Report: Firms commit 1,500 infractions in Pa. in 30 months

Marcellus Shale gas drilling companies have racked up nearly 1,500 environmental violations in Pennsylvania in the last two and a half years, according to a report released on Monday.

The Pennsylvania Land Trust Association reviewed environmental violations accrued by natural gas drillers working in the state between January 2008 and June 25. The records were obtained through a Right to Know Law request to the state Department of Environmental Protection.

DEP records showed a total of 1,435 violations of state oil and gas laws associated with drilling or other earth disturbance activities related to natural gas extraction from the Marcellus Shale, the report said.

The association identified 952 violations as “having or likely to have an impact on the environment,” and the other 483 as likely being an administrative or safety violation and “not likely to have the potential to negatively impact the environment.”

In addition to listing the 25 companies with the most violations and the 25 companies with the highest average number of violations per well drilled, the report breaks down the violations by type. For example, of the 952 violations that did or could impact the environment:

One of the most publicized instances of improper well casing occurred in the village of Dimock in Susquehanna County. DEP determined that improper well casing allowed gas to migrate from wells drilled by Cabot Oil & Gas into drinking water wells of village residents.

East Resources ranked highest with 138 violations; Chesapeake Appalachia came in second with 118. East Resources and Chesapeake ranked considerably lower on the violations-per-well list – with averages of less than one violation per well. They have drilled the most wells in the state – 140 and 153, respectively.

J-W Operating Co. topped that list with 11 violations per well, but J-W drilled only one well in the state. Citrus Energy ranked second with an average of seven violations per well on the two wells it drilled. And while Talisman didn’t make the top 25 for this list, DEP announced on Wednesday that the agency fined the Horseheads, N.Y.-based company $15,506 for a spill last November at a well pad in Armenia Township, Bradford County that polluted a small, unnamed waterway.

The spill involved hydraulic fracturing flowback fluid – the substance that returns to the surface after a company injects the pressurized fluid underground to fracture, or “frack,” the shale to extract natural gas.

DEP determined Talisman spilled between 4,200 to 6,300 gallons of flowback fluids when a pump failed and sand collected in a valve. The fluids flowed off the well pad and toward a wetland, and a small amount ultimately discharged to a tributary of Webier Creek, which drains into the upper reaches of the Tioga River, a cold water fishery.

Talisman successfully completed DEP’s Act 2 process for spill cleanup activities, and the fine will be deposited into the fund that supports DEP’s oil and gas permitting and enforcement programs.

Elana Richman, project coordinator for the land trust association, said the organization requested the records from DEP. “We heard there were a lot of violations and we wanted to get the full picture and present it to the public. It is important for people to know what’s going on with an industry that’s coming into the state,” Richman said.

Richman said the association is not making any recommendations based on the report, but she thinks it is “cause for concern that there are that many violations.”

Kathryn Klaber, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, said the industry clearly is tightly regulated and, arguably, under more scrutiny than any other operating in the state.

Paul Lumia, executive director of the North Branch Land Trust, said the report is “a good indication of some of the issues we’re facing with gas drilling in Northeastern Pennsylvania. It shows there’s a need for stronger regulations. I think we’ll see more of the same, more accidents, unless we do a better job of policing the industry,” he said.

Lumia said Pennsylvania’s oil and gas laws are “quite antiquated and need to be brought up to date, and our elected officials need to take the lead on this.” He said a “Band-Aid approach” would be increasing the fines for some of the more egregious violations.

Windle, a spokesman with the Marcellus Shale Coalition, said members believe “the current environmental safeguards in place, and the level of fees associated with such violations, are prudent.”

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Marcellus Shale - Gas Wells

DEP lists 952 of them as “having or likely to have an impact on the environment.”

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