PAW: Drinking Water 'Exceeds All Standards'
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Is Marcellus Shale drilling poisoning our rivers and threatening our drinking water?
The New York Times sounded the alarm with an article raising the specter that the Mon had become radioactive.
Today, scientists at the Pennsylvania American Water Company said extensive testing shows that is not true.
"That we're not seeing the contamination that the New York Times article had brought to our attention," Ronald Bargiel, a PAW official, said.
After the Times piece, the water company says it did exhaustive testing of the Mon, Allegheny and the Clarion rivers and found nearly undetectable levels of radioactivity and heavy metal such as benzene and toluene.
They found evidence that the rivers -- and the Mon in particular – have been getting progressively cleaner from their industrial past.
"The water on the Monongahela river is continually becoming more and more clean," Bargiel said. "We do not see the contamination that we have in the past over the years with the steel industry and a lot of the heavy industry."
And since the water going into the treatment plant is relatively clean, the water company says it's treated finished water is entirely safe.
"The public should be reassured that our water is clean and potable and exceeds all standards," Bargiel said.
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