originally published at ProPublica on 9/21/09

Pennsylvania environment officials are racing to clean up as much as 8,000 gallons of dangerous drilling fluids after a series of spills at a natural gas production site near the town of Dimock late last week.

The spills, which occurred at a well site run by Cabot Oil and Gas, involve a compound manufactured by Halliburton that is described as a "potential carcinogen" and is used in the drilling process of hydraulic fracturing, according to state officials. The contaminants have seeped into a nearby creek, where a fish kill was reported by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The DEP also reported fish "swimming erratically".

The incident is the latest in a series of environmental problems [1] connected to Cabot’s drilling in the Dimock area. Last winter drinking water in several area homes [2] was found to contain metals and methane gas that state officials determined leaked underground from Cabot wells. And in the spring the company was fined for several other spills, including an 800 gallon diesel spill from a truck that overturned.

Neither Cabot Oil and Gas nor Halliburton immediately returned calls for comment on Monday. A Halliburton spokesperson sent an email referring any questions to information on the company’s website.

In the midst of a national health care reform battle, a small drama unfolds in northeast Philadelphia. Last week, the Pennsylvania House held up $175 million in additional funding to Temple University. Representative John Taylor described the move as a “wake up call for Temple University” to live up to their responsibility to the public.

The communities of Port Richmond, Kensington, Fishtown, Bridesburg and Juniata coalesced last December amid rumors Temple University Health System (TUHS) planned to close down the busy, full-service Northeastern Hospital. Despite the effort of community members and local lawmakers, Temple refused to discuss their plans. In fact, they would not even confirm their intention until they announced in March they would close the hospital. They gave two months notice, which is the minimum required by the state. Temple did the minimum.

Back in March a coalition of local legislators – Representatives John Taylor and Mike O'Brien, and Senators Mike Stack and Larry Farnese - found some leverage in the House's authority to grant supplemental funding to Temple University; they said they would hold the funding up come budget time. Temple believed they were bluffing. They apparently figured that since the hospital would cease admissions in mid-May, and be completely empty by end of June, that lawmakers would not have a motivation at budget time to follow through. They were wrong.

Temple reacted to last week's news by threatening to pass the costs onto their students via a 45% tuition hike, despite a balance sheet showing robust cash reserves (http://www.temple.edu/budget/documents/boardandauxiliarybudgets.pdf). The move is intended to inflame the public and pressure politicians to back down.