Written by Emily Hays of Illinois Newsroom, Powered by Illinois Public Media
Two Champaign County residents affected by the Peoples Gas methane leak have filed the first class action lawsuit related to the incident. Meanwhile, Peoples Gas continues to maintain that methane levels at affected wells do not pose a danger.
The lawsuit covers potentially thousands of people who live in rural Mahomet and Fisher.
Some homeowners saw methane, or “natural gas,” bubbling in their well water immediately after the 2015 leak at the Manlove Storage Field. People Gas uses the site in rural Champaign County to store natural gas in sedimentary rocks underground.
But a lawyer says methane didn’t show up in the well of the two homeowners named in the new lawsuit until last year.
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