Pennsylvania cattle quarantined after contact with gas-well wastewater leaking from pit

Concerns about wastewater with natural-gas drilling chemicals have seeped into agriculture, as Pennsylvania officials have quarantined 28 beef cattle after water from a nearby well leaked into a field and came into contact with the animals. "The state Department of Agriculture said the action was its first livestock quarantine related to pollution from natural gas drilling," Nicholas Kusnetz of ProPublica reports. "Although the quarantine was ordered in May, it was announced Thursday." Carol Johnson, who along with her husband owns the farm in north-central Pennsylvania where the contamination took place, said she noticed fluids pooling in the pasture, killing grass, in early May.

The farm sits above the Marcellus Shale formation, whose vast natural gas reserves recently became accessible for the first time by using hydraulic fracturing. "Fracking" injects thousands of gallons of water, sand and chemicals into the well to create small cracks in the shale, releasing natural gas reserves to be collected above. Reports of contamination from drilling wastewater have popped up around the country.

The state Department of Environmental Protection said "In the Johnsons' case, a mixture of fresh water and wastewater that had been injected into the well leaked from an impoundment pit on the farm," Kusnetz writes. Tests performed for East Resources Inc., which owns the well, "found hazardous chemicals and heavy metals, including chloride, barium and strontium," Kusnetz reports. No adverse affects have been observed in the cattle, and East Resources told Kusnetz that tests of the leaked fluid did not show unhealthy levels of any contaminants and that the quarantine was unnecessary. (Read more)