US energy future hits snag in rural Pennsylvania

[UpInArms]

Source: Reuters

DIMOCK, Pennsylvania, March 13 (Reuters) - When her children started missing school because of persistent diarrhea and vomiting, Pat Farnelli began to wonder if she and her family were suffering from more than just a classroom bug.

After trying several remedies, she stopped using the water drawn from her well in this rural corner of northeastern Pennsylvania, the forefront of a drilling boom in what may be the biggest U.S. reserve of natural gas.

"I was getting excruciating stomach cramps after drinking the water," Farnelli said in an interview at her farmhouse, cluttered as a home with eight children would be, while her husband, a night cook at a truck stop, slept on the couch.

"It felt like an appendicitis attack."

The family, which is poor enough to qualify for government food stamps, began buying bottled water for drinking and cooking. Their illnesses finally ended, and Farnelli found something to blame: natural gas drilling in the township of 1,400 people.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN1249920720090313?sp=true

[appleannie1]

1. Have seen this occur in W. PA.

The company had tested our water before drilling on property across the road. We had good water. After their drilling was completed, all my sinks, washer etc turned dark rust colored. All my clothes were stained. I had to open the tank on the toilet every couple days and scrub a slimy black film out of it. We had the gas company come back and retest our water. The iron content had gone up over 400% plus there was sediment in our water. The provided us with a water softener. Big deal. We still can't drink it. We go through water purifying filters like China goes through rice and that is just for the water we use to wash things with. We now buy all our drinking and cooking water. We lived here for over 25 years with no water problems at all until they started drilling gas wells.

[Javaman]

2. Fire water. yes, you can quite literally light the water on fire.

god bless those good people at the natural gas company. god bless them.

[hootinholler]

4. They're lucky they aren't charged for that feature

:grr:

-Hoot

[mikelgb]

3. oy

[Tempest]

5. Same thing happening in Wyoming & Montana

Natural gas drilling has poisoned wells and the drilling companies are buying the bottled water for the families.