“They got sick in August. It was before school started. I thought it was just a bug and was trying to get them over it before school started. It didn’t go away and kept going until November and December. They had very severe stomach cramps and would throw up or have diarrhea, one or the other other. I was having problems with the water myself. One of my cats would throw up every time she drank the water inside, so we started using other water. This was reinforced by one of my neighbors telling me that one of my neighbors water wells had gone bad, and this was before Norma’s well had blown up. I started putting things together saying, my kids don’t get sick at school but they get sick at home.”

Just last week, the 15 families filed a lawsuit against Cabot Oil and Gas Corporation for allegedly causing a number of problems, including ruining their water supply.
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They are roughnecks, and they are bringing a new dimension to the region’s demographic as drilling crews migrate from places like Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana to pursue the gas-rich Marcellus Shale under the Twin Tiers.

In Athens Township, Pa., Chesapeake Energy and Nomac Drilling are planning a 180-bed gated compound to house their crews when they’re not pulling 12-hours shifts, seven days a week, on derricks being erected throughout the countryside.

Many are expected to show up in Broome County next year, after New York finalizes a regulatory overhaul to accommodate the intensive type of horizontal drilling used to tap the Marcellus.