Residents of a western Pennsylvania community, The Woodlands, say the water was spoiled by drilling deep underground for natural gas. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/03/10/us/ap-us-gas-drilling-water-contamination.html?ref=us In late 2011, the drinking water for about a dozen residents in the Woodlands, a rural community about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh, began to change. At first, the families blamed gas drilling, or fracking, being done 2000 feet away. But state tests showed the water wasn’t contaminated by drilling, and even more confusingly, many of their neighbors reported no problems.
Families with bad water then turned to federal officials. But last summer the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency quietly sent a letter to one resident, Janet McIntyre, saying the agency agreed with the state finding, since most of the chemicals found in the water could have occurred naturally.
The Duquesne University Center for Environmental Research in Pittsburgh said state and federal agencies failed to do detailed reviews, so a Duquesne team has been monitoring water quality and surveying households in what is one of the most in-depth surveys of alleged impacts of gas drilling in the nation. The recent gas drilling around the Woodlands has affected groundwater flows, thus indirectly causing problems for some people.