Company featured in anti-fracking 'Gasland' resumes operations in area where movie was filmed

Pennsylvania environmental regulators granted Coterra Energy Inc. approval to drill 11 wells underneath Dimock Township, an area in the northeast corner of the state with a population of 1,421.

In a nation with nearly 1 million oil and gas wells drilled, approval for 11 more wouldn’t get much attention, except Dimock is considered ground zero for the anti-fracking movement.

In 2010, Director Josh Fox released the anti-fossil fuel documentary Gasland, which featured residents of Dimock angry at the industry for harming their water supplies. At the time, few people knew much about hydraulic fracturing, a well completion technology that opened up huge reserves of petroleum an exponentially increased oil and gas production in the U.S.

Gasland portrayed the industry as corrupt, reckless and polluting, which is largely considered the initiator of the anti-fracking movement in the U.S. Many of its predictions about how fracking would impact wildlife and groundwater never materialized.

In the film, Fox interviewed residents in Dimock who were suing Cabot Oil & Gas, Coterra’s predecessor, for allegedly harming their water supply. A state investigation found the company’s faulty gas wells allowed methane to leak into the aquifer that supplies the residents’ water.

Cabot was subsequently banned from operating in Dimock after regulators accused the company of failing to restore or replace the water supply, as it promised to do, according to the Associated Press.

Eventually, the Pennsylvania Attorney’s General Office filed criminal charges against the company. Cabot pleaded no contest to one misdemeanor count in 2022. Under the plea agreement, the Associated Press reported, Cabot agreed to build a public water system for $16 million, which would supply water to 20 homes whose water wells were damaged, as well as temporary water treatment systems.

Last December, the state’s Department of Environmental Protection lifted a long-term moratorium on gas production in Dimock, but Coterra is still prohibited from drilling inside the 9-square-mile area where the moratorium was applied.

The company’s horizontal drills, however, will stretch nearly 5 miles long under more than 80 property owners.

The natural gas resources in the area are rich, with an estimated $2.5 billion to $3.8 billion, a geologist told the Associated Press, which will mean big royalty payments for many landowners in the area.

Tom Shepstone, who ran "Natural Gas Now" for years before moving his work to "Energy Security and Freedom" on Substack, told Just The News that Cabot was an early operator during the dawn of the Shale Revolution, and a lot has changed since then.

“They were drilling much different wells than they drill today,” Shepstone said.

Among the improvements in the technology is increased casing protections. The wells drill down deeper than the aquifers, and the casing around the wellbore keeps oil, gas and chemicals from contaminating groundwater — if it’s done correctly. Shepstone said there’s more layers and the casing techniques are much improved.

Shepstone, who lives near Dimock, said that Cabot had never done work in northeast Pennsylvania, where the methane bubbles right up to the surface. He’s gone to the Salt Spring State Park in the area and seen this firsthand.

“You can go there and hold a match over the water, and it’ll flame,” he said.

While Cabot, Shepstone said, wasn’t prepared to deal with that shallow methane, they’ve gotten a lot wiser, not only with safer fracking practices but community relations.

The company held a series of annual picnics that drew thousands of people from the communities around Dimock, which gave the company an opportunity to present its own information about its operations.

“They were hugely successful. It became like a fair day. Nobody expected it to be quite so successful,” Shepstone said. He wasn’t at the first one, but he’s attended subsequent picnics, which also drew large crowds.

He said there were a few anti-fracking activists at these events, but overwhelmingly, people who were there supported the industry.

James Asbury, owner of Mountaineer Stone in Mansfield, Pennsylvania, which is about two hours west of Dimock, previously worked in the gas industry in the area. While “Gasland” presented the community as largely opposed to the industry, Asbury said the residents of the area typically aren’t activists.

“It’s kind of built into the background of logging, dairy farming, and everything else. We're not having big rallies or anything crazy like that. You know, it's just, it's a job,” Asbury said.

He said bad actors will get a bad reputation, but it doesn’t generate a general negative view of gas development, which brings in a lot of jobs and money into the area’s economy.

“If you look at the royalty payments weekly, it’s ridiculous. I get reports every Monday, and it’s insane,” he said.

Shepstone said production levels in Susquehanna County alone, where Dimock is located is “noticeable on a worldwide scale.”

The state had a slight dip in gas production last year, but Pennsylvania still produced 7.5 trillion cubic feet of gas. The globe produced around 144 trillion cubic feet in 2022.

“It’s a fascinating story. There’s been many battles, and in the end, I think the industry won those battles. It didn’t look like it at times, but I think in the end, they won those battles,” Shepstone said.