‘Zombies’ warn of gas drilling effects

BY SARAH HOFIUS HALL, Times-Shamrock Writer

Their faces painted a ghostly white and their shirts stained red, area residents and activists warned others about what they believe happens when “gas drilling goes bad.”

About two dozen people dressed as zombies and other creatures met at the Dimock Baptist Church on Sunday to protest natural gas drilling impacts and, in particular, the decision by the state Department of Environmental Protection to let Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. stop supplying fresh bottled and bulk water to township residents whose well water has been tainted with methane.

Earlier this month, Scott Perry, DEP’s acting deputy secretary for the Office of Oil and Gas Management, wrote in a letter that Cabot no longer needs to supply water and had met the obligations outlined in a $4.6 million settlement in December between Cabot and DEP, including funding escrow accounts for the impacted homeowners with twice the tax-assessed value of their properties and offering to install methane-removal system.

Cabot disagrees with the department over the cause of the methane in the water supplies, arguing its tests have found that methane occurs naturally in 80 percent ofSusquehannaCountywater wells in a pattern that mimics the levels in Dimock.

The protesters don’t agree with either DEP or Cabot. At the church, they passed out cups of “Kabot Kool-Aid” and ration coupons for one glass of water. At the church’s door, a fog machine simulated air pollution and a bottle of Asian fish sauce represented the odor from the mud caused by drilling, residents said.

Inside, samples of well water were displayed, and treats included black licorice representing drilling casings and Hershey kisses signifying drill mud.

Video from a visit 13 months ago by former DEP Secretary John Hanger, in which he promised a waterline for Dimock was projected onto a wall. The current administration says a waterline is no longer needed.

In the church’s front yard, yellow crime tape bordered a dozen headstones, which had the names of counties affected by gas drilling.

With her arms speckled with red paint and with red streaks under her nose,SusquehannaCountyresident Rebecca Roter was dressed as an “unnecessary sacrifice” to gas drilling, she said.

The spots, she said, signified a rash caused by the effects of drilling. The streaks were a nosebleed from air pollution, said  Roter, who was wearing a pink hospital gown. Along with concerns about the well-being of her neighbors, she said she is concerned about the precedent the DEP is setting by changing the promises of a past administration.

After gathering at the church, the protesters drove to nearbyCarter Road, where state regulators had determined that natural gas wells allowed methane to seep into 18 water supplies in an area around the road in Dimock. The residents have been receiving water deliveries from Cabot for nearly three years, and the decision by DEP will bring that to an end.

OnCarter Road, the zombies walked by a well site and two homes that have tainted wells.

Dressed in a hot pink gorilla suit, New York resident Yvonne Lucia, who lives 3 miles north of the border, said she is fearful not only for Dimock, but for communities across the region if drilling continues.

“Contaminated water doesn’t know there’s a border,” she said, holding a sign that said “I drank frackwater. Look what happened to my hair.”

Carter Roadresidents Julie and Craig Sautner said they will not “roll over.”

“We’re sick and tired of this,” Sautner said. “We can’t use our water the way it is. We need clean water.”