"A signature battle of the energy boom, a public fight over a waste-water deep disposal well, plays out amid scientific uncertainty over safety in a small town."

"LUTHERSBURG, Pa. -- Hunters, homeowners, Amish farmers and Boy Scouts in their uniforms: No dancing was planned, but the parking lot was full at the community center.

When it comes to debates about people's water, pollution and the 'fracking' boom reshaping small towns nationwide, the Environmental Protection Agency officials here for a public hearing must have known things might get a little crowded, and a little rowdy.

'We are here to listen to your comments, not to make any decisions,' said the EPA's Karen Johnson at a community center hearing held on Dec. 10. Johnson and three other officials from EPA's Philadelphia office came to hear public comments on a proposed deep waste-water well proposed for a hilltop just outside the city of DuBois, a nearby town of about 8,000 people. They faced about 200 people interested in the prospects of their town becoming a place where the waste water from some of the several thousand hydraulic fracturing wells now dotting the state would be forced under pressure into a hole in the ground some 7,300 feet deep, the proposed Zelman #1 injection well."

Dan Vergano reports for USA TODAY December 15, 2012. [2]