"Weak Records Cited on Pa. Shale Pollution"

"Even when pollution discharges from shale gas well pads and impoundments contaminate private water supplies, those violations often go unrecorded or publicly reported by state environmental regulators, according to documents filed in the Pennsylvania Superior Court case challenging the constitutionality of the state's oil and gas law, Act 13.

According to a 40-page brief, filed with the court in Harrisburg, it is the 'practice' of state Department of Environmental Protection regulators not to issue a violation notice, fines or formal determinations of contamination where shale gas development companies reach private settlements with water well owners.

That DEP 'practice,' which began during the Rendell administration and continues to the present day, makes it impossible, according to the brief, for the public to know where and when groundwater, wells and springs are contaminated, because there is no publicly accessible record."

Don Hopey reports for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette April 3, 2014.