Pennsylvania’s most active gas driller pleaded no contest Tuesday to criminal charges, capping a landmark environmental case against a company that prosecutors say polluted a rural community's drinking water 14 years ago and then tried to evade responsibility.
"After more than decade of denials, of shirking responsibility and accountability, Coterra pleaded to their crime, and the people of Dimock finally had their day in court," Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the state's incoming governor, said outside the courtroom. "Today is further proof that you don't get to just walk away from the harm you do here in Pennsylvania."
Cabot, which merged with Denver-based Cimarex Energy Co. to form Coterra, has long maintained the gas in residents’ water was naturally occurring. Many residents have avoided using their well water since the aquifer was contaminated with methane and heavy metals, using bottled water, bulk water purchased commercially, and even water drawn from creeks and artesian wells instead.
Another resident, Scott Ely, said some of his neighbors had moved away or developed health problems as a result of Coterra's practices, while his own children, now in college, had grown up "without a safe water source."last week. A public utility, Pennsylvania American Water, plans to drill two wells — what it calls a "public groundwater system" — and build a treatment plant that will remove any contaminants from the water before piping it to about 20 homes in Dimock.
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