Back in July the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP) admitted that oil and gas operations damaged water supplies
209 times since end of 2007.
Finally – six years into the Marcellus gas boom – DEP has released details of 243 cases in which oil and gas companies were found to have
contaminated private drinking water wells. This past week the agency posted
online links to the documents. Names and identifying information has been
redacted, but you can read the documents here.
Some of these cases date back to 2008 but, when you look at
the dates, DEP never got around to responding to them until months - or in some cases - years later. The cases include some where a single drilling operation affected multiple
water wells.
Problems listed in the documents include: spills (waste
fluids and other pollutants); high levels of methane gas; ethane; heavy metals;
and wells that went dry or were otherwise undrinkable. These documents cover
drilling-related water well problems in 22 counties, but most of the cases come
from Bradford, Susquehanna, Tioga, and Lycoming counties.
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