A Marcellus Shale gas rig in Lycoming County.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection announced a record fine today against the Texas-based Range Resources, which the agency says has failed to fix a gas well that polluted groundwater and a stream in Lycoming County. The DEP announced Tuesday that it will assess an $8.9 million fine against Range for refusing to fix the faulty cement job on a natural gas well that the agency says caused methane to migrate into private drinking water supplies. The penalty would be the largest to date against a Marcellus Shale gas driller.
The fine sought by the DEP is more than double the highest fine ever issued by the agency against a gas driller. That fine, $4.15 million and now the second highest, was also issued to Range Resources back in September. In that case the company agreed to pay the fine for violations at six wastewater impoundments in Washington County. But in this recent Lycoming County case, Range Resources has not agreed to the sanction, saying the methane migration is naturally occurring and existed before their well was drilled.
DEP says Range is appealing the decision to the state Environmental Hearing Board.
Range Resources originally drilled the well in the winter of 2011, and fracked it in June of that year. DEP issued a notice of violation in September 2013, citing a faulty cement job. DEP says despite the violations the company has yet to fix the well.
DEP Secretary John Quigley told StateImpact it was a case of "severe methane migration" and that at least five residential water wells were impacted and continue to require treatment.
Quigley said the agency used isotopic testing to confirm the methane migration resulted from the Range Resources gas well, and is not naturally occurring.
But DEP rejected the company's proposed plan, which it says did not include making necessary repairs. Instead, the plan would have put the non-producing well into production. DEP has since ordered Range "to remediate the well in a manner that immediately ceases the discharge of methane to ground and surface water." The company has ten days to submit a new plan to the DEP.
Quigley says the agency may be willing to reduce the $8.9 million civil penalty depending on the company's response. The fine would be assessed under the Clean Streams Law and the 2012 Oil and Gas Act, also known as Act 13.
Quigley says assessing fines is a complicated matrix, which includes the severity and duration of the impact. Although it's the largest fine to date against a gas driller, Quigley said it could have been much higher.