Rural Community Assistance Partnership

Practical solutions for improving rural communities
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Pennsylvania

ProPublica: Years after evidence of fracking contamination, EPA to supply drinking water to homes in Pa. town

Posted Wed, 2012/01/25 - 12:45pm by RCAP

by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica, Jan. 20, 2012, 2:58 p.m.

First, the earth around the rural town of Dimock, Pa., was cracked open as gas drillers used fracking to tap the vast energy supplies of the Marcellus Shale.

Then, in April 2009, residents there lost their access to fresh drinking water. Wells turned fetid. Some blew up. Tap water caught fire.

The ProPublica Blog: Pa. environmental agency butts heads with gas drilling company over town’s water woes

Posted Fri, 2010/10/08 - 4:49pm by RCAP

Residents of Dimock, Pa., whose water woes have been widely chronicled as a prime example of the hidden costs of natural gas drilling, will get a safe and permanent water supply to replace their methane-contaminated wells, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection announced Thursday.