Residents in a Pennsylvania town on Friday sued Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation, claiming the company"s natural-gas drilling has contaminated their water wells with toxic chemicals. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania, accuses the company of violating state environmental laws by allowing drilling chemicals to escape from gas wells, where they are used in a technique called hydraulic fracturing. The case is one of the first to confront the industry over the technique, which critics claim pollutes aquifers with chemicals that can cause cancer and other serious illnesses. Cabot"s drilling allowed methane to escape into private water wells and in two cases caused wellhead explosions due to a gas build-up, the 45 plaintiffs in the lawsuit claim. The lawsuit comes after complaints by residents of the northeastern Pennsylvania community accumulated after Cabot drilled dozens of gas wells in its efforts to develop the Marcellus Shale, a massive gas formation that underlies about two-thirds of Pennsylvania and parts of surrounding states. "These releases, spills and discharges caused the plaintiffs and their property to be exposed to such hazardous gases, chemicals and industrial wastes," said the 12-page complaint. The lawsuit accuses Cabot of negligence and says it has failed to restore water supplies to residents when it has been disrupted by gas drilling. It seeks a permanent injunction to stop the drilling processes that are blamed for the contamination, as well as unspecified compensatory damages.
