NOTE: Originally published in Scranton Times-Tribune

Anne Van Lenten of Dimock Proud takes the Scranton Times-Tribune to task for a recent article it published on the small community.

Editor: The Sept. 30 article: “The Methane Mess: Are leaking wells still allowing methane to seep into Dimock’s water?” spent 2,930 words trying to create a controversy where none exists.  It spent these words propping up a thesis of a researcher from a North Carolina university at the expense of residents in our small Susquehanna County town. This is nothing less than a travesty and a dereliction to the very community the Times-Tribune supposedly serves.

A researcher seeking to save face looks at EPA data, makes conclusions that the EPA itself didn’t make and that officials involved with the initial DEP investigation publicly refute.  How is this news?

What is clear is that The Times-Tribune is struggling to remain relevant and this reporter seemingly can’t accept that our water is safe.  Otherwise, why spend so much space on an issue where the only new development is one researcher’s hastily found opinions on what is occurring in an area he knows little about?

If our paper of record cared about the quality of life in the communities it serves, it might decide to stop manufacturing stories like this where none exist.  We are a strong community but this continued thrashing at the stroke of the Times-Tribune pen is wearing us thin.

Want to know how we feel about Cabot Oil and Gas?  Stop by the annual picnic it holds every year which draws thousands of Northeast Pennsylvanians.  These folks likely will express opinions vastly different than those expressed on these pages.

Perhaps the Times-Tribune can run an article of equal length on the fact that EPA, after conducting extensive testing, found that Dimock’s water does not pose a threat to human health or safety.  I won’t hold my breath.

Dimock, Pennsylvania – Can you spot the well pad?  Oh, the industrialization…