— The growing boom in Marcellus shale gas well production can bring property owners financial windfalls, but both of the first Johnstown area wells bring reminders of the economic and environmental risks.

Two wells have been drilled in Adams Township, and both face issues.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. of Towanda, Bradford County, put in a well last year near the intersection of Palestine Road and Route 160, Forest Hills Drive.

The drilling and site work brought a lot of attention and a few complaints about noise and lights during development, but now the company is shutting down the project.

“Due to a lack of transmission pipeline infrastructure in combination with the fact that this is not a core area for Chesapeake's Marcellus development, the company has chosen to focus its capital in other regions that provide more accessibility to gas markets,” spokesman Matt Sheppard wrote in a statement.

“Chesapeake is awaiting approvals and proper regulatory permitting to cap and secure this well.”

Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Helen Humphreys confirms the company has applied to plug and secure the well. Chesapeake would have to apply for a new permit to reopen the well in the future.

The second well is still in development off Mine 42 Road near the Old Bedford Pike intersection.

Although the owner, T&F Exploration of Pittsburgh, has not completed the underground work, one property owner says the well is already polluting his well water.

“We always had good water,” John Slesinger said at the home his father built on Saddle Club Road. “On December 11, we woke up and one of my granddaughters said, ‘The water tastes funny.’ ”

Water coming from the family’s well had become salty, Slesinger said. He talked to neighbors, but none reported any problems. One suggested in could be coming from the drilling site. That was the first Slesinger knew of the T&F well, which the DEP says is 2,650 feet from his water supply well.

Slesinger contacted the DEP, but after a few months and several tests, the state agency told him the contamination in his water did not meet the criteria of gas well pollution.

“They said, ‘Your water is getting better and you could drink it,’ ” Slesinger said. “They think eventually, it will clear up. That’s the last I ever heard from them.”

Seven months after the initial contamination, Slesinger is still hauling water to his home for drinking, bathing and cooking.

He has had several independent tests done, and has been advised not to drink the water.

One hydrogeologist who saw the results told him not to let the well water contact his skin.

Dana Rizzo, water quality educator at the Penn State Cooperative Extension office in Greensburg, has been working with Slesinger in connection with a Penn State survey of Marcellus drilling’s effects on water supplies.

Water quality test results Slesinger sent her look like “classic gas well contamination,” Rizzo said.

The main telltale sign is his elevated level of total dissolved solid, which are usually salts found underground near gas and oil deposits, she said.

In addition, the Slesinger water well’s high amounts of chlorides and barium are often associated with gas wells, she said.

Water wells in this area collect ground water from aquifers, or areas of water-holding soil and rock within a couple hundred feet of the surface, Rizzo explained. At the bottom of that aquifer there is a layer of solid rock or clay that seals the groundwater away from naturally occurring salts, chlorides, barium and other unhealthy minerals below.

Gas well drilling goes into layers well below the aquifer, but can affect groundwater by bringing up those minerals and letting them seep into the ground, she said. The problem can usually be traced to site preparation work and other disturbances around the drilling site.

“It comes from any surface activity,” Rizzo said.

T&F has completed its vertical drilling at the Adams Township well, but has not started the horizontal drilling or hydrofracturing. The process involves injecting water and chemicals at high pressure between layers of rock to allow gas to escape from the shale.

Wells can extend up to a mile horizontally under surrounding properties, Rizzo noted, but that process does not directly affect well water. That’s because most water wells are less than

250 feet deep, while the Marcellus gas wells are from 7,000 to 9,000 feet deep.

“It is very unlikely anything is going to migrate up through that,” Rizzo said. “It’s usually a spill on the surface or the liner of a ‘frack’ pond breaks and the (hydrofracturing chemicals) seep down into the ground.”

T&F Exploration spokesman Bill Straslicka would not agree to an interview with The Tribune-Democrat. In response to an e-mailed list of questions, he responded:

“While we empathize with Mr. Slesinger's water quality problem, we can assure you that we take every precaution possible to protect the fresh water aquifers that we drill through and that we are in full compliance with DEP regulations in all regards at our well location in Adams Township,”

He referred to a DEP water test at Slesinger’s well that Humphreys said showed problems “not consistent with contamination from a gas well.”

The DEP also sampled one of Slesinger’s neighbor’s well and found no problems, Humphreys said.

Gas well drillers are required to notify all property owners who rely on water from sources within 1,000 feet of a drilling site, Rizzo said. Slesinger was not notified by T&F because of the distance.

She urges all well and spring users to have their water tested prior to any drilling in their area. That way, if the water becomes contaminated, it is easier to show the driller is responsible.