Dimock families say drilling harmed their health and homes

DIMOCK TWP. - 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.

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.

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 more.

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.

(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

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