Environmentalists and Dimock Township residents announce the opening of the Dimock Environmental Research Center on Aug. 16, 2024. It will research the effects of fracking in the area. Pennsylvania American Water Company announced it completed the first steps to build a pipeline to bring clean water to affected residents on Mar. 12, 2025. (Isabela Weiss/WVIA News)
This story by Isabela Weiss was originally published by public media organization WVIA in Pittston.
Pennsylvania American Water Company says it has finished the first steps to bring a new pipeline to Dimock Twp. residents who haven’t had clean water in 14 years.
Officials expect to connect the pipeline to homes in the Susquehanna County community by the end of 2026, the company said Wednesday.
Residents rely on bottled water shipped in from Coterra Energy. Formerly Cabot Oil & Gas, the company was charged in 2020 by then Attorney General Josh Shapiro for polluting residents’ water.
Pennsylvania American Water announced in a press release it completed drilling on two test wells as potential drinking water sources to develop a public groundwater supply.
“While work has been occurring on the test wells, we also completed the design of the new water distribution system and received permits for construction,” said Jeremy Nelson, Pennsylvania American Water project manager. Construction is set to begin this spring.
The township made international headlines in 2010 with the documentary, Gasland, in which residents were shown setting fire to polluted water flowing from their kitchen faucets.
Dimock’s problems started 17 years ago, when Cabot began fracking in the area.
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, uses pressurized fluid to extract gas and oil from rock formations – like the Marcellus Shale beneath Dimock — by creating cracks in the rocks so natural gas can seep through.
Shapiro, while serving as attorney general, negotiated a November 2022 plea deal with Coterra Energy in which the company pleaded no contest to polluting, the legal equivalent of a guilty plea. Coterra also agreed to pay PAWC $16.3 million to run underground pipes to residents with polluted water.
The upcoming pipeline will be around six miles long. Residents’ homes will be disconnected from private well systems to prevent cross-contamination, according to PAWC’s press release.
PAWC plans to submit an aquifer test plan to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) this spring, which measures well water flow rates and is required to build a new pipeline.
“The public water supply will be treated to address potential contaminants in the groundwater and meet all Pennsylvania DEP public drinking water standards,” PAWC officials added in the presser.
For more information on the project, visit PAWC’s information page on Dimock.