In one of the more dramatic lame-duck moves after the Nov. 2 elections in the US, the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (PennVest) approved a $172,682 loan and an $11.6 million grant on Nov. 9 so that Pennsylvania American Water Co. could build a 12-mile water line to residents of 18 private properties in Susquehanna County who say their drinking water has been damaged by natural gas drilling operations.
PennVest's vote came after it received a petition with 1,500 signatures and a letter from the Montrose Borough Council (MBC) opposing the idea. Also opposed is Houston independent Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., which drilled the gas wells. But John Hanger, director of the state's Department of Environmental Protection, and a PennVest board member, who made the request, said that Cabot eventually will foot the bill.
DEP previously accepted Cabot's offer to drill new water wells, construct water treatment and filtering systems, or recondition existing water wells, the petition said. Occupants of 11 of the 18 properties have refused the offers and are suing Cabot instead, it indicated.
Hanger pursued constructing the water line from Lake Montrose to Dimock because he felt that Cabot did not meet the modified consent order's terms, a DEP spokesman told OGJ on Nov. 15. "We are continuing to work with Dimock residents to solve their water-quality issues," George Stark, Cabot's external affairs director for Pennsylvania, said a day later.
MBC's Oct. 18 letter mentioned that no studies were initiated to examine the new system's impact on the watershed.
Possible overload
It conceded that the proposed line's from Lake Montrose to the Dimock area properties is not as densely populated as Montrose Borough. "However, the availability of a water line can easily change that dynamic, and with merely 150,000 gpd of potential water use left after borough use and fracing, the proposed Dimock line could overload Lake Montrose's watershed," it warned.
Finally, the council noted that no recent studies have been made of Lake Montrose's daily water supply capacity, which has been noticeably affected by fracing and reduced snow and rain. It said that it was reviewing possible legal actions.
"We don't want to see anyone with poor water quality," Stark told OGJ. "One such resident is one too many, which is why we're working diligently to come up with workable solutions that are readily available."
Hanger will leave office in January with outgoing Gov. Edward G. Rendell when Republican Tom Corbett, who campaigned on not raising taxes, is sworn in. It is not certain whether PennVest's approval of this grant can be reversed at that time.
For now, however, it apparently stands.
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