Coterra Power to pay $16.29 million for Pennsylvania water contamination plea By Reuters

© Reuters. Coterra Power’s brand is pictured on a smartphone on this illustration taken, December 4, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

(Reuters) – U.S. shale producer Coterra Power (NYSE:) pleaded no contest for contaminating properly water in Dimock, Pennsylvania, and pays $16.29 million to assemble a brand new technique of water provide to its residents, the state lawyer common mentioned on Tuesday.

The Houston-based firm, previously often called Cabot (NYSE:) Oil and Gasoline, can even make 75 years of water payments funds for the impacted residents, who had been uncovered to consuming water polluted with metals and excessive ranges of methane.

“Below this historic settlement, Coterra will now pay to construct a brand new public water line that may present clear, dependable consuming water for generations to return,” mentioned Lawyer Common Josh Shapiro.

Coterra took full accountability for the environmental crimes dedicated, Shapiro mentioned, including that the settlement introduced justice to the residents of Dimock, “who for years had been ignored.”

The lawyer common charged Coterra in 2020 after a grand jury investigation confirmed that drilling unconventional fuel wells by the corporate had been answerable for methane air pollution within the native water provide.

Dimock was on the coronary heart of the Marcellus Shale fuel fracking growth that started in 2007. Residents complained that Cabot’s drilling brought on methane fuel to seep into their wells, to the extent that the contaminated water even caught hearth.

Coterra didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.