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"The state Auditor General says the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) was not able to protect drinking water from natural gas drilling because they are underfunded and understaffed.Video: Watch Pete Muntean's reportThe audit started last January, but it just came out Tuesday.State Auditor General Eugene DePasquale says the DEP was wrong when it came to regulating natural gas drilling.\"In 1950 this might have been OK. That's not the world we're living in today,\" said DePasquale.The 145 page audit says the DEP did not have a watchful eye on drillers because it could not. DePasquale cites a lack of resources in the agency.\"It's like firefighters trying to put out a five-alarm fire with a twenty foot garden hose,\" said DePasquale.Just-released state records say drilling has damaged water supplies in 23 Pennsylvania counties since 2007. The\u00A0audit says the state sometimes did not communicate with those worried about their water.The report makes 29 recommendations on how to fix the issues. The head of the DEP says most of those have been put in place and are fixed.\u00A0 \u00A0\u00A0"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.wgal.com/article/report-dep-did-not-protect-drinking-water-from-natural-gas-drilling-1/6232651>