Officials: Gas drilling did not sicken woman

Associated Press

HARRISBURG

Elevated levels of barium and contaminants in a sickened woman’s well water in northern Pennsylvania were not caused by natural-gas drilling, Pennsylvania’s environmental regulators said Thursday.

The Department of Environmental Protection released the letter it sent to Crystal Stroud of Granville Summit, and blamed geologic conditions, not a Marcellus Shale well drilled near her home, for elevated levels of barium, iron, manganese, total dissolved solids, chlorides and methane in her well water.

“These geologic conditions include an aquifer, or an underground pocket or body of water, located in an area where water moves slowly, also called a restricted flow zone,” the DEP said in a statement. “The conditions of the aquifer in this particular area typically have elevated levels of minerals, such as barium.”

The DEP also said it collected isotopic samples at Stroud’s well that showed no connection to any nearby gas wells in heavily drilled Bradford County.

Stroud, 29, had blamed the contaminants on a nearby Marcellus Shale well drilled by Dallas-based Chief Oil & Gas LLC. Stroud appeared at an anti-drilling rally in the state capital last month and told attendees that the well drilled 1,200 feet from the home where she lives with her husband and 4-year-old son poisoned her well water and made her sick.

Stroud did not immediately return a telephone message left for her Thursday.

At the rally, Stroud said she became mysteriously sick in March — her speech slurred, her balance faltered, her hands trembled, her hair fell out, and her heart rate and blood pressure rose. Then a laboratory told her in April that her water well was contaminated with barium, chloride, strontium, manganese, lead, methane, radiological material and radon, she said.

Barium levels in her and her son’s blood were sky-high, she said, and could be blamed for her sickness.

Chief denied responsibility, and on Thursday also released the results of its own investigation.

“A thorough investigation showed that Chief Oil & Gas is not responsible for the water well contamination or health claims of Crystal Stroud,” it said in a statement.

The company said it used a small rig and compressed air to drill a 360-foot hole in late January. No drilling mud was used, it said, and none of the metals or chemicals found in Stroud’s well water went into or came out of the well during the drilling, it said.

“Before any further drilling occurred, the surface hole was properly cased and cemented, isolating and protecting the ground water,” Chief said.

Sampling in water wells closer than Stroud’s to the gas well showed no meaningful change in water quality, it said.