"PITTSBURGH - Six years into a natural gas boom, Pennsylvania has for the first time released details of 243 cases in which companies prospecting for oil or gas were found by state regulators to have contaminated private drinking water wells.

The Department of Environmental Protection on Thursday posted online links to the documents after the agency conducted a 'thorough review' of paper files stored among its regional offices. The Associated Press and other news outlets have filed lawsuits and numerous open-records requests over the last several years seeking records of the DEP’s investigations into gas-drilling complaints.

Pennsylvania’s auditor general said in a report last month that DEP’s system for handling complaints 'was woefully inadequate' and that investigators could not even determine whether all complaints were actually entered into a reporting system."

Kevin Begos and Michael Rubinkam report for the Associated Press August 28, 2014. [2]