Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said during his Senate Appropriations budget hearing Tuesday he was still several weeks away from completing the fieldwork on his audit of the drilling-related water quality programs at DEP.

Sen. Lisa Baker (R-Luzerne) noted Pennsylvania has no construction standards on private water wells and almost half of all Pennsylvanians use well water.

"There have been a lot of water problems in Pennsylvania for decades," General DePasquale said. "I don't know if people understood that. In recent years because of the additional drilling, I think there's been much more awareness by the public about the importance of water safety. The drillers have gotten blamed for some stuff that they had nothing to do with. I will tell you that we are seeing some evidence of that and I just will leave it at that right now."

2/17/2014