‘Irreversible’: No easy fix for water fouled by gas driller

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM
Associated Press

DIMOCK, Pa. (AP) — One of the best-known pollution cases ever to emerge from the U.S. drilling and fracking boom has entered a difficult new phase as prosecutors pursue criminal charges against Pennsylvania’s busiest gas driller. The attorney general’s office is pushing for a settlement they say could yield more significant benefits for affected homeowners than a conviction. But the option they recently discussed, water treatment systems, has put them at odds with some in the community of Dimock. They reject the filtration systems as inadequate and unworkable. These residents want to be hooked up to public water. But that’s also a controversial idea in their rural community.