EPA to Send Water to Dimock Households

• 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.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will send clean water to residents of the Susquehanna County community where natural gas drilling has contaminated water supplies. About a dozen families in Dimock, Pa. have a lawsuit pending against Cabot Oil and Gas. The EPA says four of those families will receive fresh water deliveries. Three years ago, residents began to notice changes to their water, and were able to set their taps on fire. State regulators blamed Cabot for faulty well construction and ordered the company to supply clean water. But in November, 2011 the state Department of Environmental Protection gave Cabot the green light to halt water shipments.
Residents have since been relying on donations. Several weeks ago, regional EPA officials contacted residents to tell them the federal government would start supplying water. But then a day later, that decision was reversed. DEP chief Michael Krancer has criticized EPA’s role in Dimock, writing in a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson that the EPA’s understanding of the issue was “rudimentary.”
Last week, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson told State Impact Pennsylvania that some federal laws prevent the Agency from providing relief. A press release issued today by EPA region 3 says they will begin their own testing of the well water for 60 Dimock households. In the meantime, EPA will supply fresh water to four families.

“EPA is working diligently to understand the situation in Dimock and address residents’ concerns,” said EPA Regional Administrator Shawn M. Garvin. “We believe that the information provided to us by the residents deserves further review, and conducting our own sampling will help us fill information gaps. Our actions will be based on the science and the law and we will work to help get a more complete picture of water quality for these homes in Dimock.”

EPA officials say it could take up to three weeks to complete testing on the wells, with results available in about 5 weeks.  Current data from four homes indicates the contamination poses health concerns. The EPA says data on the other wells do not show a need for fresh water deliveries, but the Agency says further testing is warranted.

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