THE CASE AGAINST HYDROFRACKING - Hydrofracking: What Everyone Needs to Know - page 58

the public. 39 Some water wells do indeed descend through many layers of shale
and coal, which can naturally seep methane into groundwater—by so-called “meth-
ane migration.” But reports of methane migrating naturally into wells date back to
the 1800s, and while such incursions of gas may or may not be related to drilling,
there is no conclusive evidence that they are the result of fracking. 40 Even if invest-
igators use isotope identification to nail down a particular well's unique gas “fin-
gerprint,” it is impossible to prove the methane migrated into a water supply unless
the water had been tested before drilling began. But in an open letter to audience,
press, and peers, GasLand director Josh Fox insists that he has his facts right. 41
Regardless, high levels of chemicals associated with hydrofracking—arsenic,
barium, DEHP, glycol compounds, manganese, phenol, and sodium—were found
in the drinking water of Dimock. In 2009, 15 local families sued Cabot Oil and
Gas, the Houston-based energy firm for allegedly tainting their wells. (Cabot
had 130 drilling violations in Dimock.) Pennsylvania—a pro-hydrofracking
state—fined Cabot $120,000, banned it from drilling further wells in Dimock
(though existing ones were allowed to continue operations), and demanded the
company provide clean drinking water to 10 households. A consent decree was
signed, and in 2010 Cabot was reportedly ordered to pay a $4 million settlement. 42
Some families accepted methane treatment systems from the company, and, per-
haps worried about their plummeting real-estate values, now insist the water is fine.
But others, convinced that methane was only one of several chemicals tainting their
water, sued Cabot.
In 2011, EPA informed Dimock residents that their well water was not an imme-
diate health threat; but in January 2012, the agency reversed itself and ordered its
hazardous site cleanup division to investigate. 43 Their testing found methane and
arsenic in just one well, which “did not indicate levels of contaminants that would
give EPA reason to take further action.” Yet four independent scientists found elev-
ated levels of methane and toxic chemicals related to hydrocarbons in local wells.
Today the town remains polarized over the subject of hydrofracking. Sampling
of Dimock's water by universities and the EPA is ongoing.
In response to negative press, energy executives defended their process: “In
sixty years of hydraulic fracturing across the country more than a million wells
have been fracked,” said Jim Smith, spokesman for the Independent Oil and Gas
Association of New York. It has never, he added, “harmed a drop of water.” 44
The question of the source of methane remains an open one. As technology im-
proves, it has become possible to identify the source of certain types of methane.