May 4
2009

N E W S R E L E A S E COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
Dept. of Environmental Protection
Northwest Regional Office
230 Chestnut St.
Meadville, PA 16335

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
5/4/2009

CONTACT:
Freda Tarbell
Phone: (814) 332-6816

DEP IDENTIFIES RESPONSIBILITY FOR BRADFORD TOWNSHIP GAS MIGRATION/WATER SUPPLY PROBLEMS

MEADVILLE – The Department of Environmental Protection has determined that Schreiner Oil and Gas Company has affected at least seven water supplies along Hedgehog Lane in Bradford Township, McKean County, and has notified the company of its responsibilities to those residents.
Two of the water supplies were affected by methane and five supplies have iron and manganese above established drinking water standards.

Schreiner has been actively drilling combination oil and gas wells in the area since last fall and did not establish background water quality in the area prior to drilling. Therefore, Schreiner is presumed responsible for restoring water supplies within 1,000 feet of the drill sites.

Last week DEP also issued a notice of violation to Schreiner for failure to submit well records in a timely manner, the second notice of violation that the company has received regarding this issue.

“On Thursday, we notified the affected residents that Schreiner will be taking measures to restore or replace their water supplies,” said DEP Regional Director Kelly Burch. “It is our intention that this action will resolve the water issue for residents who have been living with major inconvenience and disruption.”

At this time, the operator is providing bottle water to many of the residents in the affected area.

On April 30, DEP Regional Director Kelly Burch met with about 30 neighborhood residents to discuss their worries about water quality, concerns associated with a natural gas stripper plant installed behind some of the homes, and accelerated erosion and sedimentation associated with the drilling activity.

Previous to last week’s notice of violation, DEP had issued three notices of violation to Schreiner pertaining to drilling on Hedgehog Lane. On November 13, DEP cited Schreiner for over-pressured wells. On February 19, DEP issued a notice of violation for pit violations and failure to post a well permit. On March 20, DEP cited Schreiner for new over-pressured wells and failure to submit well records.

All of the violations were corrected except for the submission of well records.

The department assessed 17 water supplies during the investigation. One water well still has methane present and the resident currently is staying at a motel provided by Schreiner as a precaution. DEP continues to monitor the water well that was affected by this gas migration on a daily basis and has observed a decrease in the amount of natural gas evident in the water well.

The department suspects the stray gas occurrence is a result of 26 recently drilled wells, four of which had excessive pressure at the surface casing seat and others that had no cement returns. In an effort to eliminate the source of methane, Schreiner has installed packers on all hydraulically fractured wells and has vented all of the wells that have been drilled but have not been fractured to stimulate production.

Until the gas migration issue is resolved, Schreiner will not be drilling any new wells.

To address another neighborhood concern, the company has added stone to stabilize the access roads to reduce sedimentation on Hedgehog Lane. Schreiner also is seeding and mulching disturbed areas to stabilize the drilling sites and access roads to further reduce sedimentation and accelerated erosion.

For more information, visitwww.depweb.state.pa.us., keyword: Oil and Gas.

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Mar 4
2009

I finally heard from the DEP about the results of testing they did of my water and well. I do have methane, but lower in level than some of my neighbors whose wells have exploded, etc. He said he will stop by to check for free methane in the head space of my water well again, now that we have it capped loosely enough to remove. I asked him if the level of methane could increase now that they are fracking the well on the other side of my house, and he said it is possible, with all of the activity going on. He is finding some methane in almost all the wells around here. This seems consistent with the idea that it can migrate for miles through an aquifer. The contaminated wells that I know of in Dimock are in clumps, with apparently ok houses with wells between them. I definitely need to test for bacteria. Today I accidentally drank some water and got violently sick. That’s how it was for the months of December and November last year, for our whole family, which was when they were drilling and fracking  the gas well 500 feet from our water well. We stopped drinking the water after our next door neighbor noticed her water smelled strongly of solvents or formaldehyde, and the lady about 5 houses away had her water well explode.

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Feb 28
2009

In response to a membership letter from the Sierra Club:

Dear Mr. Nilles, I am responding to your letter concerning switching from coal power to “clean” natural gas. Although I live near Scranton and the PA coal region in general, I am concerned when I hear of natural gas touted as a clean fuel. At this moment, Cabot Oil and Gas are extracting or pumping natural gas from two rigs on either side of my house, both about 500 feet away. The DEP has been investigating Cabot’s work on Carter Rd., Dimock Township PA, because natural gas has migrated into nine or ten water wells on our rural road in Susquehanna County. The process of hydrofracturing underground rock layers has contaminated the water sources for at least 12 homes in Dimock, and next week, they will be filming a documentary. One of our neighbors wells exploded on New Year’s Day, and Mrs. Fiorentino has no water supply. Cabot has refused to provide her with a new well, or to provide her and her relatives with drinking water or even non-potable water for washing. Her water well, according to her son, is 1,001 feet from a gas well, and PA law says they are responsible for water wells less than 1,000 feet away. The explosion had enough force to blow a 10×10 foot concrete slab off of her well.
My next door neighbor has both methane and coliform bacteria in her water, and had to pay for her own $6,000 filtration sistem. Several of my neighbors have flammable water. One of our neighbors has water that still tests as 65%methane after her well has been vented for a month. Kids have been sick, and pets have developed liver damage and had their hair suddenly fall out.  Forests that were part of our rural landscape have not only been cleared, but all their stumps removed, and all their soil taken away, to make drilling pads and pipelines and access roads to gas wells.  We have had three fuel oil spills, one of 800 gallons and two that were 100 gallons, all within view of our home,  all of which were the result of accidents by Cabot employees.  None of us think of natural gas as clean these days.

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