Ordered

The driller is still claiming the contamination isn’t their fault, and the state DEP is telling them they have to fix it:

In a sharp rebuke of one of the state’s biggest Marcellus Shale gas drillers, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection on Thursday ordered an $11.8 million pipeline built to deliver water to 18 rural residences in Dimock Township whose household wells are contaminated by natural gas.

In response, Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., the Texas driller whose wells the state blames for the pollution, denounced the decision as “unfounded, irrational, and capricious” and accused DEP Secretary John Hanger of “obvious political pandering.”

The atmosphere in Susquehanna County, which borders New York state north of Scranton, has become so polarized that Cabot crews now travel with uniformed escorts after an enraged Dimock resident drew a handgun on an employee.

“Put the guns away,” Hanger said at a news conference Thursday in Dimock, where he announced the pipeline project. “Everybody has to do this through the law.”

In an interview, Hanger said the decision to spend $650,000 per home to extend public water service 12 miles to Dimock from the borough of Montrose was the only certain remedy for homeowners with contaminated wells.

“It’s remarkable that Cabot has not resolved this problem,” Hanger said, describing DEP’s nearly two-year effort to fix the most contentious environmental problem related to Marcellus Shale exploration. Hanger said DEP would force Cabot to pay the bill.