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Marcellus Shale gas drilling company Cabot ordered to halt in Dimock, PA
The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.
Marcellus Shale gas drilling company Cabot ordered to halt in Dimock, PA
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has ordered Cabot Oil & Gas Corp to halt drilling in Dimock, PA after some 14 residential water wells were contaminated with methane gas that "migrated," into the wells, DEP says, as a result of the company's drilling activities in the area.
Funny enough, I wrote about Dimock – and its bubbling wells, at which Cabot has installed vent pipes to relieve some of the methane, and which sound like turkeys gobble-gobbling – in this week's "Man Overboard.":
Bubbling is only one of the magical properties the Sautners' well water has taken on since they first leased land to Texas-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. for natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale geologic formation two years ago. The water has also turned brown, tested positive for strange salts, metals and chemicals and started clogging things: "[Cabot] cut into a pipe that was less than a year old," says Craig Sautner, "and it looked like solid peanut butter in there."
Cabot, the Inquirer reports, continues to deny responsibility:
Despite agreeing to plug and abandon the three gas wells, Cabot maintains those wells are not at fault - it says the methane comes from shallow shale formations and is seeping into groundwater through natural fractures. Pre-drilling tests on more recent wells show preexisting methane concentrations in groundwater in that area, Cabot says.
"We're agreeing to plug the wells in order to comply with the order," said Kenneth S. Komoroski, a Cabot spokesman. "We do not believe they are a source of methane migration or contamination."
Interesting – especially, since the order, which is signed by a Cabot attorney, says that Cabot agrees to take responsibility and not to challenge the DEP's findings in "any matter or proceeding involving Cabot and the Department" – apparently that doesn't hold true for Cabot and the news media:
Not that Cabot has been put out of business. Reports the Inquirer:
But Dan O. Dinges, the Cabot chief executive who met with Hanger Wednesday, said in a news release that the DEP's order does not affect the number of wells planned for 2010, or its expected production.
The ban on drilling affects only the Dimock area, Komoroski said. Cabot has about 25 permits to drill wells in other parts of Susquehanna County.
Isaiah - aLex is not the only one to deeply appreciate the work that you and all the other sharp journalists are doing on my behalf... oh... um THAT IS on behalf of the public!! Don't we ALL benefit!?
big important news. way to go.
Thanks, Alex, for your continued readership of the Clog. I hope to someday earn the praise you so generously heap on me. - Isaiah
So, hey - what's taking the federal government so long to stop the oil spill? The federal government should have federalized the spill response over a week ago. The fumbling and bumbling of this is aggregious...Obama's Katrina. According to the National Enquirer, Obama has been ridin' dirty with Vera Baker, an assistant http://www.nationalenquirer.com/obama_cheating_scandal_vera_baker_video_/celebrity/68589 Maybe Obama should focus more on making sure oil doesn't coat our shores instead of spending time banging Vera behind Michelle's back (if it's true)?
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