healthmedicinet

HOUSTON (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was justified in immediately barring residents in North Texas from using water contaminated with explosive methane and cancer-causing benzene, but additional testing and work needs to be done to assess whether a risk still exists, according to an internal investigation released Tuesday.

The report by the federal agency’s Office of Inspector General concludes a yearlong probe into a case that has been mired in politics and a persistent back-and-forth between Texas and the EPA over how to oversee oil and gas drilling operations. It also left residents in the affected area either using the same water wells or paying to truck in water from other sources.

But the report’s findings could reopen the door to a case that appeared to have been closed in 2012, when the EPA settled with Range Resources, the gas driller it suspected had contaminated the water, and withdrew its emergency actions.

Now, the EPA is being asked to evaluate Range Resources’ most recent tests for quality and determine whether there are still risks to public health or of explosions due to methane gas. The report also asked the EPA to work with the Texas Railroad Commission — the state agency that oversees oil and gas operations — to mitigate any problems.

“Although EPA officials believe that current residents are not presently at risk, the overall risk faced by current and future area residents has not been determined,” the report states. “We believe that the EPA needs to implement cost-effective steps to better gauge the risk and document and disseminate its findings to affected residents.”

This story began in 2010 when Steve Lipsky, a resident of Weatherford, an upscale suburb about 65 miles west of Dallas, noticed his water bubbled like champagne. He alerted the Railroad Commission, then eventually the EPA when he felt the state was not responding quickly enough.

The EPA took its own tests, including isotopic fingerprinting designed to determine the origin of the gas and other chemicals, and decided Range Resources’ nearby drilling operations were the most logical culprit. The agency found that the gas in the water and the gas at Range’s drilling operation were nearly identical, and that the levels of contamination in the residential wells were alarming.

It filed an emergency order in December 2010, demanding that Range Resources immediately supply the impacted families with water, determine the origin of the contamination and mitigate the problem. The agency believed that methane gas and other chemicals leaked into the aquifer through the company’s nearby hydraulic fracturing, a method to extract natural gas or oil by pumping high-pressure, chemical-laced water to crack thick layers of rock.

But the Texas Railroad Commission was doing its own investigation, and it disputed the EPA’s findings. The state agency insisted the aquifer had long been naturally contaminated with methane and that Range Resources was not to blame. The company accepted the state’s finding and disputed the EPA’s, setting the stage for a lengthy, bitter and expensive legal fight.

The sides settled in March 2012, with Range Resources agreeing to test the North Texas wells for a year and share the findings with the EPA. But the company admitted no guilt and wasn’t ordered to provide residents with another water source.

The settlement prompted Republican Texas congressmen to publicly accuse the EPA, and its Region 6 head, Al Armendariz, of going after Range Resources for no good reason and demand an investigation.

On Tuesday, Range Resources spokesman Matt Pitzarella said the company was still reviewing the inspector general’s report. But he said the company agrees with Texas’ finding that, “Range’s activities did not cause or contribute to the long-standing matter of naturally occurring methane.”

He did not immediately respond to questions about the company’s testing or the recommendation that the EPA determine the future risk to residents.

To residents who live in the area, though, Tuesday’s report is only the beginning.

“The truth has only started. This is only a piece of it,” Lipsky said, noting that he no longer uses the water from his well. Instead, he pays hundreds of dollars a month for an alternate source, but he said some of his neighbors still use the well water.

“The holding tanks in people’s garages are going to explode and I don’t care where it’s coming from, someone is going to get killed,” Lipsky said.

To Armendariz, who was repeatedly attacked for the EPA actions against Range Resources, the inspector general’s report is “complete and total vindication of the work we did at EPA.”

“Our evidence was solid and we followed the law, and all rules and regulations,” said Armendariz, who now works for the Sierra Club.

__

Plushnick-Masti can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RamitMastiAP

Also on HuffPost:

Loading Slideshow

• In this file photo from Oct. 14, 2011, a drilling rig is seen in Springville, Pa. State regulators blamed faulty gas wells drilled for leaking methane into the groundwater in nearby Dimock, Pa. It was the first serious case of methane migration said to be related to the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale gas field drilling boom. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, FILE)

• British police secure the area where demonstrators erected a mock fracking rig with a banner reading ‘No fracking in the UK’ in a protest against hydraulic fracturing for shale gas outside the Houses of Parliament in London on December 1, 2012. AFP PHOTO / JUSTIN TALLIS

• SPRINGVILLE, PA – JANUARY 18: A truck with the natural gas industry, one of thousands that pass through the area daily, drives through the countryside to a hydraulic fracturing site on January 18, 2012 in Springville, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

• SAN FRANCISCO, CA – MAY 30: Protestors stage a demonstration against fracking in California outside of the Hiram W. Johnson State Office Building on May 30, 2013 in San Francisco, California. Dozens of protesters with the group Californians Against Fracking staged a protest outside of California Gov. Jerry Brown’s San Francisco offices demanding that Gov. Brown ban fracking in the state. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

• People demonstrate on August 3, 2013 in La Petite Brosse, near Jouarre, outside Paris, to protest against an exploratory oil shale drilling, considering that it opens the door to the exploration of shale gas in the Parisian Basin. Banner reads ‘Stop gas and oil shale’. AFP PHOTO / PIERRE ANDRIEU

