Arbitrator Orders Gas Company to Pay in Bradford County Contamination Claim

A report in a Bradford County, Pennsylvania newspaper says a Terry Township woman is being compensated tens of thousands of dollars by a drilling company for methane contamination in her water.

According to the report in the Daily Review, Jacqueline Place signed a lease in June 2008 that included a clause that would allow for arbitration should there be any damage caused by activity in the area by Chesapeake Appalachia, LLC.

In August of the next year, Chesapeake finished drilling under Place’s property.  The arbitrating firm handling Place’s case said the bottom of the well’s bore was within 80 yards of the woman’s water well.

Place informed Chesapeake and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection that she noticed her water had turned reddish-brown in March of 2010.

Briefs filed in court said tests of the water found dissolved methane levels at 1,300 to 2,000 times above a base-line test.

While the DEP gave Chesapeake the ‘go’ to reconnect Place’s well in December of that year, the woman and her son still drink bottled water.

An arbitrator last month ordered Chesapeake to pay Place $59,381.42.