PA Environment Digest Blog: DEP Reports 575 Water Supply/Stray Gas Complaints About Oil & Gas Operations In Last 2 Years; Investigation Can Take A Year, Sometimes 2-3 To Find Those Responsible

On March 20, the Department of Environmental Protection provided an update to the agency’s Oil and Gas Technical Advisory Board on water supply/stray gas complaints.

Jennifer Means, Oil & Gas Program Manager for the Northcentral/Eastern District, provided the update for all the Oil and Gas Districts.

Means reported during 2023 and 2024, DEP received a total of 575 new water supply/stray gas complaints from the public-- 298 in her Northcentral/Eastern Region, 76 in the Northwest and 201 in the Southwest.

During that same time period, DEP’s Oil and Gas offices resolved 395 complaints-- 241 in Northcentral/Eastern, 55 in the Northwest and 99 in the Southwest-- however, they were not necessarily the same complaints that came in the door during 2023-24.

In terms of positive findings of water supply/stray gas impacts within the “resolved cases,” DEP found 33-- 26 in Northcentral/Eastern, 6 in Northwest and one in Southwest-- again, these are not the same cases that came in the door during 2023-24.

Means said in the Northcentral/Eastern District water supply/stray gas complaints “is really the biggest issue we deal with every day."

“We have other critical things that come up, obviously, but throughout the course of our 15-plus year existence, this has been our big issue.”

“It's also difficult to determine up front if a case is stray gas-related just in looking at our complaint data. Because almost all of those complaints don't come in saying there's gas in the water.

“We do get a few of those, and some that say they're lighting their water on fire.

“But most of them come in as something else, like discoloration, turbidity, even odor, various things.

“So, when you're looking at complaints that are still open and trying to determine-- is this stray gas related-- you can't really do that by the way the call or the information initially came into the Department.

“It's really not until the end of that investigation that we can kind of say whether or not it's actually a stray gas case.”

Different Regions, Different Problems

“It's a little bit different in the other districts with the historical well development they've had going on, so in the Eastern District most of the gas migration we're dealing with is obviously related to the unconventional [shale] well development.”

“In the last two years, in the Eastern District specifically, again just looking at some numbers in a different way, we look at the number of new gas migration cases that we're investigating. And we have about 12 of those.

“Those 12 cases involve about 25 water supplies.

“So, of those just in the 23-24 timeframe, 3 of those cases were actually closed out of non-impacts. Those 3 separate cases involved a total of 8 water supplies.

“Three of the cases were presumed [within 2,500 feet of an oil and gas well] to be positive impacts and those investigations are still ongoing as well.

“The remaining 6 cases, involving 14 water supplies, those investigations are still ongoing to determine if there's impacts as a result of oil and gas activity.”

“I think it's important to note that even once we make a determination, obviously if that determination is positive that there was an impact, that investigation goes on, often for a long time, in trying to determine the exact source or cause of the impacts and having remedial measures take place to actually resolve the problem.”

2-3 Year Investigations Not Unusual

In response to a later question, Means said, I don't know that I have an average, [of how long investigations take] but I can just give you some idea from some recent cases we've dealt with.

“We had a fairly significant case where we made a number of positive determinations in the last year.

“That investigation initiated in 2021. It was a situation where there were not many gas wells very close to the area of impact.

“So, it was a situation where the wells that we believe to be the source of the impact are a mile or so away, which makes it, again more challenging, again multiple operators involved.

“So, that was one situation. We certainly do have in gas migration cases, you can be talking a few-year period.

“We also had a couple of cases. I'm going to say the beginning of 2023, where we've been investigating two cases involving multiple water supplies.

“One of those we did resolve the end of last year as non-impact, [was] closer to the two-year timeframe.”

“So, I think two to three years for a significant gas migration case is probably not unusual.”

“We do have some that have been going on for many years. In talking to my counterparts in the Northwest, they even said the same thing even when dealing with conventional operations, especially if you get into situations where the closest wells aren't the obvious problem.”

Geology Makes Problem Worse

Means said in trying to understand why the water supply/stray gas problem is so much worse in the Northcentral/Eastern District than other areas comes down to geology.

“As I said, we all feel this is pretty much the biggest problem we deal with every day, so we talk about it a lot. The thing I've heard the most that's different for us in the eastern district is we've got this highly fractured geology in the shallow subsurface.

“Certain counties in our district are more prone to these problems. We have a lot of issues in Tioga, Bradford, Susquehanna counties.

“We have a lot of impacts that are a considerable distance away from the gas wells that are the potential source or kind of determined to be the source, up to a mile or so away in some cases.

