Fracking Pollution: Wells Found Contaminated Near Bradford County, Pennsylvania Natural Gas Blowout

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Testing conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency revealed contamination in three private water wells located near an April blowout at a natural gas drilling site.

The EPA took water samples from seven private water wells near the Chesapeake Energy Corp. drilling site outside Canton in northeastern Pennsylvania's Bradford County, agency spokesman Roy Seneca said Friday.

Seneca declined to reveal the nature of the contamination, but said the agency has not drawn any conclusion about its cause. The EPA will sample the wells again in July.

Chesapeake has said a piece of equipment failed while its well in LeRoy Township was being hydraulically fractured, or fracked. In the fracking process, millions of gallons of water, along with chemical additives and sand, are injected at high pressure down the well bore to break up the shale and release the gas.

The accident spilled thousands of gallons of salty, chemical-laced flowback water into fields and a stream.

Chesapeake denied the spill had any effect on residential water supplies.

"The EPA water test results reflect the water quality that existed in these wells before any natural gas drilling activity began in this area," Chesapeake spokesman Brian Grove said in a statement Friday. "While EPA's latest results make a strong case for developing standards to govern water well construction, which currently is unregulated, they do not support any link between water quality and our natural gas operations."

Landowner Ira Haire, 71, whose well was tainted, said Friday he has "no problem at all with Chesapeake," adding the company has been in touch with him daily since the April spill. Chesapeake supplied the retired machinist with a temporary water tank, and it's installing a filtration system for his well. Haire declined to say what the EPA found in his well.

The state Department of Environmental Protection also has taken water samples from the water wells. The department is testing for a wide range of contaminants, including volatile organic compounds, strontium and barium, but a spokeswoman said Friday the results have not yet come in.

Comments

[Pashovski]

02:19 PM on 06/28/2011

Only people profiting from this even claim it's a good idea. Frack YOU!!!!

[The last sane American]

06:28 PM on 06/27/2011

Those of you that are looking for reality may want to check out this Article in the WSJ

" REVIEW & OUTLOOK
JUNE 25, 2011

The Facts About Fracking
The real risks of the shale gas revolution, and how to manage them."

Somehow, I think many of you will not. "Real risks" sounds too daunting.

[ADVOCATE4ZPG]

08:31 PM on 06/26/2011

Force the company's executives, employees, lawyers, and lobbyists to DRINK the water exclusively for a year....!!!

[artbot]

12:00 AM on 06/27/2011

well water is for washing dishes, showers and such. i'm sure they'd agree to that.

[Rick Ryan]

04:59 PM on 07/05/2011

Where do you live? I dirnk my well water everyday. It is delicious.

[rodjard]

07:51 PM on 06/25/2011

Stills and distilling was common and legal until the invention of
the combustion engine that would burn alcahol. And then we had
prohibition.
Amazing coincidence

[BubblyBev]

11:41 PM on 06/25/2011

"Prohibition is better than no liquor at all" Will Rogers

[rodjard]

07:40 PM on 06/25/2011

What all else is this causing? Gas in the wate? Earthquakes?
Maybe more? To think that these companies didn't suspect
that these things might happen either makes really ignorant
or disgustingly criminal.

[PAGasDriller]

10:48 PM on 06/25/2011

I dont think you're updating your brain frequently enough.

[This American]

11:05 PM on 06/25/2011

For a good laugh why not "drill" down through Rods comments. It is hard to imagine the work it must take to build an inventory of fasle information as large as Rod has. His writing reads like a Saturday night live parody of the all knowing liberal who hasn't a clue.
Maybe he is goofing on us.

[rodjard]

07:34 PM on 06/25/2011

So, I wonder if that rediculous commercial from
Exon-Mobile about Fracking being such a good
Idea, is a good idea for Exon Mobile?

[wsmith3023]

07:38 PM on 06/25/2011

ExxonMobil

[mairs]

10:05 AM on 06/26/2011

Oh, right. They run the two names together. How awful of Rodjard to overlook that.

[LeeCalif]

06:27 PM on 06/25/2011

There are hundreds of dangerous chemicals the drilling companies are keeping hidden from us and the EPA, not to mention the Cesium-137. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drilling_fluid

[PAGasDriller]

10:49 PM on 06/25/2011

Well then hurry up and call the EPA and let them know that you, LeeCalif, know more about fracking than you do.

[ADVOCATE4ZPG]

08:33 PM on 06/26/2011

If your ilk contaminates ANYONE's drinking water then YOU and your family should be FORCED to drink it as well!

[taxcorps]

10:15 PM on 06/26/2011

Are you saying LeeCalif is incorrect? Go ahead, let's see -- take it as a dare -- answer the question. You won't though because you know it's the truth, what LeeCalif is claiming.

[ByAndForThePeople]

06:13 PM on 06/25/2011

Damned EPA, out there killing jobs again. What right to they have to test the water in people's wells and inform them that their water has been poisoned? That's going to interfere with the free marketplace again.

[wsmith3023]

07:00 PM on 06/25/2011

The people can test the water in their wells every day if they wish. No one is stopping them.

[taxcorps]

09:59 PM on 06/26/2011

My understanding is the tests run about $800 for homeowners to have their wells tested on their own.

[taxcorps]

10:04 PM on 06/26/2011

Not to mention people will die and I can't help but wonder at this point if that isn't their goal.

[mike711l]

02:38 PM on 06/25/2011

What a surprise! Do they bother to test the wells near non-blow out fracking sites? Probably find the same contamination, but that would be bad for business!

[The last sane American]

03:42 PM on 06/25/2011

You may want to back that up with evidence. You only have thousand of those wells and only one that blew out.

Probably somehow doesn't seem the right word.

