UPDATE 2-Pennsylvania residents sue over gas drilling
November 21st, 2009 | by admin |(Adds quote from Cabot spokesman)
By Jon Hurdle
DIMOCK, Pennsylvania, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Residents of asmall rural Pennsylvania town sued Cabot Oil & Gas Corp (COG.N )on Friday, claiming the company’s natural-gas drilling hascontaminated their water wells with toxic chemicals, causedsickness and reduced their property values.
The lawsuit accuses the company of violating stateenvironmental laws by allowing drilling chemicals to escapefrom gas wells, where they are used in a technique calledhydraulic fracturing.
A Cabot spokesman said the company had not had time tostudy the lawsuit in detail but said Cabot was in fullcompliance with Pennsylvania’s environmental laws and”disappointed” by the lawsuit.
“We don’t see merit in these claims,” Cabot spokesman Ken Komoroski said.
The company, like others in the industry, has argued thatits drilling processes are safe because chemicals are heavilydiluted and are injected into the ground through layers ofsteel and concrete thousands of feet below the aquifers thatare used for drinking water.
The industry says there has never been a documented case ofground water contamination because of hydraulic fracturing.
The case is one of the first to confront the industry overthe technique, which critics claim pollutes aquifers withchemicals that can cause cancer and other serious illnesses.
Cabot’s drilling allowed methane to escape into privatewater wells and in two cases caused wellhead explosions due toa gas build-up, the 15 families in the lawsuit claim.
Pat Farnelli, 46, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, toldreporters on Friday that some of her eight children sufferedstomach cramps after drinking water from the family’s well,which is a few hundred yards from a gas well. She ruled outwater-borne bacteria because boiling the water didn’t help.
‘WE WANT JUSTICE’
The suit is the culmination of complaints by residents ofthe northeastern Pennsylvania community where Cabot has drilleddozens of gas wells in its efforts to develop the MarcellusShale, a massive gas formation that underlies about two-thirdsof Pennsylvania and parts of surrounding states.
“These releases, spills and discharges caused theplaintiffs and their property to be exposed to such hazardousgases, chemicals and industrial wastes,” said the complaint.
The complaint says residents have suffered neurological,gastrointestinal and dermatological symptoms from exposure totainted water. They also say they have had blood test resultsconsistent with exposure to heavy metals.
Victoria Switzer, a plaintiff who lives about a mile fromCarter’s home, said she had joined the lawsuit because she hadfailed to get satisfaction from the state Department ofEnvironmental Protection or her elected representatives. Continued…
