Cabot Oil and Gas Faces Lawsuit in Marcellus Drilling

Continued from previous page

But they’re also in a bind. With their homes devalued and royalty payments only trickling in, all they have left are the mineral rights underneath their property. The lawsuit is intended to make up for the damages to property, health, and quality of life but it may be too late to restore the land and water to its previous condition.

Not surprisingly, the company has continued to deny that it is responsible for the undoing of Dimock. In a prepared statement, Cabot CEO Dan O. Dinges said, " we see no merit in these claims and are disappointed that these citizens felt it necessary to proceed in this fashion."

However, it has become increasingly difficult for the company to brush away the complaints of residents in the face of overwhelming evidence. And the whistleblower in the case will certainly test the company’s ability to defend its practices. "It's horrifying to hear him speak," said Lewis, referring to Nolan Scott Ely, the Cabot employee who has joined the lawsuit. "It'll all come out."

"We believe we're going to find some very unpleasant things as a consequence of this suit that have yet to appear in the paper," says Michael Lebron, a spokesperson for the litigants. 

Farnelli says that numerous spills and infractions have gone unreported. Particularly alarming is the dumping of wastewater on roads and fields in Dimock. Throughout the summer, Farnelli says, Cabot made a point of "watering" the road that she lives on -- a dirt road that has washed out several times since drilling began—to control dust even though no one was complaining about the dust. The strange thing was that it rained a lot last summer, and to Farnelli and others Cabot’s actions never really made sense. Why water the road just before it was supposed to rain? 

Using tank trucks, the company would spray the road from one end to the other. Walking back from her neighbor’s one day, Farnelli noticed that the water smelled bad and seemed to have some kind of oil or detergent in it. You could see rainbows in it when the sun hit and there were large bubbles on the surface that just sat there and didn’t break. When residents complained, Cabot started using trucks that said "Fresh Water" on them. 

"We think it was produced water," Farnelli told me. "We think it was frack water." Hydraulic fracturing is a controversial technique that breaks open the shale by injecting millions of gallons of water, sand, and chemicals also known as fracking fluid deep underground to release the gas. The produced water that comes to the surface often contains naturally occurring radioactive elements and the residual chemicals used in the fracking process. Storing and treating the produced water has emerged as one of the most important issues facing Pennsylvania and New York, where horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing are relatively new. According to Farnelli Cabot also sent tank trucks into surrounding fields to empty them of wastewater. Sometimes it would take two days. 

"We know that was frack water because there were people who lived around here working for them. And they were some of the ones who had to do it," she says.

Local residents who have worked on clean up crews after Cabot’s spills have also been exposed to highly toxic chemicals.   According to Lewis, on one occasion, two local workers were sent into a pit as part of a clean up crew with no protective gear. They literally burned their hands from the toxic waste. 

In the meantime Cabot continues to expand its drilling operations throughout the country. Although the price of natural gas has fallen dramatically, the company’s production for the year is up approximately 10 percent according to a recent statement. In the third quarter of this year they reported a net income of $38.9 million.