Cambria County, PA — It all started with residents saying they heard a loud explosion and roaring noise.
It was at the Equitrans facility along Dishong mountain road, in Jackson township, where cleanup efforts of November 2022’s gas leak, are reportedly under way.
Environmentalists I spoke to say, they aren’t seeing the amount of progress, they’d like to.
According to the department of environmental protection, approximately 1.1 billion cubic feet of gas was released, to be more specific.
Former D.E.P. Secretary, David 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 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.
The D.E.P. Reportedly has an ongoing water sampling effort involving the use of 10 monitoring wells documenting groundwater conditions.
“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.” Hess says.
According to the P.A. Environment digest, notices of violation were issued, after Equitrans initially failed “to provide the D.E.P. Free and unrestricted access" for inspections.
I reached out to Equitrans leaders about their response to the current situation. I have not heard back from them yet.
I 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.
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