"Testimony: Obsolete Tests Tainted Shale Analysis"

"[Pennsylvania] State regulators did not consider available water chemistry test results and had limited knowledge of past spills and leaks at Range Resources’ Yeager Farm shale gas development site in Washington County before deciding the operation did not contaminate the nearby private water supply of Loren Kiskadden, according to testimony last week in the ongoing case before the state Environmental Hearing Board in Pittsburgh.

A state Department of Environmental Protection geologist also testified that a hydro-geological report he wrote in response to Mr. Kiskadden’s contamination complaint contained an unattributed conclusion by Range Resources’ that an analysis of Mr. Kiskadden’s water, 'does not indicate contamination by gas well drilling.'

The DEP geologist, Michael Morgart, sent that report to his superiors in the department’s Bureau of Oil and Gas in August 2011, the month before it determined there was no impact from the Marcellus Shale gas development to Mr. Kiskadden’s water well in rural Amwell Township."

Don Hopey reports for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette October 6, 2014.