By Mike Tony, Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A federal court has approved a class-action settlement and dismissed the case between West Virginia landowners and what is believed to be the nation’s largest owner of gas and oil wells.
The court recently dismissed the case after signing o on a settlement agreement of up to $6.5 million West Virginia landowners secured from the well owner, Alabama-based Diversified Energy Co., and Pittsburgh-based EQT Corp., one of the nation’s largest gas producers.
Diversified has agreed to plug 2,600 wells in West Virginia and five other states through 2034 in the settlement of the lawsuit led in 2022 in which landowners in Harrison, Nicholas, Preston and Wetzel counties said they were left with unplugged, abandoned wells that pose health risks, degrade the environment and hurt property values.
