Many worry about water
http://citizensvoice.com/news/many-worry-about-water-1.1150470#axzz1MzQ9BcoU
By Laura Legere (staff writer)
Published: May 22, 2011
An agreement between the Department of Environmental Protection and Chesapeake Energy to address methane seeping into water wells in Bradford County has left some affected residents wondering how and if the deal will help fix their tainted water.
The consent order issued May 16 accompanied a $700,000 fine and $200,000 voluntary payment by Chesapeake for allowing methane trapped in shallow rock formations to leak into drinking water aquifers as it drilled at least six sets of wells into the Marcellus Shale last year.
Sixteen families were identified in the order as having water wells directly impacted by the disturbed methane. Although the order outlines steps the driller must take to monitor and address the contamination, the residents said they have not been told what to expect.
“We don’t know if it is fixable,” said Michael Phillips, one of a cluster of affected residents on Paradise Road in Terry Township. Chesapeake tried unsuccessfully to drill the family a new well and then installed a temporary water-treatment system in a shed in the backyard. Private water tests showed contaminants remained despite the system, he said, so the family is relying on a large plastic water tank, or buffalo, for drinking and cooking.
DEP Secretary Michael Krancer visited with the Paradise Road families on Tuesday to learn about the impacts of the contamination.
“I asked him, can this problem be fixed?” Phillips said. “That’s about the only thing he didn’t have an answer for.”
The Bradford County order contains different terms than a settlement reached in December between DEP and Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. for a similar methane migration incident in Dimock Township, Susquehanna County.
In that case, department officials decided to drop plans to build an $11.8 million public waterline to serve the affected residents and instead settled for $4.1 million to be paid to 19 families. The settlement required Cabot to place twice the assessed value of each property, or a minimum of $50,000, into an escrow account for each family.
In the Bradford County case, Chesapeake has 60 days to show that the methane has decreased in the 17 affected water wells to a point far below any health or explosion risk. If it does not, the company will have to restore or replace the water supplies or, if a family refuses a proposed fix, fund an escrow account in an amount determined by DEP to pay for the families’ chosen repairs.
DEP spokeswoman Katherine Gresh said the account will have about $20,000 in it.
In response to questions about how Chesapeake plans to address the affected water supplies, the company released a statement saying “each situation will be evaluated and appropriate measures proposed. Upon approval from the DEP and the consent of the landowners, Chesapeake will work to implement the appropriate, agreed-upon measures.”
Earl Sites Jr., an affected resident on Brocktown Road in Monroeton, said he found out about the methane contamination in the water supply at his rented trailer when a neighbor saw the cap fly off his well and across the street from the force of the leaking gas.
Chesapeake has since built hook-ups from a public waterline under the street to several affected homes, but the property owner, Sites’ uncle Paul Sites, has refused the municipal water and the monthly bills that would come with it.
“My uncle just invested a bunch of money into these wells,” Earl Sites said. “The way he sees it, and the way I see it too, is we always had free water. Why should we get a water bill?”
The DEP order details that the money in the escrow account must be used to fund “all of the expenses associated with providing either the treatment system or a replacement water supply,” but it does not specify if Chesapeake is responsible for maintenance and water bills.
Sites said it is worrisome to rely on water from a tank in the yard and expensive to pay the electric bills to heat it through the winter.
“I’m not looking for money,” he said. “I just want things the way they used to be.”
David Buck, the owner of two affected wells, said his concern is primarily for the Susquehanna River.
He and his wife own Endless Mountain Outfitters and lead kayak and canoe trips along the river, which is still bubbling from a methane seep associated with Chesapeake’s drilling.
“Some of the folks did have some pretty nasty water,” he said, but his wells had shown evidence of methane before drilling began. He did not take treatment systems offered by Chesapeake and opted instead to monitor the gas to make sure it does not get worse.
Last week, he paused during a kayak trip to look at the bubbling Susquehanna.
“They say that methane doesn’t harm you, but if you’re over where it is bubbling it can affect your breathing,” he said. “I don’t know how they are going to address that. I don’t know if they can. But in my opinion it could be dangerous if it makes you light-headed or nauseous while you’re looking at it.”
Other residents say the impact has spread far beyond the 16 families identified in the consent order.
Ed Bidlack, a resident not listed among the affected families but whose water has been tainted by methane, said he was upset when he first heard about the fine levied against Chesapeake.
“DEP fined Chesapeake for damaging everybody’s wells and it didn’t help the people,” he said.
The heating company owner saved up for a dream home he had been living in for nine years before his water started to churn “like Alka-Seltzer.”
Now, he said, “we’re trapped in our own home. We don’t know what we’re going to do.”
Every day he adds to his chores a visit to his water well where he can hear the gas bubbling.
“The fact is, what is going to be the fix? There is no fix,” he said. “Our property, our house and everything is damaged. Our souls are damaged. You never feel as helpless as when something like this happens.”
llegere@timesshamrock.com