Dimock officials reject water delivery offer

citizensvoice.com/dimock-officials-reject-water-delivery-offer-1.1241307#axzz1frMxDI58
BY LAURA LEGERE, STAFF WRITER
Published: December 6, 2011

DIMOCK TWP. – Township supervisors unanimously declined an aid offer by the mayor of Binghamton, N.Y., on Monday night that would have allowed the city to provide a tanker of fresh water to Dimock residents with tainted wells whose replacement water deliveries were stopped last week.

The decision capped a fiery monthly board meeting dominated by supporters of the natural gas drilling company that provided replacement bulk and bottled water for years after state environmental regulators found the driller at fault for methane contamination of 18 water wells.

The drilling company, Cabot Oil and Gas Corp., stopped the deliveries on Nov. 30 with the regulators’ consent.

Citing state findings that the residents’ well water is safe to drink and a preliminary federal review that determined the water does not pose an immediate health risk, community members urged the township to stay out of the disagreement between Cabot and 11 affected families that have sued the company over the contamination.

Township solicitor Sam Lewis said signing a mutual aid agreement inviting an out-of-state municipality to provide free water to private residents raised “significant liability issues” for the township and was potentially outside of the board’s authority.

“If people want to, out of the goodness of their own heart, provide water to these 11 families, that’s fine,” he said. “The question is whether the township should be involved with that joint venture and from that standpoint the legal answer is no.”

The statement drew sustained applause in the township garage crowded with 140 residents.

The hour-long meeting, attended by a state police constable and punctuated by jeers, highlighted the division in the township, an epicenter for natural gas extraction from Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale. Residents seeking water deliveries insisted that their well water contains contaminants other than methane that make it a risk to them and their children, while residents who support Cabot blamed their neighbors for tarnishing Dimock’s reputation and failing to accept the gas company’s offered help.

Some Dimock residents with methane-tainted water accepted new water wells, treatment systems or other remedies provided by Cabot, which denies it caused the contamination. The affected families that received delivered water said the treatment systems do not work, do not remove contaminants other than methane and do not meet the obligation under state law for a driller to restore or replace water supplies they damage.

Water paid for by an environmental group was delivered Monday to some of the residents using a City of Binghamton truck, an arrangement Binghamton Mayor Matthew T. Ryan said did not require a mutual aid agreement because it was a gift from an outside organization.

“Why not let people help?” he asked before suggesting that if the township declined the mutual aid agreement and residents got sick from drinking their water, the community could face a lawsuit.

Supervisor Matthew Neenan bristled at the suggestion.

“Why should we haul them water? They got themselves into this,” he said. “You keep your nose in Binghamton, I’ll give you that advice. We’ll worry about Dimock Township.”

Outside the meeting, Norma Fiorentino sat on a fold-out chair with moist eyes and shook her head. One of the residents with elevated methane in her water, she said her son-in-law is a supervisor who voted against the aid agreement that would have brought her water.

“It’s just hard to see neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend, family against family, she said.