• In this Nov. 26, 2012 photo, Steve Lipsky demonstrates how his well water ignites when he puts a flame to the flowing well spigot outside his family’s home in rural Parker County near Weatherford, Texas. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had evidence a gas company’s drilling operation contaminated Lipsky’s drinking water with explosive methane, and possibly cancer-causing chemicals, but withdrew its enforcement action, leaving the family with no useable water supply, according to a report obtained by The Associated Press. The EPA’s decision to roll back its initial claim that hydraulic fracturing, or ?fracking,? operations had contaminated the water is the latest case in which the federal agency initially linked drilling to water contamination and then softened its position, drawing criticism from Republicans and industry officials who insisted they proved the agency was inefficient and too quick to draw conclusions. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

• In this file photo of Jan. 17, 2013, Yoko Ono, left, and her son Sean Lennon visit a fracking site in Franklin Forks, Pa., during a bus tour of natural-gas drilling sites in northeastern Pennsylvania. Ono and Lennon have formed a group called ?Artists Against Fracking,? which has become the main celebrity driven anti-fracking organization. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

• In this March 29, 2013 file photo, a worker checks a dipstick to check water levels and temperatures in a series of tanks at a hydraulic fracturing operation at a gas drilling site outside Rifle, Colorado. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

• In this March 29, 2013 file photo, a worker switches well heads during a short pause in the water pumping phase, at the site of a natural gas hydraulic fracturing and extraction operation outside Rifle, in western Colorado. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

• In this March 29, 2013 file photo, workers tend to a well head during a hydraulic fracturing operation at a gas well outside Rifle, in western Colorado. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

• Josh Fox, director of the anti-fracking, Oscar-nominated documentary ?Gasland? testifies during a House Committee hearing on oil drilling, “fracking” legislation at the Illinois State Capitol Tuesday, May 21, 2013, in Springfield, Ill. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)

• This is a Thursday Aug. 15, 2013 image of the Cuadrilla exploration drilling site in Balcombe, southeast England. (AP Photo/Gareth Fuller/PA)

• A child plays near a farmers’ protest in an area where oil company Chevron plans to put a drilling rig exploring for shale gas in the south-eastern Polish village of Zurawlow on June 11, 2013. AFP PHOTO / JANEK SKARZYNSKI

• Protesters hold a banner during a protest outside of the Momentive resin plant, Monday, July 8, 2013, in Morganton, N.C. Dozens of environmental activists blocked a chemical plant Monday to protest against the company’s sale of products used in the natural gas drilling process called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. (AP Photo/The News Herald, Mary Elizabeth Robertson)

• A fracking rig exploring for shale gas of oil company Chevron on June 11, 2013 in a village of Ksiezomierz in south-eastern Poland. AFP PHOTO / JANEK SKARZYNSKI

• People demonstrate on August 3, 2013 in La Petite Brosse, near Jouarre, outside Paris, to protest against an exploratory oil shale drilling, considering that it opens the door to the exploration of shale gas in the Parisian Basin. AFP PHOTO / PIERRE ANDRIEU

• Opponents of hydraulic fracturing in New York state attend a news conference and rally against hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, on January 11, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

• Eric Weltman of Food Water Watch attends a news conference and rally against hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, in New York State on January 11, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

• Opponents and supporters of gas-drilling, or fracking, walk into the last of four public hearings on proposed fracking regulations in upstate New York on November 30, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

• Engineers on the drilling platform of the Cuadrilla shale fracking facility on October 7, 2012 in Preston, Lancashire. (Photo by Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images)

• Engineers at work on the drilling platform of the Cuadrilla shale fracking facility on October 7, 2012 in Preston, Lancashire. (Photo by Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images)

• General views of the Cuadrilla shale fracking facility on October 7, 2012 in Preston, Lancashire. (Photo by Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images)

• Engineers look at the Cuadrilla shale fracking facility on October 7, 2012 in Preston, Lancashire. (Photo by Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images)

• A lump of shale rock on display at the Cuadrilla shale fracking facility on October 7, 2012 in Preston, Lancashire. (Photo by Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images)

• Engineers on the drilling platform of the Cuadrilla shale fracking facility on October 7, 2012 in Preston, Lancashire. (Photo by Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images)

• Engineers at work on the drilling platform of the Cuadrilla shale fracking facility on October 7, 2012 in Preston, Lancashire. (Photo by Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images)

• Drill heads on display at the entrance to the Cuadrilla shale fracking facility on October 7, 2012 in Preston, Lancashire. (Photo by Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images)

• An engineer displays a lump of shale rock at the Cuadrilla shale fracking facility on October 7, 2012 in Preston, Lancashire. (Photo by Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images)

• Actor/director Mark Ruffalo (C) speaks at the Hydraulic Fracturing prevention press conference urging the protection of the drinking water source of 15 million Americans at Foley Square on April 25, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by D Dipasupil/Getty Images)

• (L-R) Actor/director Mark Ruffalo, Denise Katzman, Wenonah Hauter, and Water Defense co-founder/campaign director Claire Sandberg attend the Hydraulic Fracturing prevention press conference urging the protection of the drinking water source of 15 million Americans at Foley Square on April 25, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by D Dipasupil/Getty Images)