Scientists are beginning to
sample wells and water sources in the township. It will serve
as proof if the water is poisoned by gas drilling.
If Nockamixon's groundwater is
poisoned during natural gas extraction, officials will have
the evidence.
Scientists with Princeton
Hydro, a New Jersey-based water and wetlands resource
management company, are traveling throughout the township this
week to sample wells, streams, creeks and aquifers.
With a $25,000 grant, the
Lower Delaware River Wild and Scenic Management Committee, a
group of governmental representatives from Pennsylvania and
New Jersey, voted in September to do the testing as a
protective measure.
Delayed all summer by frequent
rainstorms, scientists have completed testing water wells at
nine homes and the Upper Bucks Regional EMS headquarters.
Now they're roving the
township, gathering 20 samples from creeks and streams.
Overall, water data will stretch over a 300-square-mile
region.
"We're testing for a whole
suite of chemical parameters," said James P. Shallenberger,
senior project manager for Princeton Hydro. "Right now, the
objective is just to establish some base lines and sense what
the water is like. If there is any drilling done, there will
most likely be some follow up work closer to those drill
sites."
If the water was to become
contaminated, the Lower Delaware River management committee
argues, this baseline, pre-drilling data could be used to make
the case that drilling was the cause.
"The baseline testing is
extremely important. Because all the discussion we've had
about accountability and liability, the onus is on us to show
the integrity and clarity of our water and have documentation
on it," said the committee's Pennsylvania chairwoman Nancy
Janyszeski, who also serves as Nockamixon's supervisor
chairwoman.
Scientists are focusing their
water testing on both sides of the former Cabot Industries
property, she said.
The Cabot property on Beaver
Run Road, just of Route 611near Revere, is the only site in
the gas drilling permit application stages at the state
Department of Environmental Protection.
The 102-acre property was home
to a specialty metals production operation. The site underwent
a federal environmental cleanup in the early 1990s.
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency has given the Cabot site a clean bill of
health.
The Lower Delaware River
management committee is worried that one misstep at a drilling
site in Nockamixon could spell disaster for its neighbors.
Township homeowners rely on
private water wells and septic systems, and many are already
grappling with a diminishing groundwater supply.
Natural gas is extracted
thousands of feet below the surface via hydraulic fracturing,
or fracking.
The process uses vast amounts
of water, mixed with sand and other chemicals, injected into
the ground under high pressure to create fractures in the rock
and allow the oil or gas to be more easily withdrawn.
Like already-affected
municipalities across the country, Nockamixon officials want
the gas company to disclose what chemicals are being used, but
it's considered a trade secret and is exempted by federal law.
About 250 homeowners have
signed leases with Michigan-based gas drilling company Arbor
Resources. Nockamixon supervisors have asked Bucks County
Court to overturn a decision by the township's zoning hearing
board, which decided Feb. 9 that township ordinances go too
far in restricting drilling and agreed with Arbor officials
that the state's Oil and Gas Act trumps local regulations.
If groundwater is poisoned in
the drilling process, the burden of proof will be with the gas
company, said Shallenberger.
"The state rules put the
burden of proof on the drilling company. If there is a problem
or if someone else reports a water quality issue within six
months that the drilling occurs, there is a presumption the
drilling company is responsible for a change in water
quality," he said.
Although these samplings would
serve as a before-and-after picture of Nockamixon water
quality, it would bring little relief for homeowners suffering
the consequences.
"Water is crucial resource for
everyone," he said.
Princeton Hydro's water
samples will be sent to the laboratory. Results are expected
in a month.