EPA Chief Says Krancer’s Letter Won’t Help Dimock Residents

Susan Phillips / StateImpactPA

A rally out­side of the Acad­emy of Nat­ural Sci­ences in Philadel­phia called on EPA Admin­is­tra­tor Lisa Jack­son to sup­ply water to Dimock residents.

Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency Admin­is­tra­tor Lisa Jack­son says she found it “puz­zling” that Pennsylvania’s top reg­u­la­tor would write a let­ter crit­i­cal of her Agency’s role in Dimock’s water prob­lems. Last week Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Sec­re­tary Michael Krancer wrote to Jack­son telling her the EPA’s knowl­edge of the sit­u­a­tion is “rudi­men­tary.” Krancer has expressed hos­til­ity toward the EPA’s actions sev­eral times since tak­ing over as DEP Sec­re­tary last year.

At a press con­fer­ence Fri­day at the Acad­emy of Nat­ural Sci­ences in Philadel­phia, Jack­son said fed­eral reg­u­la­tors need more data on Dimock’s water.

“That’s what I’m com­mit­ted to,” said Jack­son. “It’s puz­zling to me how writ­ing let­ters will help the peo­ple in Dimock.”

Jack­son said the EPA has not got­ten all the data they need from the DEP.

“If we can get the data, or if he [Krancer] can assure us that they’re look­ing at the data,” said Jack­son, “then I would be fine.”

In the Jan­u­ary 5 let­ter to Admin­is­tra­tor Jack­son, Krancer also crit­i­cized the EPA’s con­clu­sions about the cause of water pol­lu­tion in Pavil­ion, Wyo. The EPA recently released a report that linked frack­ing oper­a­tions to res­i­den­tial drink­ing water con­t­a­m­i­na­tion in Pavil­ion. Spot­ted while wan­der­ing the Penn­syl­va­nia Farm Show this week, Krancer told State Impact’s Scott Detrow that his let­ter “speaks for itself.”

The EPA is con­sid­er­ing sup­ply­ing water to Dimock, Pa. res­i­dents after the DEP told Cabot Oil and Gas it could stop those deliv­er­ies Decem­ber 1. So Cabot, which the DEP has held respon­si­ble for pol­lut­ing Dimock’s water, no longer pro­vides fresh water to res­i­dents.  Admin­is­tra­tor Jack­son says before the fed­eral gov­ern­ment ships any water to Dimock, more test­ing and data are needed.