A story has been unfolding in Dimock, Pennsylvania, since January 1 of this year, when, according to the Times-Tribune of Scranton, PA, "an explosion blew apart the 8-foot-wide cement slab covering a water well Thursday night in the heart of the Susquehanna County region where a natural gas operator is exploring for gas in the Marcellus Shale."  The homeowner, Norma Fiorentino, was quoted in the article as stating:  “We’re all poor people around here. We thought this was going to be great for us,” she said, referring to the extensive gas development that has been concentrated in her town. “But we didn’t expect explosions.”

It's been an interesting process to watch, as first the drilling company denied that their activity was likely to have been the cause, and then as gas was found in the water well, and then as testing for the source and nature of the gas proceeded.  Finally, on Friday, 1/30, came this headline in the Press and Sun Bulletin (Binghamton, NY)

"DEP zeros in on gas tainting water: Tests show source is a formation tapped for energy"

Excerpts from the article follow (in bold):

"Natural gas invading at least nine water wells in Dimock Township has been tracked to the Marcellus Shale or a similar formation being tapped by drilling crews working in the area.

"In an effort to fix the problem, regulators from the state Department of Environmental Protection have asked Cabot Oil & Gas to vent its natural gas production wells around the Carter Road area, just south of Montrose, said Mark Carmon, a spokesman for the agency. The intention is to give the gas seeping in the ground and collecting in water supplies a means to escape."

Unfortunately, there are no good choices. Venting the gas wells only makes water-well pollution into an air pollution/greenhouse gas problem. It's too bad that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection didn’t study this risky technology before they tested it on Dimock Township. Will the NYS DEC permit this process, which has polluted water-wells across the country? 
http://un-naturalgas.org/news_reports.htm

"Geologists were at a loss to explain how gas trapped in bedrock thousands of feet down could migrate into shallow aquifers without the drilling.

"'This whole thing is very perplexing,' said Gary Lash, a geology professor at SUNY-Fredonia."

In fact, there's nothing perplexing about it.  If Mr Lash wasn’t so busy promoting the hydraulic fracturing of the Marcellus Shale, and constantly up-ticking his estimates of how much fuel it can contribute to America’s ever-growing energy budget, he might have the time to engage all the evidence of its inherent dangers. He might take a look at http://www.un-naturalgas.org/USGS-Contamination%20in%20fractured%20rock%20aquifers-1.pdf

The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation's Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DSGEIS) was scheduled to be completed and released at the end of January.

According to law, it is supposed to address the concerns expressed in the public comments received during the comment period on the draft scope of the DSGEIS (the comment period that ended 12/15/08). 

Despite the truly impressive participation by the citizens of NYS in the comment period and the fact that the people spoke energetically, in almost one voice, and showed that they were far better-informed about high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HD/HVHF) in tight shales than geologists such as Mr Lash - or simply were far less biased -  the DSGEIS is expected to stick to the DECs weary refrain that there's a long history of gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing in NYS (true but misleading, since there has never been HD/HVHF here before), that the agency has a good track record of effectively regulating the industry (false - click here) and that DEC has all the regulatory processes in place to safely permit HD/HVHF in tight shales - also false.

DEC:  YOU HAVEN'T BEEN LISTENING TO US -
ARE YOU LISTENING TO PENNSYLVANIA?

For full article from the Friday, January 30, Press & Sun Bulletin article, click here:
http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20090130/NEWS01/901300332

For full article from the Saturday, January 3, Times-Tribune article, click here:
http://www.thetimes-tribune.com

 

Norma Fiorentino and her son Shawn Fiorentino survey the damage of an explosion in the front yard of her home in Dimock. The explosion, which  occurred on the night of January 1, blew apart a cement slab covering Mrs. Fiorentino's water well.   photo: Butch Comegys / Times-Tribune

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