Coterra to pay $16.3M for new public water supply in Pennsylvania plea deal
Coterra Energy (NYSE:CTRA) pleaded no contest Tuesday to criminal charges for allegedly contaminating the drinking water in a rural Pennsylvania town 14 years ago and then trying to evade responsibility.
Under a plea deal, Coterra (CTRA) agreed to pay $16.3M to connect the homes of the area's residents to a new public water supply in Susquehanna County and pay their water bills for the next 75 years.
Coterra's (CTRA) corporate predecessor, Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., was charged in June 2020 with 15 criminal counts for allegedly drilled faulty gas wells that leaked flammable methane into residential water supplies in Dimock, Pa., and surrounding communities.
The company maintained that the methane in residents' wells was naturally occurring, before pleading no contest to a charge of prohibition against discharge of industrial wastes under the state's Clean Streams Law.
Pennsylvania American Water (AWK) has said it plans to drill two wells and build a treatment plant that will remove any contaminants from the water before piping it to ~20 homes in Dimock.
The area gained national attention when the 2010 documentary Gasland showed residents lighting their tap water on fire.
With strong free cash flow and capital returns, Conterra Energy's (CTRA) risk-reward is compelling, Michael Wiggins de Oliveira writes in an analysis posted on Seeking Alpha.