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SEPTEMBER 26, 2017 / 1 :14 PM / 5 MONTHS AGO

Cabot Oil & Gas settles fracking lawsuit with Pennsylvania families

David DeKok

HARRISBURG, Pa. (Reuters) - Cabot Oil & Gas Co. [COG.N] has settled a lawsuit filed by two families in Dimock, Pennsylvania, who alleged their homes’ drinking water became contaminated with methane not long after the company began drilling for natural gas in 2007.

The Ely and Hulbert families initially won $4.2 million in damages in a federal jury trial in Scranton last year, but Magistrate Judge Martin Carlson threw out the verdict as unjustified and ordered the parties to begin settlement talks.

The terms of the settlement have not been made public. Leslie Lewis, the New York lawyer who represented the families, declined on Tuesday to comment on the terms.

“After nine long years, the plaintiffs are happy and relieved to put the matter behind them,” Lewis told Reuters.

Neither Cabot Oil & Gas spokesman George Stark nor the company’s lead lawyer, Stephen Dillard, could be reached for comment on Tuesday. 

Carlson approved the settlement on Sept. 21, court records show.

Dimock, Pennsylvania was at the heart of the Marcellus Shale gas fracking boom that began in 2007. Residents complained that Cabot’s drilling caused methane gas to migrate to their wells, so much that they could light their tap water on fire.

Flaming tap water in Dimock was a highlight of the 2010 Oscar-nominated documentary, “Gasland,” written and directed by Josh Fox. Residents also complained that their water had turned brown and corrosive.

FILE PHOTO: Warning signs of Cabot Oil & Gas Co. are seen on field near Montrose, in Pennsylvania, March 24, 2014. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

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Cabot contended that there had always been underground methane in Dimock and that there was no proof its drilling had caused the contamination.

“The issues they have are cosmetic and aesthetic,” Dillard told Reuters last year. “Those can be treated, but it’s not toxic.”

Fifteen families in Dimock filed a lawsuit over water contamination in 2009. All but the Elys and Hulberts settled with Cabot in 2012.

Lewis said there has been no change in the poor quality of the family’s well water since the trial in 2016.

Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Diane Craft

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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POLITICS

MARCH 6, 2018 / 12:08 PM / UPDATED 20 HOURS AGO

Report finds White House aide Conway violated law in TV interviews

Reuters Staff

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Kellyanne Conway, one of President Donald Trump’s top advisers, violated federal law in two television interviews last year by using her White House position to weigh in on a political race, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel said on Tuesday.

In the interviews, Conway “impermissibly mixed official government business with political views about candidates in the Alabama special election,” the independent federal ethics agency said in a report submitted to Trump for “appropriate disciplinary action.”

The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from using their official capacity to affect or interfere with elections, although some other political activities are allowed.

The office said it gave Conway a chance to respond to its allegations but she did not.

White House spokesman Hogan Gidley disputed the report, saying in a statement that “Conway did not advocate for or against the election of any particular candidate.

“She simply expressed the president’s obvious position that he have people in the House and Senate who support his agenda,” Gidley said.

In the two TV appearances, Conway discussed the contest between Democratic candidate Doug Jones and Republican Roy Moore for the seat vacated when Jeff Sessions became Trump’s attorney general.

In a Fox News Channel appearance on Nov. 20, Conway talked about why voters should not back Jones, and in a CNN interview on Dec. 6 she laid out why they should support Moore, the report said. Jones won the election and is now in the Senate.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway attends a joint news conference with U.S. President Donald Trump and Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven in the White House East Room in Washington, U.S. March 6, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis

“The President must take swift and serious disciplinary action against Ms. Conway,” Representative Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Oversight Committee, said in a statement. “Anything else sets a terrible example.”

Walter Shaub, the former head of U.S. government ethics watchdog the Office of Government Ethics, filed a complaint after Conway’s first appearance, saying it violated the 1939 law.

Conway, who served as Trump’s campaign manager before taking on her role as White House senior counselor, has previously run afoul of Shaub and other presidential ethics experts who criticized her for publicly endorsing the clothing and jewelry line sold by Trump’s daughter and White House adviser Ivanka Trump.

The White House later said her praise for the products was inadvertent, and no disciplinary action was taken.

Reporting by Susan Heavey and Ayesha Rascoe; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Dan Grebler

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

White House Counsellor Kellyanne Conway speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at National Harbour, Maryland, U.S., February 23, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

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