Coterra Energy pleaded no contest for contaminating well water in Dimock, Pennsylvania, and will pay $16.29 million to build a new means of water supply to its residents, the state attorney general said on Tuesday.
The Houston-based company, formerly known as Cabot Oil and Gas, will make 75 years of water bills payments for the impacted residents, who were exposed to drinking water polluted with metals and high levels of methane.
Attorney General Josh Shapiro said that Coterra will pay to build a new public water line that will provide clean, reliable drinking water for generations to come.
Coterra took full responsibility for the environmental crimes committed, said Shapiro, who said the agreement brought justice to the residents of Dimock who had been ignored for years. In 2020, the attorney general charged Coterra after a grand jury investigation showed that drilling unconventional gas wells by the company had been responsible for methane pollution in the local water supply.
Dimock was the heart of the Marcellus Shale gas fracking boom that began in 2007. Residents complained that Cabot's drilling caused methane gas to seep into their wells, to the extent that the contaminated water even caught fire.