Free Republic

A federal judge has thrown out a $4.24 million jury verdict against one of the largest natural gas producers in Pennsylvania and ordered a new trial in a lawsuit alleging Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. contaminated the well water of two families. U.S. Magistrate Judge Martin Carlson on Friday set aside the verdict reached a year ago by a jury in Scranton, saying the evidence presented by the Dimock homeowners “was spare, sometimes contradictory, frequently rebutted by other scientific expert testimony, and relied in some measure upon tenuous inferences.” Carlson also said the plaintiffs presented no evidence that would...

Dimock is the sacred myth fractivists just won’t let go, as a recent story from the failing, and always politically correct (perhaps there is a connection), Los Angeles Times demonstrates, with the Scranton Times piling on for good effect (yes, that Times, the conflicted one whose owners are in the water testing business). It appears the Los Angeles Times needs to bump up their circulation numbers, so this past Sunday they trotted out the “Dimock” story once again (perhaps inspired by watching Gasland 2 on HBO).

A frac fluid that leaked an estimated 6,000 to 8,000 gallons from a pipe into a stream at a natural gas drilling site resulted in a fish kill last week. A fluid material, described as "frac gel," at a Cabot Oil and Gas Co. well site on the Heitsman property off Troy Road in Dimock Township leaked from a pipe and entered Stevens Creek and a nearby wetlands area Sept. 16. According to Mark Carmon, spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection, the pipe leaked twice on Wednesday. DEP is currently investigating a third spill of the same material...