Dimock, A Town Fractured

On September 2009, more than 8,000 gallons of dangerous hydraulic fracturing fluid was discharged following a series of spills from a well site run by Cabot Oil and Gas near the town of Dimock, in northeastern Pennsylvania. The drilling fluid involved in the spill was manufactured by Halliburton and is described as a "potential carcinogen."

At the time of the spill, the majority of people in Dimock leased their land to Houston-based Cabot, which has 62 gas wells in the area.

The fluid made its way into Stevens Creek and a wetland, spurring a massive clean up and biological impact investigation by the state environmental regulator and the state fish & boat commission. A fish kill was reported by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which also reported fish "swimming erratically."

The MSDS form for the spilled fluid, a Halliburton proprietary product called LGC-35 CBM, does not list its entire makeup. However, it does warn that the substances have led to skin cancer in animals and "may cause headache, dizziness and other central nervous system effects" to anyone who breathes or swallows the fluids.

The DEP concluded early on that faulty well construction allowed contaminants to leak from Cabot's wells into water supplies. In September, following the fracturing fluid spill, the state temporarily banned Cabot from hydraulically fracturing any more wells near Dimock, but that prohibition was lifted several weeks later.

Cabot's drilling operations in Dimock have had a history of problems. Less than a year before the fluid spill, an explosion in one resident's backyard well shattered an 8-foot concrete slab and tossed the pieces onto a nearby lawn. The DEP found that Cabot had polluted the fresh groundwater with highly-combustible methane. Too much pressure in the mile-deep wells or flaws in their cement-and-steel casings had opened a channel for the gas.

In the winter of 2008, drinking water in several area homes was found to contain metals and methane gas that state officials determined leaked underground from Cabot wells. In the spring of 2009, the company was fined for several other spills, including an 800-gallon diesel spill from a truck that overturned.

In November 2009, the DEP released a document listing more than a dozen infractions, including fracturing fluid spills, diesel spills and well-construction problems that allowed methane gas to seep underground into private drinking water wells. The document listed more than a dozen families whose drinking water was affected by the contamination.

In April 2010, the DEP fined Cabot $240,000, and ordered it to permanently shut three wells and install water-treatment systems in 14 homes within 30 days or face a $30,000 a month fine. Its more than two-dozen pending drilling applications were also put on hold.

Fifteen Dimock residents whose wells were contaminated are now suing Cabot. They have had to vent their wells to avoid more explosions, and been forced to use bottled water or install elaborate filtration systems to make their drinking water safe. Some rely on daily deliveries of fresh water from Cabot. In addition to the cost of health care and health monitoring, the suit seeks compensation for the loss of property values in the rural area.