"Washington County Drilling Hearing Raises Conflicts Over Contamination"

"Loren 'Buzz' Kiskadden first noticed a water problem at his house trailer in rural Amwell Township, Washington County, while using a hose to fill a wading pool for his grandchildren in June 2011. 'A gray sludge was filing up the bottom of the pool. It was just nasty,' said Mr. Kiskadden, 55, in testimony before the state Environmental Hearing Board last week in Pittsburgh. 'I shut the water off and told the kids not to get in it.'

Mr. Kiskadden testified that he continued to use the water, which periodically had a 'rotten-egg smell,' to shower, wash dishes and clothes, water his garden and to drink. To get rid of the odor, and at the suggestion of a state Department of Environmental Protection inspector, he poured half a gallon of bleach down his well once or twice a month.

Mr. Kiskadden’s testimony about his water pollution problems highlighted the third week of hearings on his appeal of a Sept. 9, 2011, DEP determination that Range Resources’ Yeager shale gas drilling operation on a ridge did not contaminate his well water in a valley a little more than half a mile away."

Don Hopey reports for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette October 13, 2014.