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Dissatisfaction with DEP on gas-related complaints no coincidence

By Benjamin Groover 4 min read

So a state audit shows the DEP is caught stalling/covering for the Marcellus gas industry on health issues and stonewalling people who complain about gas industry damage to the environment.

Didn’t the DEP state emphatically the recent gas well explosion that vaporized a human being in Greene County was not a health danger to residents? This is the same DEP that was caught withholding water test information from residents with Marcellus-related water damage.

To understand the joke that is DEP Marcellus gas industry oversight you really need to go through trying to get the DEP do anything related to the industry.

A few years ago my water well went bad on the very day the gas industry fired up a machine so large that it rattled my neighbor’s houses and shook the ground. The noise was deafening. I called the DEP about my water well damage and became one of the people who had most of the test results withheld. A DEP field agent told me “We all know what happened here but my supervisor will not let me put it in the report. You need to hire a lawyer and a hydrogeologist.”

The fact that the water went bad a few hours after the machine started was considered just a coincidence and became the DEP’s official line. I was told by the DEP to just put bleach in my water and filter it. I tried to complain up the DEP chain of command but it seemed like I was being stonewalled. Later I learned that a person in the DEP above the field agent was given a vice president’s job with a Marcellus gas company. Maybe it was just a coincidence?

Fast forward a year or two when I tried to report damage by the gas industry on a leaking well site, an erosion problem and damage to a pond on my property. The honest field agent was long gone and the new field agent told me they would probably fine the well company if the company was little but they try to stay friendly with the big companies. Nice to know the DEP changes the rules based on how friendly they want to be with someone and how large the company is. The agent ignored the pond damage and took an email from the gas company that the erosion would be fixed as all the reassurance he needed repairs would happen.

The pond had been in existence for half a century, with photographs to prove it, and is viewable on Google, so I again contacted the DEP about the pond damage and was informed this time that it was a property damage issue and they would do nothing about it.

I asked if I could fill the pond in because it would no longer hold water but the DEP insisted I could do nothing to the pond without a permit or I would be fined. How could the gas industry be allowed to damage the pond with no permit and I would need a permit to fix it?

At this point, I felt obligated to lodge a complaint against the DEP, so I tried to work up the DEP chain of command. Amazing as it seems, a supervisor refused to take my complaint, and without talking to me and with no investigation of evidence, her response was “I am satisfied that DEP staff responded timely and professionally to all your complaints. I am not aware of any DEP official complaint procedure.” I asked for the name of her supervisor and she refused to provide it. Another gas industry vice president in the making or just another coincidence?

The moral of this story is this. If you are in farming, trucking, manufacturing or mining, the DEP will not help you. DEP stands for Don’t Expect Protection to the state’s residents and the environment.

Benjamin Groover is a resident of Smithfield.

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