COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
Dept. of Environmental Protection
Commonwealth News Bureau
Room 308, Main Capitol Building
Harrisburg PA., 17120
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has entered into three Consent Assessment of Civil Penalties (CACP) with Rice Drilling B, LLC, of Canonsburg, Washington County and two of its affiliates for violations at sites in Washington and Greene counties. DEP also assessed fines for the violations totaling $393,500, which the company has paid.
DEP fined Rice Drilling for violations in Amwell Township, Washington County, including installing a waterline between a well pad and an impoundment without a permit, building a pipeline through a wetland that was not authorized by permit, and putting three waterlines under a stream when the permit authorized only one pipeline.
The company was also cited for 21 stream crossings without proper DEP permitting.
Alpha Shale Resources, LP, a Rice affiliate, was cited for an August 9, 2012, spill at its Alpha Unit 2 1 H gas well in Jackson Township, Greene County. In this instance a fracking fluid tank overflowed, spilling 100 barrels of production water on the ground.
Rice Poseidon Midstream, LLC, another Rice affiliate, was cited for not using best management practices in erosion and sediment control that contributed to a landslide on March 4, 2015, that forced the temporary closing of Muddy Hollow Road in Holbrook, Greene County and impacting a nearby stream.
In all the above instances, the company has since complied with DEP Notices of Violations and is currently in compliance at these locations.
For more information, visit www.dep.pa.gov.