PHILADELPHIA — Residents from a small northeastern Pennsylvania town at the center of the political fight over natural gas drilling are taking their complaints directly to the head of the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

About 50 protesters were picketing outside an unrelated forum in Philadelphia that EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson was scheduled to attend. They want answers about the agency's reversal of a decision to provide water to residents of Dimock, Susquehanna County, who claim natural gas drilling has contaminated their wells.

Cabot Oil & Gas stopped delivering water to Dimock residents in November after state environmental officials found the company had satisfied the terms of a 2010 consent agreement. The company has denied causing the contamination.

PITTSBURGH — A judge has issued a one year delay on property reassessments for Pittsburgh and surrounding communities.Common Pleas Judge Stanton Wettick announced the decision Thursday in Pittsburgh.Property owners will use their 2002 assessment for this year and the new assessments in 2013.County Executive Rich Fitzgerald had told residents to ignore the new assessment figures sent out in recent weeks after a public outcry over property values that doubled or even quadrupled for some property owners.