Fracking Giant Cabot Sues Pennsylvania Water Contamination Victim for $5 Million

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Cabot Oil and Gas Corporation has filed a $5 million civil lawsuit in county courtย against Dimock, Pennsylvania, resident Ray Kemble, who claims Cabot severely contaminated his water after drilling and hydraulic fracturing (โ€œfrackingโ€)ย activity.

The company, scrutinizedย in the film Gaslandย and subject of anย ongoing federal class action lawsuitย since 2009, has also sued a handful of lawyers representing Kemble. Cabotโ€™s lawsuit claims that Kemble harmed the fracking giantย by attempting to โ€œattract media attentionโ€ over pollution to his water, which the company claims breached an earlier 2012 settlement agreement as part of the ongoing federal class actionย lawsuit.

Charlie Speer, one of Kemble’s lawyers who was named in Cabot’s August 7 lawsuit, said in a statement to DeSmog that Pennsylvania law doesnโ€™t actually allow plaintiffs to name a dollar amount for the types of harmย Cabot is claiming. Heย argued that the dollar total the company demanded was meant to โ€œgrab headlines.โ€ Kemble filed a follow-up lawsuit earlier this year based on new findings pertaining to water contamination, which Cabotย argues in its complaint โ€œincluded irrelevant and inflammatory allegationsโ€ and was meant to โ€œpoison the jury poolโ€ and โ€œextort paymentโ€ from theย company.

Kembleย eventually dropped the 2017 lawsuit, Speer explained, because the legal team had learned โ€œnew information [which] would negatively affect Mr. Kembleโ€™s case.โ€ Speer denied a request for comment on what that new informationย was.

In his now-dismissed lawsuit, Kemble said that Cabot’s fracking, beginning in November 2012, turned his groundwater โ€œblack, like mud, [with] a strong chemicalย odor.โ€

But Cabotย allegesย that the filing of that lawsuit was a breach of the 2012 settlement contract Kemble had agreed to and a wrongful use of civil court proceedings, writing that Kembleโ€™s lawyers had โ€œfailed to exercise even that care which a careless person wouldย use.โ€

‘Pigs toย Rigs’

Cabotโ€™s complaint also describes Kemble’s lawyer Speer as a โ€œpig farm nuisance lawyer.โ€ Speerโ€™s law firm made a name for itself by using novel legal strategies to holdย major corporations liable for the nuisance that Concentrated Animal Feed Operations (CAFOs), with their pools of millions of gallons of livestock manure, had caused to people livingย nearby.

Cabot further notes in its complaint that after Missouri passed legislation in 2011 to crack down on CAFO lawsuits, Speerโ€™s Missouri-based firm switched its focus from โ€œpigs to rigsโ€ in Pennsylvania, in reference toย oil and gas production rigs.


Credit: Pennsylvaniaย Court of Common Pleas,ย Susquehannaย County

The โ€œpigs to rigsโ€ line was also echoed by Natural Gas Now, a blog run by Tom Shepstone, who formerly worked at the industry-funded front group Energy in Depth.

โ€œAn overdue lawsuit by Cabot Oil & Gas has been filed against a gang of โ€˜pigs to rigsโ€™ trial lawyers and their Dimock junkyard plaintiff Ray Kemble,โ€ wrote Shepstone. โ€œCabot Oil & Gas has fired a shot against the seedy trial lawyers and even seedier hustlers trying to earn fame and money with jugs of brown water and filthy accusations surrounding Dimock. Cabot has filed a lawsuit against pig farm suer Charlie Speer, his Luzerne County trial lawyer associates and Rayย Kemble.โ€

Energy in Depthย previously criticized Speer and his firm by name in a 2013 blog post. Bloomberg reported that same year that Speerโ€™s firm planned to use the nuisance legal strategy in the frackingย arena.

