Accidents

WARNING: This post contains snide and snarky comments. Anti-drillers are encouraged to not read this post. Proceed at your own risk.

Sometimes MDN thinks the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is more of a public relations press release-generating agency rather than an agency to protect the environment. They issue a multitude of press releases—every day. But when they find that another 20 wells in Dimock, PA are fine and have not been (never were) chemically contaminated by hydraulic fracturing, not a single public press release on it. Oh it gets reported, but the EPA slips a short message to the government’s “other” PR agency, the Associated Press. And the good ole AP will warp and spin it in just the right way to please the government overlords.

Read More “EPA Says Another 20 Dimock Wells Tested are Fine”

Water test results from the federal Environmental Protection Agency confirm what the Pennsylvania Department of Environment Protection has said all along: Well water in Dimock, PA has not been contaminated by hydraulic fracturing chemicals. The PA DEP investigated claims from some Dimock residents that their water had been contaminated by gas drilling done by Cabot Oil & Gas.

In 2010 the DEP found that Cabot’s drilling had led to methane (natural gas) migration into 19 area water wells—something that Cabot still disputes as the area has been known for decades to contain methane in its water supplies. Methane is harmless to drink, but it is an explosion hazard, so the DEP ordered Cabot to pay the affected homeowners twice the value of their property and install a methane filtration system on each home’s water supply (wells or springs). Eleven of the 19 families affected refused the settlement and decided instead to sue Cabot, holding out for a bigger pay day.

Read More “EPA’s Dimock, PA Water Test Results Show No Contamination”