FYI, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "Fred Heutte" phred@sunlightdata.com Date: Dec 19, 2013 6:20 PM Subject: E&E: EPA hits gas driller with historic civil penalty for filling W.Va. wetlands To: CONS-AWL-RESILIENT-HABITATS@lists.sierraclub.org Cc:
EPA hits gas driller with historic civil penalty for filling W.Va. wetlands
Jeremy P. Jacobs, E&E reporter
Published: Thursday, December 19, 2013
A subsidiary of Chesapeake Energy will pay a $3.2 million penalty and spend $6.5 million to restore 27 West Virginia sites where it allegedly discharged fill material into streams and wetlands as part of its natural gas drilling operations, U.S. EPA said today.
The civil penalty is one of the largest ever levied by EPA for filling wetlands, rivers or streams without a Clean Water Act permit.
The agreement requires Chesapeake, the country's second-largest natural gas producer, to implement a plan to ensure compliance with federal and state water laws at its natural gas drilling sites in West Virginia -- including many that involve hydraulic fracturing.
"With this agreement, Chesapeake is taking important steps to comply with state and federal laws that are essential to protecting the integrity of the nation's waters, wetlands and streams," said Robert Dreher, acting assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division.
EPA and West Virginia alleged that Chesapeake Appalachia LLC funneled discharged sand, dirt, rocks and other fill material into streams and wetlands to construct well pads and other platforms for natural gas operations.
The agency said the 27 sites affected 2.2 miles of streams and more than 3 acres of wetlands. Sixteen of the sites involved the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
Chesapeake will be required to fully restore the wetlands and streams where feasible under the settlement. It will also undertake other mitigation projects for areas that cannot be restored.
Gordon Pennoyer, a spokesman for Chesapeake, called the settlement a "key milestone" in resolving claims relating to surface construction that occurred before November 2010.
"The company is fully committed to regulatory compliance and is working with the Environmental Protection Agency, Army Corps of Engineers and West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to restore the impacted sites," Pennoyer said.
EPA discovered the discharges through public tips as well as routine inspections. Chesapeake also disclosed 19 potential violations after an internal audit. EPA issued compliance orders for violations at 11 of the sites in 2010 and 2011, and since then Chesapeake has taken steps to restore those areas.
EPA's settlement comes a year after Chesapeake also pleaded guilty to three Clean Water Act violations at a natural gas site in Wetzel County that is also at issue in today's action. Last year, Chesapeake was sentenced to pay a $600,000 penalty to the government for allegedly discharging crushed stone into a local stream.
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