CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

Several residents of Dimock, Pa., – where a bitter dispute over a cluster of drinking water problems blamed on gas drilling has made national headlines in recent years – told their stories to a crowd of approximately 200 people Thursday evening at Corning West High School.

Because of contaminated water he blames on faulty gas wells drilled nearby by Cabot Oil and Gas, Craig Sautner told the audience how he and his wife, Julie, rely on a daily delivery to fill their 550-gallon “water buffalo,” or tank, for showering and doing dishes. Their drinking water comes from five-gallon jugs of spring water.

The Sautners are one of more than a dozen families from Dimock involved in a lawsuit against Cabot.

Although testing by Pennsylvania’s Department of Environment Protection and independent firms has indicated his water contamination was due to Cabot’s wells, the company has never admitted wrongdoing, although they pay for his water deliveries, Sautner said.

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