Personal
account from the Marcellus Shale
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Some of the earliest Marcellus Shale gas wells were drilled on properties surrounding Darrell Smitsky’s home near Hickory, Pennsylvania in 2006 and 2007. Five years later, there are 17 Marcellus wells in the one-square-mile area surrounding Darrell’s home. His family has occupied their rural home for more than four decades, and prior to Marcellus drilling, their well water was famous for its excellent quality and taste. Not long after drilling began, the Smitsky’s water started looking and tasting funny, so they quit drinking it. Strange things began to happen around anything associated with water on their property.
Darrell had eight healthy goats as Marcellus drilling got underway around him, but over a period of several months, five of the goats died, dropping off one by one. Darrell recalls that tragic time this way, “It was like their back legs became paralyzed, and I would have to carry them into the barn. I tried various supplements and other things, but nothing worked.” The fish in a small backyard pond began exhibiting strange symptoms as well, with their scales breaking down and becoming translucent, prior to death. Water plants they purchased from a local pond store turned brown and died. It finally became obvious that their well water and surface water were causing these impacts. Even though Darrell’s family began buying bottled water for drinking and cooking, they continue to shower in the well water. The Smitsky’s have developed brown rashes on the front of their lower legs, identical to other shale victims who live five miles away in Rea, Pa. It was originally believed that no gas wells were drilled within a distance of 1,000 feet, but Darrell later learned that Range Resources had erred big time, and that his water well was within 1,000 feet of a Marcellus well they drilled on a farm across the road. Since this "less than 1,000 feet" proximity was never revealed prior to these incidents, Darrell's water well never received the required baseline testing before and after drilling. Why is this important? Because drilling is presumed to have caused water well contamination if it occurs within 1,000 feet of drilling, within 6 months. Darrell’s well water tests indicated serious problems that also pointed directly to drilling contamination, especially when compared to other area water well tests close to drilling. Acrylonitrile appeared at an alarming level in Darrell’s water test, being 130-times higher than the permitted level in a Pennsylvania stream.
Other contaminants showed up in the Smitsky’s well water tests done by the DEP. But keep in mind, the Pennsylvania DEP only tests for 14 things. Things like volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) and acrylonitrile are not included in their tests, so the DEP test results often give an incomplete picture of the true contamination levels from Marcellus drilling.
During the fracking of one of the Alexander's (GPS 40.2833 -80.310137) Marcellus wells near Darrell’s house, Emil Alexander reported foam coming up out of the ground in his field. Around the same time, an abandoned well from the early 1900’s, located just up the valley from Darrell and his neighbor, started spewing fluids. Personal accounts indicate that the new Marcellus well wouldn't frack, even after repeated attempts by Range Resources. The old well nearby had never been properly plugged, just like tens of thousands of other Pennsylvania wells drilled in the past. Photos below show this old well getting plugged during the summer of 2011. DEP methane monitors remained in the area surrounding the old well.
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| LINKS June Chappel's story Pam Judy's story Ron Gulla's story |
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