CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

Pennsylvania environmental regulators have given permission to a natural-gas driller to stop delivering replacement water to residents whose drinking-water wells were tainted with methane.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. has been delivering water to homes in the northeast village of Dimock since January of 2009. The Houston-based energy company asked the Department of Environmental Protection for permission to stop the water deliveries by the end of November, saying Dimock's water is safe to drink.

DEP granted Cabot's request late Tuesday. The agency says Cabot has satisfied the terms of a December settlement agreement.

Residents who are suing Cabot say their water is still tainted with unsafe levels of methane and possibly other contaminants.

Regulators previously found that Cabot drilled faulty gas wells that allowed methane to escape into Dimock's aquifer.