1/9/2024 0 Comments All fracked upThe extent of these impacts remains unknown. Meanwhile, it’s one of only two states without regulations for private-well construction.įracking took hold here years before its potential health impacts were considered. It also has the second-highest number of private water wells, behind Michigan, with about 3.5 million users. Some who have the energy and resources are seeking compensation in court, while others accept endless supplies of bottled water or filtration systems without knowing when or if their well water or property values will return to what they once were.Īfter Texas, Pennsylvania produces the most natural gas in the United States. In each of the dozen households interviewed for this story that received “positive determination” letters from the state, people were still dealing with the burdens of water contamination. If the past is any guide, the family may drink the malodorous water for months before finding out whether it is contaminated and whether the gas-drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, that swept the Marcellus a decade ago had anything to do with it.Įven if the DEP determines that there is a connection, relief may prove unsatisfying or slow to come. In 2013, someone a few miles away complained of drinking water that “feels slimy and causes skin to break out.” Last October, a Westmoreland County father of five wanted to know whether his water was safe to drink - it had begun staining the bathtub and “didn’t smell like normal water should smell like.” He’s still waiting for the results of the DEP investigation. In 2011, a Butler County resident reported that her previously crystal-clear water had turned “brown and rusty looking” with a “terrible odor.” Here's HowĬomplaints filed with the DEP reveal people’s fear and frustration. To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. The state’s often plodding response has left hundreds of rural Pennsylvanians in a sort of forced drought, scrambling to pay for water deliveries, seek remedies in court, take out second mortgages, or even abandon their homes. More than half took longer than the agency’s target of 45 days to resolve. Responding to a public-records request by the Center for Public Integrity, the Department of Environmental Protection, or DEP, provided data on 1,840 complaints lodged since 2010. While regulators try to catch up to natural gas exploration, some residents of the state have gone months, even years, without access to clean water at their homes. Another 500 or so cases, including the Eakins’, are open. Officials found ties to the drilling industry in 279. Since 2007, at least 2,800 water-related complaints have been investigated by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Oil and Gas Program. Delivered water is stored in the tank behind them. Jesse and Shirley Eakin stand by the water well they no longer use at their home in Avella, Pa. Meanwhile, the Eakins drink donated bottled water and in late 2014 began paying for deliveries of city water to avoid showering in contaminants such as lead and manganese. The results of those tests will dictate whether a gas exploration and production company is held responsible for providing them with a clean supply. Today, the state is still testing their water. Like thousands of others who live in the natural gas-rich Marcellus Shale, however, they learned their hopes were misplaced. ![]() The Eakins told the state environmental agency about their bad water nearly seven years ago and hoped for a quick resolution. It carries sand that clogs faucets in the home Eakin shares with his wife, Shirley, here in southwestern Pennsylvania. It gives off a strange odor and bears a yellow tint. That maxim has been tested by a low-grade but persistent threat far different than the kind Eakin encountered in Korea: well water that’s too dangerous to drink. Sixty years after his service in the Army, Jesse Eakin still completes his outfits with a pin that bears a lesson from the Korean War: Never Impossible.
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