Water Wells

Federal regulators said Thursday they will deliver drinking water to four households near natural gas wells in the embattled town of Dimock, casting doubt on Pennsylvania's decision to allow a Marcellus Shale operator to halt deliveries in December. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also said it will conduct its own water sampling at 61 homes in the rural Susquehanna County township "to further assess whether any residents are being exposed to hazardous substances that cause health concerns.

Families in a northeastern Pennsylvania village with tainted water wells will have to procure their own water for the first time in nearly three years as a natural gas driller blamed for polluting the aquifer moves ahead with its plan to stop paying for daily deliveries. Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. ended delivery of bulk and bottled water to 11 families in Dimock on Wednesday. Cabot asserts Dimock's water is safe to drink and won permission from state environmental regulators last month to stop paying for water for the residents.

Pennsylvania's experience with shale-gas drilling has given the Delaware River Basin Commission plenty of reason to take a long and careful look before letting the rigs set up shop in the region's most important watershed. Gas wells bring up millions of gallons of water that carries high levels of radioactivity. Air pollution builds up as drilling rigs and diesel trucks and huge gas-pumping compressors proliferate. Pipelines spread across the land, even where landowners don't want them to cross.

MUNCY, Pa. - State environmental officials are investigating new instances of methane contamination in residential water wells and a northern Pennsylvania stream near a Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling operation. The Department of Environmental Protection found the flammable gas in seven water wells in Lycoming County and gas bubbling into nearby Little Muncy Creek. That prompted XTO Energy Inc., a subsidiary of ExxonMobil Corp., to stop operations in the county and provide the well owners with bottled water.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection on Tuesday fined Chesapeake Energy Corp. $1.1 million for violations related to natural gas drilling activities, the largest penalty ever against a Marcellus Shale operator. Under a consent order, Chesapeake will pay $900,000 for contaminating private water supplies in Bradford County. Under a second agreement, Chesapeake will pay $188,000 for a Feb. 23 tank fire at its drilling site in Avella, Washington County. Chesapeake is the largest operator working in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale, a gas-rich formation that has triggered a bonanza of drilling activity in the last three years.

By Rob Jackson and Avner Vengosh 'Would you drink the water?" Somebody asked us that question after hearing about our team's study showing high levels of methane in well water near natural-gas drilling sites. Released on Monday, our analysis will surely fuel the debate over whether the United States should pursue natural gas more vigorously as an alternative to oil and coal, whose unfortunate side effects range from Middle Eastern instability to global warming. Proponents of natural gas highlight its domestic abundance and other advantages.

A Duke University study has found that methane levels in private water wells are, on average, 17 times higher when within 1,000 yards of a natural gas drilling site. Of 60 wells that the researchers tested for methane in northeastern Pennsylvania and New York, they found the gas in 85 percent. When they fingerprinted the methane - comparing the chemistry of the methane in the wells with that from natural gas wells in the region - "the signatures matched," said Robert Jackson, a professor at Duke and a study author.

A state agency approved $12 million in financing Tuesday to extend municipal water service to 18 rural Susquehanna County residents whose wells, regulators say, were contaminated by Marcellus Shale natural-gas drilling. The Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority board (Pennvest) voted in Harrisburg to approve the controversial project over the objections of Cabot Oil & Gas Co., the gas operator the state Department of Environmental Protection says will have to pay for the water main.

The editorial "Hold drillers accountable" (Oct. 7) took a predictable - and wrongheaded - position on a recent announcement made by Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger. For nearly a year, Cabot had been working diligently with DEP to address Carter Road water issues. Hanger told Cabot that the "final solution" to restoring clean water would be installing methane separator systems on the affected water wells. While Cabot does not agree that our activities caused the alleged problems with the well water of certain residents in Dimock Township, we provided potable water for an extended period of time, purchased methane separators, and offered to install them on all water wells deemed by DEP to have been "affected.

More than the drinking water has become poisonous in Susquehanna County. In a sharp rebuke of one of the state's biggest Marcellus Shale gas drillers, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection on Thursday ordered an $11.8 million pipeline built to deliver water to 18 rural residences in Dimock Township whose household wells are contaminated by natural gas. In response, Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., the Texas driller whose wells the state blames for the pollution, denounced the decision as "unfounded, irrational, and capricious" and accused DEP Secretary John Hanger of "obvious political pandering.