It was called the Worst U.S. Climate Disaster of 2022 according to the National Bloombuerg Report. It all started with Residents saying they heard a loud explosion and roaring noise. Now new reports say it still isn’t cleaned up.
It was at the facility along Dishong Mountain Road in Jackson Township where cleanup efforts of November 2022’s gas leak are reportedly still under way. Environmentalists we spoke to say they aren’t seeing the amount of progress they’d like to. David Hess, former Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection saying: “The conventional well failed, and released a lot of Natural Gas into the atmosphere, in November of 2022, at this site.”
According to the Department of Environmental Protection, approximately 1.1 Billion cubic feet of gas, to be more specific. Former Secretary Hess claims as recently as December 13, 2023, the D.E.P. conducted the latest in a series of inspections at the George Reade 1 well site, in Jackson Township, Cambria County. According to Hess, the D.E.P. found Equitrans still has not resolved ground and surface water pollution issues related to plugging the well. Hess says the D.E.P. has an ongoing water sampling effort involving the use of 10 monitoring wells documenting groundwater conditions. Hess adding: “They [Equitrans] obviously have a lot of work to do on the ground water side of things, yet. So, I would suspect that the side still has a lot of work to go.”
According to the PA Environment Digest, notices of violation were issued, after Equitrans initially failed “to provide the D.E.P. free and unrestricted access” for inspections.
We reached out to Equitrans leaders about their response to the current situation. We have not heard back from them yet.
We also reached out to Jackson Township leaders, to hear what they think about Environmental Officials saying more needs to be done. They have not yet responded.