DamascusCitizens.org

"Dimock families say drilling harmed their health and homes."

More families in Dimock come forward about polluted well water.
By Steve McConnell
http://www.wayneindependent.com/news/x441554773/More-families-come-forward-about-polluted-well-water?popular=true

Poisoning Dimock
Lawsuit Challenges Cabot Oil's Drilling Practices in the Marcellus Shale.
By Adam Federman
http://www.counterpunch.org/federman11242009.html

Pa. Residents Sue Gas Driller for Contamination, Health Concerns.

by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica - November 20, 2009 10:00 am EST
http://www.propublica.org/feature/pa-residents-sue-gas-driller-for-contamination-health-concerns-1120

Dimock resident Julie Sautner, seen here in her basement with her water filtration system, flushed her toilet one day to find a rush of earth-brown water. Tests showed her drinking water was high in aluminum, iron and methane. She is now part of a lawsuit against driller Cabot Oil and Gas. (Abrahm Lustgarten/ProPublica)

Pennsylvania residents whose streams and fieldshave been damaged by toxic spills and whose drinking water has allegedly been contaminated by drilling for natural gas are suing the Houston-based energy company that drilled the wells. A worker at the company is among the 15 families bringing suit.

The civil case, filed Thursday in U.S District Court in Scranton, Pa., seeks to stop future drilling in the Marcellus Shale by Cabot Oil and Gas near the town of Dimock. It also seeks to set up a trust fund to cover medical treatment for residents who say they have been sickened by pollutants. Health problems listed in the complaint include neurological and gastrointestinal illnesses; the complaint also alleges that at least one person's blood tests show toxic levels of the same metals found in the contaminated water.

The suit alleges that Cabot allowed methane and metals to seep into drinking water wells, failed to uphold terms of its contracts with landowners, and acted fraudulently when it said that the drilling process, including the chemicals used in the underground manipulation process called hydraulic fracturing, could not contaminate groundwater and posed no harm to the people who live there. "We've been lied to, we've been pushed around, and enough is enough," said Julie Sautner, whose drinking water began showing high levels of methane, iron and aluminum in February and who is receiving fresh water deliveries from Cabot. "We need to push back."

A Cabot spokesman, Ken Komoroski, did not return calls for comment.

Among the 15 families bringing the case to court is Nolan Scott Ely, a Cabot employee who could lend an inside perspective to the case on how the company operates and how it has approached the myriad problems the company has had in Dimock. Nolan Ely did not return calls for comment.

Ely's relatives, who have lived in Dimock for generations, own several properties where Cabot has wells. In January a well at the home of Michael Ely, one of Nolan Ely's relatives who is also part of the lawsuit, caught fire after methane leaked underground into the water supply. At the top of the hill near Michael Ely's home is Cabot's Ely 6H well, which is among the most productive horizontal wells drilled in the Marcellus Shale. Cabot has touted Ely 6H as being one of the company's most profitable.

Fifteen families in Dimock, Pa., file a lawsuit against natural gas drilling company Cabot Oil and Gas, seeking to halt future drilling in the Marcellus Shale near their town. Meet the residents behind the lawsuit. (Abrahm Lustgarten/ProPublica)

Cabot's problems in Dimock go back to January, when a drinking water wellbelonging to Norma Fiorentino -- who is a plaintiff in the lawsuit -- exploded after a methane buildup. Since then methane and metals have been found in numerous drinking water wells in the region. In the last year Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection has determined that Cabot was responsible for several spills of diesel fuel and drilling mud and for an 8,000-gallon leak of hydraulic fracturing fluids being prepared by a contractor, Halliburton, that seeped into a fresh water stream in September.

The DEP concluded early on that faulty well construction allowed contaminants to leak from Cabot's wells into water supplies. In September, following the fracturing fluid spill, the state temporarily banned Cabot from hydraulically fracturing any more wells near Dimock, but that prohibition was lifted several weeks later.

On Nov. 4 the DEP issued a document listing more than a dozen infractions (PDF), including fracturing fluid spills, diesel spills and well-construction problems that allowed methane gas to seep underground into private drinking water wells. The document lists 13 families whose drinking water is affected by the contamination, many of whom are being supplied fresh drinking water by Cabot.

