When Shell subsidiary East Resources filled out a permit to
drill for natural gas on the Guindon farm in Union Township, it
had to answer a series of questions. Would this natural gas well
penetrate a coal seam? No, Shell answered. Would it be drilled
where coal had once been removed? No. Would the well be drilled
within 100 feet of a body of water or wetland? No. Within 200
feet of an existing building? No. A water supply? No. A private
water well? Shell listed four of them within 1,000 feet of its
proposed well pad. Seeing no problems, the Pennsylvania
Department of Environmental Protection approved the permit on
June 17, 2010. Part 4: States don’t do much to regulate drilling
near abandoned wells Two years later, almost to the day, it was
something state regulators don’t ask about on the permit
application that came back to cause problems at the Guindon
well. A 30-foot geyser of water and natural gas erupted out of
the ground. Methane bubbled from nearby streams; the water well
of a nearby cabin overflowed