“So, it seems that the possible pathway here is that if there's any defective cement issue, even at some point in the wellbore that the gas perhaps migrates up the well board to some degree until it hits one of these fractures or faults and then kind of stair-steps away from the well, possibly showing up in a water supply or surface water a mile, half-mile or so away from the actual well.

“Which makes it kind of difficult to determine that force, and especially if there's multiple well paths or operators in the area.”

During last year’s report, Kurt Klapkowski, DEP Deputy Secretary for Oil and Gas Management, also highlighted the complexity of these investigations especially in areas with underground coal mining, natural gas pipelines, gas storage areas and thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells.

“When you start to talk about all those facilities at one time, it's like you're trying to find a needle in a stack of needles,” said Klapkowski. “And deciding where that's coming from, it gets really complex, really fast. [Read more here]

Complaint Trends

Means also reported, for comparison, from 2009 to 2014 there were 1,160 water supply/stray gas complaints in the Northcentral/Eastern District with 132 found to be impacted.

In that same timeframe there were 4,875 unconventional shale gas wells drilled.

From 2019 to 2024 there were 1,077 complaints in her District with 121 positive determinations.

A total of 1,593 new shale gas wells were drilled.

“So, it is kind of interesting to see that even though approximately a third of the number of the wells were drilled, our statistics [show] it’s around the same …number of water supply impacts,” said Means.

About this time last year, DEP also reported on water supply/stray gas complaints saying they were seeing an upward trend in the number of investigations and positive determinations. [Read more here]

When asked last year why there are more water supply complaints, DEP said more people are paying more attention to these issues. [Read more here]

Online Reporting

DEP has two webpages that report on water supply/stray gas complaints.

DEP has a searchable online database of cases that will show whether there has been a positive, negative or underdetermined outcome so far in water supply/stray gas complaints.

Cases can be searched by date, county, municipality and DEP and by the nature of the problem and the general cause.

No other identifying information is made available.

DEP also maintains a running list of Water Supply Determination Letters where they have officially determines a private water supply has been impacted by oil and gas activities.

The municipality and county is listed and the names of individuals are redacted.

There are currently 438 cases on that list.

More Background - Presumption

Pennsylvania law provides, generally, an oil and gas well owner is presumed to be responsible for water supply contamination if the oil and gas well is within 1,000 feet of a water supply for a conventional well and 2,500 feet for an unconventional shale gas well.

An additional stipulation is the pollution occurred within six months after the completion of drilling or fracking in the case of a conventional well and 12 months in the case of a shale gas well.

The well owner has the opportunity to rebut this presumption with their own evidence.

If notified by a landowner or a water supply operator of suspected impacts of oil and gas well drilling, the law requires DEP to “Within ten days of notification, the department shall investigate the claim and make a determination within 45 days following notification.”

As Means said, while it is much easier to make a determination in cases involving this presumption, it practically never happens within the 45 days required by law because of the complexities of these cases.

There are also two steps to DEP’s water supply/stray gas determinations.

Step 1 is making a determination about whether a water supply has been impacted by any oil and gas operation.

This step, itself, can take months, during which time the landowner is on their own to provide themselves clean water. [Read more here.]

Step 2 is making a determination about whether a specific oil and gas operation impacted a specific water supply.

As Means reported, Step 2 can take years to get to the point where an oil and gas well owner could be ordered by DEP to provide clean, replacement water.

DEP has a Frequently Asked Questions available on presumptive liability for pollution of water supplies by oil and gas drilling.

For more information on Board activities, visit DEP’s Oil and Gas Technical Advisory Board webpage. Questions should be directed to Todd Wallace, at twallace@pa.gov or (717) 783-6395.

Visit DEP’s Office of Oil and Gas Management webpage to learn more about this program.

(Photo: Wall Street Journal story from 2011 stray gas contamination of a water supply in Bradford County from shale gas drilling.)

Resource Links:

-- DEP Reports The Number Of Methane Contaminated Water Supplies From Oil & Gas Drilling Is Up ‘Across The Board,’ ‘Not A Good Trend’ [PaEN]

-- Environmental Health Project To Hold April 1 Webinar On What The Shapiro Administration Can Do To Better Protect Public Health From The Impacts Of Shale Gas Development [PaEN]

-- Environmental Health Project Seeking Communities To Participate In HealthWatch Program To Better Understand Local Health Impacts Of Shale Gas Development [PaEN]

-- Presentations Posted From 2025 Shale Gas & Public Health Conference Featuring Health Experts, Scientists, Advocacy Groups, Workers On Health, Environmental Impacts Of Shale Gas Development [PaEN]