The lawsuit, filed by the New York City-based law firm Jacob D. Fuchsberg and two other firms based in Philadelphia, Pa., and Buffalo, N.Y., did not specify what monetary damages would be sought from Cabot. Dimock residents tell ProPublica that they would be entitled to two thirds of the net judgment after expenses if they win. Lawyers handling the case did not respond to requests for comment.

In addition to the cost of health care and health monitoring, the suit seeks compensation for the loss of property values in the rural area -- something that would allow affected residents there, if nothing else, to leave. "I don't think we've asked for the moon here," said Victoria Switzer, a Dimock resident who is party to the suit. "I mean, Norma just wanted water, for goodness' sake. The compensation, if it were enough to know that we could go away, that's all I want."

Saturday, November 21, 2009; Posted: 04:00 PM

http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/dimock_families_say_drilling_harmed_their_health_and_homes?localLinksEnabled=false

DIMOCK TWP., Nov 21, 2009 (The Times-Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- COG | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- In a field between Ronald Carter's trailer and the gas drilling site less than 500 feet from his front porch, a group of neighbors shared nightmarish stories Friday morning about the natural gas extraction they say has changed their lives and homes.

The 15 families were there to announce a lawsuit they filed Thursday against Cabot Oil and Gas Corp., the Texas-based natural gas operator that has drilled 63 wells in a 9-square-mile area around their homes in Susquehanna County, and has permits to drill about 60 more.

Their complaint alleges the company ruined the water they use to drink, bathe and cook; polluted their land; and caused illnesses of the nervous system, digestive system and skin.

Kenneth Komoroski, a Cabot attorney and spokesman, said the company sees no merit in the families' claims and is "disappointed that the citizens felt it necessary to proceed in this fashion."

The company has been cited by the state Department of Environmental Protection for causing at least seven spills at and around well sites in the county in the last 14 months. Cabot recently signed a consent order with the state agency to provide 13 families in Dimock with permanent drinking water supplies after faulty cemented casings and excess pressures in the company's gas
wells caused methane to leak into the groundwater.

Mr. Komoroski said each of the spills was "addressed promptly" and "remediated completely" so "there is no ongoing risk to the residents." He added that the company's activities are "heavily regulated" by DEP. "Those laws are there to ensure the protection of the residents and they work," he said.

The residents told a crowd of about 50 people Friday morning about drinking water that boils with methane, smells of rot or fuel, and leaves its residue on clothes and dishes. Six of the families that are part of the suit are not among the 13 families who have so far been provided with temporary replacement water supplies by Cabot.

Mr. Carter and his wife, Jean, had a "perfect" water test in June 2008, but after a gas well was drilled nearby in September 2008, their water developed a rotten smell that would stay on their clothes and skin, he said.

They paid $7,000 for a water filtration system when a granddaughter who lived in their home was soon to have a baby, then found out that the system would not remove the methane that had seeped into the groundwater and their well. Pat Farnelli said she and her children would suffer stomach cramps or vomit after drinking their water before they stopped using it a year ago, except when they can not afford to buy water.

She held up a small jar of black water that she captured this summer from the runoff of a Cabot truck that was spreading it along the dirt road. When she asked a Cabot contractor about it, the man promised her the company only spreads fresh water, she said.

Ms. Farnelli is a correspondent for the Susquehanna Independent Weekender, a Times-Shamrock newspaper.
Monica Marta-Ely described a flame that burned a foot high when a neighbor lit a jug of drinking water on fire.
"My kids play in this water, in the creeks," she said with her arm around one child.

One of the attorneys representing the families, Alan Fuchsberg, said the lawsuit exposes the broader impact of natural gas drilling in the multi-state region above the Marcellus Shale. "They have been paid a pittance for this area to be destroyed," he said.
The township, where one out of every eight residents lives in poverty, was one of the first regions in Northeast Pennsylvania to see gas leasing and drilling. Most of the families in the suit signed leases with Cabot for $25 an acre and the state's minimum royalty, 12.5 percent, minus a share of transportation expenses.

