EPA Chief Says More Data Needed on Dimock's Water

• Susan Phillips
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  Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson says her agency needs to conduct more tests before deciding whether or not to provide clean water to Dimock residents. About a dozen families living in the tiny Susquehanna County community say it’s still unsafe to drink their water three years after state environmental officials forced Cabot Oil and Gas to provide fresh water. But in November, the Department of Environmental Protection told Cabot it could halt deliveries. The residents have since relied on donated water.
Last week, some families say regional EPA officials promised to step in and deliver water. But a day later, the EPA reversed itself. Jackson told reporters at an event in Philadelphia on Friday that the reversal resulted from a “miscommunication.”
Jackson says her agency needs to conduct more tests, or get more information from the DEP.
“We got data from the state,” said Jackson. “But we haven’t gotten it all. And we want to make sure we have all the data they have.”
Jackson says the EPA may need to do more of their own tests. In the meantime, residents say they’re suffering now. A group of activists rallied outside the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia where Jackson was speaking on urban sustainability.
Dimock resident Victoria Switzer was there and spoke to the crowd.
“I’m here today because I want the P in EPA not to stand for politics, but I want it to stand for protection.”
Switzer says enough data already exists to prove her water is toxic.
Administrator Jackson says she understands Switzer’s frustration.
“But this isn’t a situation where EPA could come in and say water for everyone,” said Jackson. “Someone’s paying for that water, that’s the federal government. And we have to make sure we’re meeting the scientific and legal test that would allow us to do that.”
The EPA lacks authority to step in if water is contaminated by oil or gas directly. But if they do find evidence of chemical contamination as a result of the drilling process they will be able to provide relief.

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