Environmentalists Critical of EPA’s Dimock Results, EPA Releases Sampling Plan

By Susan Phillips

March 16, 2012

Envi­ron­men­tal groups say the EPA jumped the gun by releas­ing only a hand­ful of Dimock water results before all house­holds’ tests were com­plete. The Sierra Club issued a state­ment Thurs­day night declar­ing their sup­port for the res­i­dents along Carter road who say Cabot Oil and Gas caused their water wells to run foul.

“Again today, the cry for clean water in Dimock was left unheard and Cabot Corp must be held account­able for the destruc­tion they caused,” said Sierra Club’s Deb Nar­done, in a press release.  “The vic­tim fam­i­lies of Dimock know that their water isn’t fit to drink, and the Sierra Club will stand by them until we find a per­ma­nent solution.”

Water Defense, a group started by actor Mark Ruf­falo, had a more exten­sive cri­tique of the EPA’s actions.

“We are deeply trou­bled that EPA Region 3 has allowed its inves­ti­ga­tion to be employed in the ser­vice of the gas indus­try spin machine before test­ing is even com­plete. We call on EPA Region 3 Admin­is­tra­tor Shawn Garvin to imme­di­ately release the agency’s test results pub­licly, so that inde­pen­dent sci­en­tists, the pub­lic, and the Dimock res­i­dents them­selves can eval­u­ate the find­ings thus far.”

The group also ques­tioned the drink­ing water safety stan­dards employed by the EPA.

“Pre­vi­ous test­ing of Dimock water has found high lev­els of con­t­a­m­i­nants for which safe lev­els have not yet been estab­lished by EPA or DEP, but which are known to present pos­si­ble health risks, includ­ing: naph­tha­lene, phenan­threne, butyl ben­zyl phtha­late, 1-methylnaphthalene, 2-methylnaphthalene, dieth­yl­ene gly­col, tri­eth­yl­ene gly­col, 2-methoxyethanol, Bis (2-Ethylhexyl) adi­pate, Bis (2-Ethylhexyl) phtha­late, meth­yl­ene blue active sub­stances, gas range organ­ics, ace­tone and ammonia.”

In response to ques­tions from StateIm­pact, EPA offi­cials said the agency does not pub­li­cize indi­vid­ual home­owner sam­ple results. But they did share their sam­pling plan for Dimock, which includes details of what they tested for.

You can read through that doc­u­ment below. Let us know what you think about the test­ing para­me­ters the EPA is using in Dimock.

http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2012/03/16/environmentalists-cri...