EPA WATER TEST RESULTS PROVE FRACKING CONTAMINATION IN DIMOCK

March 20, 2012 | by Zack Malitz
In Press, Water For Dimock

Contact:

Josh Fox, Gasland (Sommer Hixson): 646.259.4138

Ana Tinsly, Water Defense: 646.331.4767

EPA Water Test Results Prove Fracking Contamination in Dimock

Gasland Director, Water Defense call results “a vindication” of residents’ complaints, Call on EPA to Compel PA to Action and Provide Replacement Water

Gasland Director Josh Fox and Water Defense today said that the Environmental Protection Agency’s preliminary water test results for Dimock, PA vindicated long-standing allegations from residents that their water was contaminated from nearby gas drilling. Despite initial pronouncements from EPA Region 3 that the water poses no immediate health threat, the test results reveal the water is anything but safe, with explosive levels of methane, heavy metals, and hazardous chemicals associated with gas drilling. Gasland and Water Defense commended the EPA for undertaking the tests, and called on EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to compel the state of Pennsylvania to provide long-term water relief for the affected residents.

“The science in this case triumphs over the spin. After a media rollercoaster ride the EPA test show conclusively that Dimock families’ water wells are contaminated with high and explosive levels of methane. The families are vindicated and their calls for a permanent water line should be heeded by US EPA,” said Josh Fox, Director of Gasland. “I’ve been working with these families for three years now. Their resilience is remarkable and I am still moved and impressed by their endurance and dignity.”

"The building that houses my water well has a built in bomb shelter," said resident Sheila Ely, commenting on the explosive levels of methane in her well water that could blow up her house if her water well was reconnected.

“For three years, the families of Carter Road have had to endure not only dangerous, explosive conditions, but slander and attacks from a powerful industry dedicated to silencing its critics and concealing the truth about its practices,” Claire Sandberg, Executive Director of Water Defense. “Administrator Jackson affirmed her commitment to protecting public health when she announced the EPA would undertake this water testing. Now that the facts are in, it is incumbent on her to take action and compel the state of Pennsylvania to provide long-term replacement water for the affected families.”

The Fracking Industry Buys Congress - But for how much?

Environmental News Service
Blue Ridge Press
By Sharon Guynup

WASHINGTON, DC, February 16, 2012 (ENS) - A natural gas drilling rush is on in rural North Dakota. And with it, residents are reporting growing numbers of respiratory ailments, skin lesions, blood oozing from eyes, and the deaths of livestock and pets.

Elsewhere, residents of Texas, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Wyoming and other states who thought they'd hit the lottery by signing natural gas drilling leases have watched their drinking water turn noxious: slick, brown, foamy, flammable.

In December, for the first time, federal regulators scientifically linked hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to the contamination of an aquifer, refuting repeated industry claims that the practice does not pollute drinking water.

It happened in the rural ranching community of Pavillion, Wyoming, an area riddled with 162 natural gas wells dug between 1990 and 2006. Despite a decade of complaints from residents that their reeking water was undrinkable - and that many suffered from nerve damage, asthma, heart trouble and other health problems - state officials did nothing.

Finally the EPA stepped in, launching a three-year study running from 2008 to 2011.

In its report, the EPA identified numerous fracking chemicals in Pavillion's water. Cancer-causing benzene was found at 50 times safe levels, along with other hazardous chemicals, methane, diesel fuel, and toxic metals - in both groundwater and deep wells.


Continue reading...   Just how much money is spent on oil and gas lobbying?