Ron Carter and wife, Jean of Dimock, Pa., were first approached by Cabot Oil and Gas Co. representatives in late August of 2006 with a lease offer that seemed, at the time, to be very lucrative for their 75 acres of land.
The Carters said the various Cabot officials who visited their home – located, ironically, on Carter Road – convinced them that their neighbors had all signed similar deals, and if they refused, Cabot would be drilling for the natural gas lying in the Marcellus Shale under their property anyway.
While he admitted to being uncertain, Ron said he and his wife discussed their options and ultimately agreed to sign on with the company for $25 per acre. The money went toward that year’s property taxes.
But it was a decision the couple has regretted ever since. What followed has haunted the long-time Dimock residents – and 17 nearby neighbors – every day for the past four and a half years.
Following a series of drilling tests – at depths of 8,000, 10,000 and 12,000 feet – Carter said he was informed there was no potential for natural gas drilling on his property. A little over two years later, in September of 2008, drilling commenced at a well just 320 feet from his front porch, right on his property line.
And in late October of 2008, the couple said their water began to emit a strange smell and taste increasingly bad.
The Carters are just one of 18 families who are blaming the Cabot Oil and Gas Co. for the contamination of their drinking water due to natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing. The horizontal drilling process needed to release natural gas from tight shale formations involves the injection of thousands of gallons of fresh water, sand and chemical additives under high pressure into a well.
“We’ve seen the effects of natural gas drilling and we’ve kept a detailed record ever since,” stated Ron. “We couldn’t use it and we couldn’t shower with it because it coated your skin. We couldn’t drink it or cook with it. We traveled to the Montrose artisan well just so we could have water for both.”
The couple soon went to Cabot, simply to make the company aware of the problems they were experiencing. They were told there was nothing the oil and gas company could do for them. Carter then contacted the corporate office in West Virginia. He was told the problem had nothing to do with Cabot’s drilling. A request for the installation of a water purification system was subsequently denied.
In the end, the Carters were forced to purchase not one, but two water purification systems – at approximately $7,000 apiece – one for themselves and a second for their son, daughter-in-law and grandson, who lived next door and shared the same well – and the same problems.
“We live on a fixed income, but we had to have something put in,” said Carter.
Unfortunately, prior to the installation of the purification systems, the Carters were informed the equipment would not remove the methane which had been discovered in their water on Jan. 18, 2009, when the couple received a visit from the local fire department, Cabot and the DEP. On New Year’s Day, just 17 days earlier, neighbor Norma Fiorentino’s well cap had exploded. One week after the explosion, families at four nearby homes had to be evacuated due to dangerous methane levels.
According to Jean Carter – following a meeting of concerned Dimock citizens in early February – Cabot began delivering water to several Dimock residents and installing methane vents at contaminated water wells. Periodically throughout that summer, however, the methane build-up was so bad it would blow the caps off, she said.
