PA DEP Says Drilling Did NOT Contaminate Water in Franklin Forks
As Paul Harvey used to say, here is “the rest of the story” about the contaminated well water for three homes in Franklin Forks (Susquehanna County), PA… In December 2011, three families complained to the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) that their well water looked and smelled like it was polluted. Since WPX was drilling natural gas wells nearby at the time, and since two of those wells had been cited by the DEP as having substandard well casings, the assumption was the drilling activity was polluting the water wells (see PA DEP Asks WPX to Help Families with Water/Methane Issues for background).
The rest of the story: After a 16-month thorough investigation, the DEP announced yesterday what residents of Susquehanna County already know–the water in Franklin Forks (and indeed most of Susquehanna County) sucks and has sucked for generations. The DEP found, contrary to the bleating of celebrities, that drilling did NOT pollute the Franklin Forks wells. Those wells are polluted from natural causes, the same natural causes that closed a nearby trailer park more than a decade ago (BGD, before gas drilling)…
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In what looks to be like more backpedaling, PA Gov. Tom Corbett told the Pittsburgh Business Times on Friday he now doesn’t expect a final decision on whether Shell will build a new $2 billion ethane cracker plant in Monaca, PA until 2014. Last December he said Shell needed another six months (until the end of June) for lawyers “dotting I’s and crossing T’s” (see