About 350 Patton Township residents filled Park Forest Middle School's auditorium last night for a panel discussion regarding the acid rock drainage problem in domestic water wells around I-99 construction sites.

The meeting was requested by Patton Township supervisors to address the concerns of local residents, Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) regional director Robert Yowell said in a press release.

One of the main concerns voiced among those in attendance was the seemingly random method of testing by the DEP and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT). Residents were specifically concerned with the lack of communication to homeowners of testing dates and consequent results.

Bob McClure, an official from PennDOT contractor Skelly and Loy, Inc., said he was unaware of any problems raised by residents with regards to the testing.

"The testing has not been haphazard," he said. "We are not aware of anyone who has called and been denied testing or results."

Currently, PennDOT and the DEP have been testing well sites a quarter-mile to a half-mile away from one of the 11 sites effected by the drainage from I-99 construction, McClure said.

PennDOT and the DEP are following the National Primary Drinking Water Regulations to determine the severity of the contamination and viable solutions, said PennDOT official George Khoury. Home water treatment and bottled drinking water provided by PennDOT and the DEP are the proposed remedies for homes with contaminants above the allowed levels, he added.

"There is a sense of responsibility to provide water to those people that require it," Khoury said. "We will provide [bottled] water to people with maximum levels of contaminates and continue to test their water supply for an extended period."

Even though residents are being provided with drinkable water, there was no specific time-period given by the panel for the duration of the pollution or the need for bottled water.

Yowell said the problem is the inability to pinpoint the exact spot of the contamination.

"We do not have a good way for movement of ground water because of all the missing data from the wells. They were built before many of the residents even moved in," he said. "Every time we thought we had the problem fixed something else would happen."

PennDOT and the DEP have developed plans to move the water to another location and neutralize it, however no timeline for the completion of the project was given, Khoury said.

"[The pollution] is a temporary situation. There are significant measures we are taking that will make a quick impact," he said. "This is not something that will be with us forever. In the meantime there are in-home treatments that are effective at removing contamination and cost effective."

Khoury said no official cost-benefit analysis has been evaluated for testing domestic well water versus the implementation of a public water supply in the region.

"We have not run a full cost analysis," he said. "I agree it is something we need to do."

The current system employed by PennDOT and the DEP has been buying time for the implementation and design of the final result, Yowell said.

"Moving [the contaminated water] and neutralizing it will be the end solution," he said. "We are trying to do it, but it is time-consuming."