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Center For Coalfield Justice Holds First Water Distribution Day Nov. 19 To Help Provide Families Drinking Water In Greene County Following Alleged ‘Frack-Out’ At Natural Gas Well Site In June

The Center for Coalfield Justice will distribute over 3,000 cases of water on November 19 at the New Freeport Fire Company in Greene County to help families who haven’t had clean drinking water since June following an alleged ‘frack-out’ at an EQT shale gas drill pad.

Water distribution will take place from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Fire Company located at 101 Main Street in New Freeport.

Lisa DePaoli from the Center for Coalfield Justice said they will also have 17 bulk water dispensers and 55-gallon jugs available for residents affected by the frack-out.

In an interview Friday, DePaoli said her organization is continuing to ask for donations of drinking water because no one else is providing the families water-- not EQT, the Department of Environmental Protection, local townships or Greene County officials.

The organization estimates it will need about 450 five-gallon jugs per month to provide water for the community, and it is hoping to supplement it through the holidays.

Click Here for instructions on how you can be part of the New Freeport Water Drive.

A “frack-out” occurs when fracking fluid is pumped down a shale gas well under pressure to fracture shale rock to promote natural gas flow, but instead finds an abandoned conventional oil and gas well and follows that well up to groundwater aquifers and sometimes blows out on the ground surface like a geyser.

On June 19, EQT reported a “possible communication” between its 13H lateral well and an abandoned conventional oil or gas well while fracking two new wells at its Lumber pad along Martin Hill Road near New Freeport in Greene County. [Read more here.]

In a statement to Public Source in July, EQT said, “water was brought to the surface near an abandoned well” and that it had stopped drilling operations at its well a mile away “out of an abundance of caution.”

Under state Act 13 of 2012 Section 3218(c), an unconventional shale gas well operator is presumed to be responsible for pollution of a water supply if the water supply is within 2,500 feet of the vertical wellbore and must provide temporary water supplies to those affected.

In this instance, DePaoli said, almost no one affected lives within 2,500 feet of the well.

“Ongoing testing shows that the water for dozens of households is unsafe to drink,” the Center for Coalfield Justice said in a statement. “There is currently an ongoing investigation by the Department of Environmental Protection, but most residents are outside the ‘zone of presumption’ and are not being supplied with replacement water.”

“Since June, many residents have purchased every drop of water they drink or cook with,” Coalfield Justice wrote in its statement. “Some of them are still showering with unsafe water. The nearest big-box store is 40 minutes away, and city water is unavailable in their area. This frack-out has completely and unfairly inconvenienced them and negatively affected their quality of life.”

DePaoli said DEP is continuing its investigating of the June incident.

Visit the Center for Coalfield Justice website for more information.

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Related Articles - Oil & Gas Industry Compliance This Week:

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - Nov. 12 To 18 [PaEN]

-- DEP Permit Notices/Opportunities To Comment -- Oil & Gas Industrial Facilities [PaEN]

-- DEP Assesses $200,000 In Penalties For Drilling Wastewater Spills By CNX In Greene County [PaEN]

-- StateImpact PA - Reid Frazier: CNX Fined $200,000 For Natural Gas-Related Spills In Greene County [Note: Conventional oil and gas drillers reported illegally spreading 977,671 gallons of untreated drilling wastewater on Pennsylvania roads in 2021. DEP did not penalize one. Read more here.]

-- DEP Invites Comments On Proposed Cryptocurrency Data Mining Operation On Shale Gas Well Pad In Elk County [PaEN]

-- DEP Invites Comments On Texas Eastern Pipeline Replacement Projects Affecting Cambria, Fayette, Huntingdon, Indiana, Lebanon Counties [PaEN]

Related Articles- Oil & Gas This Week:

-- Center For Coalfield Justice Holds First Water Distribution Day Nov. 19 To Help Provide Families Drinking Water In Greene County Following Alleged ‘Frack-Out’ At Natural Gas Well Site In June [PaEN]

-- Washington County Family Lawsuit Alleges Shale Gas Company Violated The Terms Of Their Lease By Endangering Their Health, Contaminating Their Water Supply And Not Protecting Their Land [PaEN]

-- Post-Gazette: Efforts To Stop A Natural Gas Leak For The Last 13 Days At A Cambria County Underground Gas Storage Area Have Failed, Gas Is Again Escaping [PaEN]

-- AP: Leak At Pennsylvania Natural Gas Storage Well Spewing Methane

-- StateImpactPA - Reid Frazier: Natural Gas Leak In Cambria County, Thought To Have Been Stopped, Is Leaking Again

-- Shale Gas & Public Health Conference: We've Got Enough Compelling Evidence To Enact Health Protective Policies For Families Now - By Edward C. Ketyer, M.D., President, Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania [PaEN]

-- Shale Gas & Public Health Conference: When It Started, It Was Kind Of Nice, But What Happened Afterwards Really Kind Of Devastated Our Community - By Rev. Wesley Silva, former Council President Marianna Borough, Washington County [PaEN]

-- Shale Gas & Public Health Conference: Living Near Oil & Gas Facilities Means Higher Health Risks, The Closer You Live, The Higher The Risk - By Nicole Deziel PhD MHS, Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health [PaEN]

-- Shale Gas & Public Health Conference: Economically, Socially Deprived Areas In PA Have A Much Greater Chance Of Having Oil & Gas Waste Disposed In Their Communities - By Joan Casey, PhD, Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health [PaEN]