Victoria Switzer, whose water has bubbled with methane and leaves a black ring in her washing machine, said many of the families did not expect riches when they signed the leases -- a landman who approached her in 2006 said there might be one gas well in the town -- and they are not looking for riches now. A lawsuit was her last resort after "we couldn't get help anywhere," she said. "I've gone to every congressman, representative ... DEP, Cabot, anyone I could think of to bring this issue to the forefront," she said. "We're not greedy people. We just want some justice for something terribly wrong that happened here."
Contact the writer: llegere@timesshamrock.com
Copyright (c) 2009, The Times-Tribune,

November 20, 2009

Pa. Residents Sue Gas Driller Over Polluted Wells
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

DIMOCK, Pa. (AP) -- Pat Farnelli says there's something in the water at her house. The last time she drank it, she says she vomited four times. It's made her children sick, too.

Like her neighbors in this rural community 15 miles south of the New York border, Farnelli signed a lease with a major natural gas driller to explore a potentially lucrative formation beneath her land. Now Farnelli and others are plaintiffs in a lawsuit that alleges Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. polluted their wells with methane gas and other contaminants, destroying the value of their homes and threatening their health.

A Cabot spokesman said the lawsuit, filed late Thursday in federal court in Scranton, was without merit. At a news conference Friday to announce the suit, residents described an ordeal that began shortly after Cabot started drilling near their homes. The water that came out of their faucets suddenly became cloudy and discolored, and it smelled and tasted foul.

Then, on New Year's Day, a resident's water well exploded, prompting a state investigation that found Cabot had allowed combustible gas to escape into the region's groundwater supplies.

''They were never told that this was even a possibility,'' said Alan Fuchsberg, an attorney for the plaintiffs. More than a dozen families have filed suit, asking for an environmental cleanup, medical monitoring and money damages in excess of $75,000 each.

The state Department of Environmental Protection has determined that 13 wells were polluted, signing a consent decree with Cabot earlier this month in which the company agreed to pay a $120,000 fine, take steps to improve its drilling operations and restore or replace the affected water supplies.

Pennsylvania regulators, citing three chemical spills at a single well site in Dimock, in September halted Cabot's use of a drilling technique that uses liquids to fracture rock and release natural gas. Cabot was permitted to resume hydraulic fracturing or ''fracking'' several weeks later after DEP said the company took steps to prevent a recurrence. The spills are cited in the residents' lawsuit.

Cabot spokesman Ken Komoroski said Friday that the company has not admitted to polluting residents' wells. He said Cabot believes the high levels of methane gas that have been detected in the wells might be naturally occurring. He said a company investigation continues.
'
'On one hand, if Cabot caused the methane contamination, certainly it's understandable why everyone is upset and Cabot will address that situation,'' he said. ''But I wonder how they'll feel if at some point it's proven that Cabot didn't cause it, that all this anger and frustration has been based on a false premise. And we just don't know yet.''

Cabot is among a slew of exploration companies that are drilling in the Marcellus shale, a layer of rock deep underground that experts say holds vast stores of largely untapped natural gas. The company began approaching homeowners in Dimock in 2006, promising fat royalty checks and a hassle-free, environmentally friendly operation, plaintiffs said. Instead, residents have been exposed to ''combustible gases, hazardous chemicals, (and) threats of explosions and fires,'' the suit said.

Some residents also said the company pressured them into signing leases, telling them that all of their neighbors had already signed and that the company would be removing the gas from underneath their properties anyway. Cabot has drilled at least 62 gas wells within a 9-square-mile tract of land in Dimock, according to the suit. Lawyers say the company has plans for at least 60 more.

Craig Sautner, 56, signed a lease with Cabot shortly after buying his house in the spring of 2008 for $150,000. He said his well has since been contaminated by methane gas and unknown pollutants that discolored his water and made it smell like a ''fishy pond.'' He now gets his water from a large portable tank in the garage.

''You're paying a mortgage on a house that's completely worthless. I work every day, busting my hump just to pay the mortgage and I can't even sell my house,'' said Sautner, a father of two.