Jan 2, 2015 3 min read

A Pittsburgh engineering company will be subpoenaed for air-quality test results at several Marcellus Shale impoundments owned by Range Resources, which has not provided the results requested in an ongoing case in Washington County Court.

Attorney John Smith, who along with his wife, Kendra, is representing three Amwell Township families who claim their health was affected by Range’s drilling operations, said they “wanted to go right to the source” and get the data from URS Corp., which performed air tests at the Jon Day, Carter and Lowry impoundments in Washington County. He said Range also will be compelled to provide any air test results it has.

President Judge Debbie O’Dell Seneca, who is stepping down from the bench Monday, quashed Range’s objection to the plaintiffs’ request to subpoena URS Corp. The case, which has been ongoing since 2012 and already changed hands once from Judge Katherine Emery to O’Dell Seneca, will again need to be assigned to a new judge.

The plaintiffs, who live or used to live below the Yeager drilling site in Amwell Township, are Stacey Haney and her two children; Beth and John Voyles and their daughter; and Loren and Grace Kiskadden.

The plaintiffs asked for air-quality test results at all of Range’s natural gas sites in June 2013. According to court documents, Range replied the company had not conducted air testing at the Yeager site, but the court said Range “failed to answer the question or raise any objections relative to air tests performed at other impoundments or natural gas drill sites.”

Glenn Truzzi, environmental engineering manager for Range, said during a July court deposition that, to his knowledge, Range had not conducted air tests at any of its well sites or impoundments. He said he did not have a working knowledge of any emissions from impoundments.

But according to court documents, Truzzi signed verification of Range’s responses to the plaintiffs’ request for air test results, and he also signed Range’s answer to a complaint, which denied emissions from the Yeager site affected the plaintiffs.

Pete Miller, water resources manager at Range, testified in court Aug. 29 he believed air tests were conducted at some Range sites, but could not provide details. He was asked about an email he sent in 2011 to Mark Gannon, of engineering firm Tetratech, asking to “run it at the Day impoundment instead of the Yeager impoundment.”

Miller said this pertained to air monitoring, and explained Range wanted to test the Jon Day impoundment when it was empty to use the results as a “baseline” to see if anything changed once the impoundment was filled with water. He said Range also hired URS to conduct air monitoring tests at the Jon Day, Carter and Lowry impoundments within the past two years. He said he believed the tests were in response to complaints that Range received.

A Range spokesman did not respond to a call seeking comment.

Range was ordered to shut down its Lowry impoundment in Hopewell Township in accordance with a state Department of Environmental Protection consent agreement in September. The company also was ordered to upgrade its Jon Day impoundment in Amwell Township and convert its Carter impoundment in Mt. Pleasant Township back to a freshwater pit.