[WESmith]

05:25 PM on 06/25/2011

I don't know. Do they? Does the government in PA have any regulations when it comes to drilling water,oil, natural gas wells or any other drilling operation? I don't live in PA, so I don't know. If you live in PA, I hope you know as they are producing your natural gas for your use.

[PAGasDriller]

10:51 PM on 06/25/2011

The industry is required by law to test at least 1,000 feet from gas wells before they are drilled. Tests must be done by a 3rd party lab, and the results must be furnished to both the landowner and the DEP.

[robodawa]

01:40 PM on 06/25/2011

No wonder the conmen ( and one scary lady) in the GOP Prez lineup want to stop the EPA. It's the biggest stopgap to drilling safely for anything in the USA. Cheney and his grup really set this up for themselves.
I wonder if drillers can frack under the primo land George W, Bush bought in South America?
It's a massive parcel with excellent groundwater. It's right next to a fine military base.
Nice how he rigged that one. A final redoubt for the victor in two fixed elections.

[WESmith]

05:29 PM on 06/25/2011

Drillers don't frack. Fracturing companies fracture wells. Gas companies don't drill. Drilling companies drill. Gas companies produce natural gas. The US and State Governments collect the royalties and taxes. Utilities distribute the natural gas. The consumer uses the natural gas and produce CO2 that is destroying our world as we know it.

[LeeCalif]

06:20 PM on 06/25/2011

Some say drill and others say frack.

Some say potato and others say pa-ta-to.

Cesium-137 is in the drilling fluid and it is radioactive waste and will K ill you.

[Longtimeliberal]

01:09 PM on 06/25/2011

I love the EPA!

[asiclilpup]

12:29 PM on 06/25/2011

This fracking run amok is akin to what the coal.copper.moydenum(sp) mines did before the EPA had to step in. Ground water has been polluted for years and is continuing to this day. What's the right's solution? Defund the EPA---BRILLIANT.

[mike711l]

02:39 PM on 06/25/2011

Of course, no testing = no problem!

[wsmith3023]

07:07 PM on 06/25/2011

If there is no testing, you live in a piss poor State.
You need to find new Representatives.

[WTxIndependent]

12:20 PM on 06/25/2011

Well, I think we can all say that it's VERY obvious that the EPA just wants to kill jobs in this area. *cough*cough*

How about we take water from these wells and have all the anti-EPA politicians in DC take a big drink?

[Malcolm Hensley]

01:20 PM on 06/25/2011

can we plug the 180,000 + abandon oil wells in just PA first? Before I drink.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/04/abandoned-oil-gas-wells-water_n_844662.html

From what I've read fracking can be done safely. The problem is the oil industry in these areas have an old legacy of abuse out of ignorance or intentional at this point is irrelevant.

The only solution I can come up with to clean this mess is to require drilling companies correctly pluf an abandon well before they get a permit to drill another well.

[D-Driller]

07:42 PM on 06/25/2011

This is the same state that won't allow disposal wells to be drilled, and forced gas companies to send industrial waste to local, community water-treatment plants. These facilities can barely get a scoop of Tide out of wastewater - no way they can clean up industrial waste. At one point earlier this year, Range Resources, a GAS COMPANY, had to go to the state DEQ and beg them NOT to let them do this anymore! They actually told PA to stop letting them do this becuase it is harmful! If I were from PA, I wouldn't throw the gas companies out - I'd throw the politicians out, Malcolm!

[thundermummy]

11:57 AM on 06/25/2011

As you can see, there are fracking apologists spinning hard to say those who oppose it are leftist hippies or alarmists. What they don't realize is that the more they pile up the bullsh!t the more we can smell it.

http://thetimes-tribune.com/opinion/editorials-columns/guest-columnists/web-pressure-on-gas-1.1166132#axzz1QBgQMqZI

[Malcolm Hensley]

01:37 PM on 06/25/2011

Yea, if I ran a drilling company I would pick up stakes and move to some COUNTRY where they appreciate energy.

We have a populist that trust lawyers instead of engineers. A lawyers job by definition is to milk the system for there benefit even at the harm of the majority.

It's funny as we have produced more lawyers our manufacturing base has decreased, the numbers of the middle class have decreased.

The path to third world status is paved by law suits. The path to the destruction of the middle class is paved by law suits.

Think about it.

[mairs]

02:19 PM on 06/25/2011

The path to third world status has been followed by the old Soviet Union. The area it covered is dotted by contaminated sites, dead bodies of water, abandoned towns. You could try there.

I have a private well. You don't phriggin' touch my well water.

[DixieMay]

02:28 PM on 06/25/2011

The path to destruction is a GOP controlled economy, gov and corp protection for the harm they cause.

The path to a better, safer and cleaner nation is through the EPA and other regulating agencies who (if they're not infiltrated and manipulated by corporate shills and apologists) can keep greed from being our biggest environmental management factor.

[mike711l]

02:40 PM on 06/25/2011

That's not bull you are smelling, it's what's coming out of your water faucet!

[PAGasDriller]

11:00 PM on 06/25/2011

Actually, its from the bullshit spewing out of that hole you have just under your nose.

[Genders]

11:55 AM on 06/25/2011

You mean they finally tested the water? wow.

[Malcolm Hensley]

01:38 PM on 06/25/2011

You would have thought with over 180,000 + abandon oil wells in just PA alone someone would test before drilling like the Duke Study suggested.

[Genders]

01:49 PM on 06/25/2011

They don't want to find anything...Better not to look.

[PAGasDriller]

11:02 PM on 06/25/2011

Most of those 180K abandoned wells are very shallow and have collapsed on themselves, effectively plugging them. If they were going to cause methane migration, they'd already be doing it. Abandoned wells are not much of a threat at all.