CONNOQUENESSING TWP — While eight property owners in the low-income, rural Woodlands neighborhood shared a $158,875 settlement from Rex Energy, dozens more continue to buy water without the help of settlement funds.

Rex Energy in April settled with the eight property owners who sued after losing their water supply eight years ago when several gas wells were fracked nearby.

In a statement, a Rex Energy spokesman on Wednesday said, “While we cannot comment on the settlement, Rex Energy continues to deny any wrongdoing related to this matter.”

The Woodlands residents who were not included in the lawsuit wonder why they were left out.

Sheri Makepeace, who lives on Blue Jay Lane with her three young children, said she is happy for her neighbors who received between $11,750 and $27,125 from Rex Energy.

But Makepeace can't figure out why only they were included.

She said someone stopped at her home a few years ago to ask if she wanted to participate in a group lawsuit.

She agreed and signed a document, then never heard anything else from the individual.

When she called the attorney for the Woodlands residents who settled, David McGowan, she was told the residents approached him. Her neighbors who received a settlement denied that claim.

“I think Sheri is one of the most affected residents in the Woodlands,” said her neighbor, Scott Gass. “She has three little kids.”

Since her water well gave out more than eight years ago, Makepeace buys water from the Oneida Valley Volunteer Fire Department for $200 per month. That water goes in her own water buffalo and is connected to her home's water system for showering, laundry and washing dishes.

No other fire departments or water haulers will enter the Woodlands because of the rutted, gravel roads in the private plan, which are not maintained by the township.

“If this one stops coming, we don't have any other options,” Makepeace said.

She also buys jugs of water and bottled water for cooking and drinking.

Makepeace tried to have another well drilled after hers dried up, but was told by the driller that crews had reached past 500 feet and found no water.

A natural spring that ran through her property also dried up after the fracking started, she said.

Makepeace said to conserve water, she and her children sometimes take showers at the YMCA they attend or at her mother's house.

She feels stuck in her small yellow brick home.

“You can't sell a house without water and you can't live in a house without water, so what do you do?” Makepeace said.

She stressed that she is glad at least eight property owners got something from Rex Energy.

“But it's a hard pill for me to swallow to know they got some funds to help them,” said Makepeace.

She is also incredulous that neither the township nor the county offered the Woodlands any funds from the significant shale gas impact fee funds they received from the state.

Makepeace said the township suggested the residents get their own water source and have everyone pitch in on the cost. She said that is impossible in the low-income neighborhood.

Gass said his well still works, but barely.

“We have to balance what our water consumption is, or we'll run out,” he said.

He said no one approached him about a lawsuit, and many residents are worse off than those who received a settlement.

Janet McIntyre is one of the property owners who did receive a settlement, but a nondisclosure clause does not permit her to talk about it.

McIntyre said she gets 20 gallons of water each week from White Oak Springs Church and buys water to fill her water buffalo for showering, laundry and dish washing.

McIntyre said she is staying in her home.

While Rex Energy is also under a nondisclosure order, the settlement amounts were available in the company's bankruptcy documents recently filed in federal court.