AG files charges over wastewater impoundment issues in Greene
Two natural gas drilling companies and a couple of their employees were charged Friday for multiple problems at well sites and impoundment ponds in Greene County in recent years.
Greylock Production LLC of Charleston, W.Va., and Colorado-based Energy Corp. of America are accused of allowing contaminated flowback water to leach into the ground while also improperly disposing of production fluids into water sources.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced Friday the criminal charges filed in Greene County against the two companies, along with employees John David Sollon Jr., 52, of Franklin Township, and Donald C. Supcoe III, 36, of Morgantown, W.Va., following a grand jury investigation.
A felony charge of violating rules and regulations to protect water supplies was filed against ECA accusing it of failing to comply with state environmental regulations in operating 17 water impoundments from February 2009 until November 2017. The impoundments were located in Cumberland, Jefferson and Whiteley townships in Greene County, along with one municipality in Clearfield County. The company also faces misdemeanor charges for unlawful conduct, unsafe nuisance facility and failure to control runoff.
In November 2017, ECA sold some of its assets to a group of investors who formed a new company called Greylock Production. Shortly after the acquisition, ECA and Greylock entered into a consent agreement with the state Department of Environmental Protection to remediate the problem sites and close the impoundments. The attorney general’s Environmental Crimes Section eventually took the case after concerns were raised about how the process was being handled, Shapiro said.
The criminal complaints filed at District Judge Lee Watson’s office also accuse Greylock of improperly disposing of the flowback and production water from the impoundments by dumping some of the water into the ground or waterways. Greylock faces multiple misdemeanor counts of unlawful conduct, nuisance facility, failure to control runoff, prohibition against discharge of industrial waste, prohibition against other pollution and other charges related to the state’s Clean Streams Law and Solid Waste Management Act.
Greylock spokeswoman Jennifer Vieweg said the company was “tremendously disappointed” by the charges and that the investigation “ignores” their cleanup efforts of assets acquired from the previous company that operated the facilities.
“Since acquiring these sites, we have made significant progress on the clean-up efforts, remained in regular communication with the agency, and repeatedly demonstrated our commitment to continue working cooperatively until all of the sites are fully reclaimed,” Vieweg said in a written statement. “We strongly dispute the characterization of Greylock and our actions in the announcement. Greylock is in full compliance with its agreement with PA DEP and applicable laws and regulations to clean up and remediate these ECA sites, which we never used in support of our operations.”
The charges also accused Greylock of a spill at its Beacon well site in Greene Township. Vieweg called the spill “minor,” although investigators said the driller’s chemicals reached an unnamed tributary and Supcoe ordered workers to use a defoaming spray to remove evidence of the issue while not correcting the contamination to the water source.
Meanwhile, the attorney general charged the two employees, Sollon and Supcoe, with similar misdemeanor charges for their role in overseeing the sites – including the Hoge Noce well pad in Cumberland Township in 2012 and 2013 – and the cleanup of the impoundment sites and well pads.
“These employees oversaw the well sites in Clearfield and Greene County and blatantly ignored protocols related to storage of waste fluids associated with fracking,” Shapiro said in a written statement. “By charging the defendants and the companies who employ them, we can both seek to hold them criminally accountable for these egregious acts and send a clear message to others about how seriously we take protecting the environment and public health.”
The preliminary hearing for the two companies and two employees charged in the case is set for 12:30 p.m. July 27 before Watson.