were instead test wells drilled for salt or for fresh water. Strong flows of gas from water wells are not unusual in southeastern Michigan and sometimes the shallower rims of the basin can still provide a surprise. In the mid 1980s holes drilled to provide footings for a highway overpass in St. Clair County "blew out" with natural gas. The flow of gas from these early wells was usually quite small. The largest volume of natural gas was in St. Clair County were wells supplied "several families" in one case, "pumps, drills and two houses" in another case and "one house" in a number of instances.

Michigan Oil and Natural Gas Exploration Before 1925

[HiTech RedNeck]

Don’t be so cock certain it isn’t regulated, in a most byzantine manner however. It might be a situation where the company wanted to do the neighborly thing in the face of dubious but theoretically possible well damage, and the EPA itself told them take a hike but see you in court. I really expect nothing less from an Obama administration.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I wonder if lemons can’t be made out of such lemonade situations. If a water well produces methane, then put a separator in the well and bottle up the methane. And/or supply natural gas to yourself and/or neighbors. And/or sink community wells for that purpose.

[leapfrog0202]

[HiTech RedNeck]

Duh! I mean lemonade made of such lemon situations of course. The Rats would want to turn the lemonade back into lemons.