PHILADELPHIA ? Residents of a small northeastern Pennsylvania town at the center of the political battle over natural gas drilling are planning to confront the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
A group of residents-turned-activists from Dimock say they intend to seek out Lisa Jackson, who's scheduled to attend an unrelated forum Friday in Philadelphia, about her agency's reversal last week, when it promised to deliver them water then reneged a day later.
A state investigation found that 18 wells in the village were contaminated after natural gas drilling began there in 2008.
About a dozen residents have sued Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., claiming the energy company caused the contamination when it extracted natural gas using a process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a method that has spurred a boom in natural gas drilling in several states while raising concerns about the toll on the environment and public health.
Cabot denies contaminating the wells, saying most wells in the region were laced with methane long before the arrival of drilling. Nevertheless, the company trucked in fresh water for the residents to use for bathing and washing clothes and dishes. The deliveries stopped Nov. 30 after state regulators determined that Cabot had fulfilled its obligations to the residents under a 2010 consent agreement. The residents say their aquifer is still contaminated.
The federal government has wavered about its role, initially saying the water posed no health risk, then that it merited more study, then in the space of 24 hours last week promising to deliver water and reneging.
Pennsylvania's environmental chief, who works for a pro-drilling governor, has criticized his federal counterparts, saying the EPA has only a "rudimentary" understanding of the contamination.
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