---------- 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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