Protesters ask EPA to deliver clean water to Pa. town

Several dozen demonstrators gathered outside the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia this morning to urge the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to deliver clean water to residents of Dimock in Susquehanna County.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson was attending an unrelated event inside.

Dimock residents Craig and Julie Sautner said they have been unable to use their well water for more than three years, saying it was contaminated as a result of natural gas drilling nearby.

The state had required that the drilling company, Cabot, restore the water supply for the Sautners and other residents.

But last fall, the state Department of Environmental Protection allowed Cabot to stop deliveries of water in November.

Demonstrators said that the EPA has been in Dimock three times since then, talking to residents.

Craig Sautner said an EPA official talked to his wife last Friday and said that the agency would be delivering clean water on Saturday. But then, he said, the EPA called again on Saturday and said the water would not be coming.