Pennsylvania environmental officials have given permission to a company to resume a gas drilling procedure that blasts chemical-laden water into the ground in a village where residents say their well water was polluted.
The Department of Environmental Protection says Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. has met its obligations under a 2010 consent agreement and will be permitted to frack seven previously drilled wells in Dimock Township.
Dimock residents say Cabot polluted their water supply with methane gas and toxic chemicals. State regulators had previously blamed Cabot for elevated levels of methane in the aquifer and banned it from drilling and fracking in a 9-square-mile area.
The DEP hasn’t cleared Cabot to resume drilling any new wells in the area but says it may begin producing gas from the seven existing wells.
