Wellsboro, P.A. - The Pennsylvania agriculture department called for 28 cows to be quarantined from Carol Johnson's Dairy Farm. Agricultural officials said the cows drank from water that was contaminated. To protect the public, they are not allowing the beef cows to be sold to prevent any potentially contaminated meat to be sold. Carol Johnson said she first noticed something was wrong when the grass surrounding the holding pond was wet. "The bank was leaking someplace. I said, I got a swimming pool on the other side of my fence. Something is wrong, we got to fix it," said Carol Johnson, Farm Owner.
East Resources created the pond to release gases during the hydrofracking process. That's where sand, water and chemicals are pumped into a pipe deep in the ground to release natural gas in the Marcellus Shale. DEP found a toxic metal called strontium, it's highly toxic to humans and animals. They also found sodium chloride, or salt in the water, which cows are drawn to. That attraction to salt lead the cows to the holding pond,while no cows were seen drinking the contaminated water, their tracks were found all throughout the pool. According to DEP the toxic metal takes a long time to pass through an animal's system. Of the 28 cows being quarantined, 20 adult cows are on hold from being sold for six months. Eight calves must be held for 2-years and any unborn calves would be quarantined for eight months. A spokesperson for East Resources said that they had the soil and water tested at DEP standards, but their tests came back negative. Despite that, some neighbors are concerned. "This should have been a set diagram for how they could have surveyed the land, where the fencing should be, how deep they can drill, where the water streams feed the water where the cows eat from," said Jim Vandergracht, a local resident.
The owner of the farm said, East Resources took the contaminated soil from the holding pond to a landfill in Ohio.