โ€œI call them quality-of-life lawsuits,โ€ Speer told Bloomberg at the time. โ€œI consider these to be private property rights cases, and everybody in this country understands private property rights and valuesย them.โ€

Feds Come toย Dimock

The filing of Cabot’s lawsuitย came just days after the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) visited Dimock to examine the groundwater of those who lived in close proximity to Cabotโ€™s fracking wells, including Kemble’s.ย ย 

โ€œTake a skunk and every household chemical, put it in a blender, puree it for five minutes and take a whiff,โ€ Kemble told the Associated Press, as he described the smell of his well water inย explanation of the federal agency’s visit. โ€œIt burns the back of your throat, makes you gag, makes you want to puke. It’s all still bad. That’s why they’re back upย here.โ€

ATSDR told AP that it was in Dimock to test water for bacteria, gases, and chemicals, while also doing indoor air monitoring for radon. Its previous study found chemicals โ€” including methane, arsenic, cadmium, and lead โ€” in the drinking water of Dimockโ€™s citizens and further noted that a โ€œrisk of explosion or fire exists for five residencesโ€ due to the high methaneย levels.

โ€œResidents have continued to raise concerns about natural gas activities impacting their private water well quality,โ€ ATSDR told AP, adding that the rationale for its first return to Dimock since 2012 was to โ€œdetermine if there are drinking water quality issues that may continue to pose a healthย threat.โ€

Kemble is not giving comments to press.ย Craig Stevens, another Pennsylvania landowner with contaminated water, believes the lawsuit is in retaliation for ATSDRโ€™s return to Dimock. Stevensย testified along with Kemble during the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencyโ€™s (EPA) national study on fracking’s potential water impacts during the Obamaย administration

โ€œIt looks like they got upset because Ray and I got the ATSDR to come back in there,โ€ Stevens told DeSmog. โ€œThatโ€™s the first time a federal agency has reopened a case like this. Iโ€™m imagining Cabot is none too happy with their friends being tested, because, get this, itโ€™s (Freedom of Information Law) FOIL-able. It might be redacted, but it doesnโ€™t matter, from what I understand, they picked the worst water out of the original tests that EPA found five years ago. There were 27 wells of concern that EPA had tested in the area, that EPA found wereย problematic.โ€

Broader SLAPPย Trend

Another company, Range Resources, used this counter-suing tactic in Texas in what was seen by critics as a SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) lawsuit, which is meant to threaten and make an example of a citizen or group ofย citizens.

That $3 millionย Texasย lawsuit involved Steve Lipsky, whose groundwater was also under EPA investigation for potential water contamination from oil and gas drillingย โ€” until, in a politically charged atmosphere, the Obama administration dropped the study. Lipsky, who argued the lawsuit was a violation of Texasโ€™ Citizens Participation Act, eventually saw his case reach the stateโ€™s Supreme Court and lost. Range Resources’ defamation case against him isย ongoing.

Stevens pointed out that both he and Kemble have been a vocal critic of fracking well beyond the borders ofย Pennsylvania.

โ€œRay went to Maryland with me, where they banned fracking, went to Florida, to Virginia, to Washington, D.C. twice,โ€ Stevens told DeSmog, noting that the two of them had taken seven trips together to speak about fracking and advocate against the drilling technique nationwide. โ€œSince those trips, Maryland has banned it and Florida has two bills to ban fracking. We just go and educate people about what theyโ€™ve done inย Pennsylvania.โ€

Speer seemed to agree that the lawsuit appears to fall in the SLAPPย category.

โ€œI read the lawsuit and it seems like a clear attempt by Cabot and the entire gas industry to intimidate us, our clients, and the public from protecting their rights,โ€ said Speer. โ€œWe will continue to protect the rights of those that have been harmed by the gas industry not only in Susquehanna County but throughoutย Pennsylvania.โ€

Cabot, meanwhile, looks to have launched a new counter-offensive in the years-long legal battle inย Dimock.

โ€œCabot will protect its rights and pursue justice against those who irresponsibly and maliciously abuse the legal system,โ€ George Stark, the companyโ€™s director of external affairs, said in a press statement.

Main image: Ray Kembleย Credit: ยฉ Laura Evangelisto,ย DeSmog

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