Dimock
Environmental Research Center
Tanner Falls, PA
DERC stands with scientists &
impacted residents to achieve these three goals:
Offer a science sanctuary to further our understanding of pollution impacts on air, water, and soil.
Fight to end non-disclosure agreements impacted residents are required to sign before they can receive restitution.
Educate those facing new fracked gas infrastructure near them on what to expect & how to deal with new pollution events.
14 Years Without Water
In 2009, Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection filed its first Consent Order against Cabot Oil & Gas, stating “Cabot had caused or allowed the unpermitted discharge of natural gas, a polluting substance, into the groundwater.” Further DEP testing found Cabot had polluted more than twenty drinking water supplies in Dimock. DEP also banned Cabot from fracking within a nine-mile radius of the contamination area. That ban remains in effect today.
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Water testing results coupled with multiple well casing violations led Cabot to sign a final Consent Order in December of 2010. In it, Cabot admited their shoddy well construction polluted the Dimock aquifer. According to the documents, Cabot, “knowingly waives the right to challenge the content or validity of DEP’s findings.”
Almost immediately after signing the Consent order, Cabot started denying that it had polluted the aquifer. The company took out full-page ads in several local newspapers in September 2010 stating: “Cabot does not believe it caused these conditions and intends to fight these allegations through its scientific findings.” The day before the ad ran, Dan Dinges, president and CEO of Cabot sent a letter to DEP claiming the entire pollution case was a scam.
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Cabot was well aware, however, that the evidence was not on its side. Before drilling started, Cabot paid for pre-drill testing that found no presence of hydrocarbons (methane) in the area’s water wells. But when residents tried to use the testing as evidence that natural gas had not been present in their water wells before drilling, Cabot said the testing was invalid.
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Impacted Dimock residents never received full restitution, despite later settling the case with Cabot (Now renamed Cottera).
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Since then the Agency for Toxic Substance found chemicals in 27 water wells in Dimock were high enough to affect health. Chemicals detected above acceptable levels include arsenic, cadmium, copper, iron, lead, lithium, manganese, potassium and 4-chlorophenyl-phenyl ether. Methane levels in 17 private water wells could be a physical hazard.
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In 2020 Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced 15 criminal counts against Cabot for their pollution in Dimock, including nine felonies after recommendations from a grand jury who found Cabot violated of the state’s Clean Streams law, as well as illegal industrial discharges into water ways. The case has yet to be resolved.
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Even after all of this, 13 years later, the company still denies their guilt and many residents in Dimock are STILL without clean water.
