Rice Drilling and affiliates fined by DEP for gas well and pipleine violations
Rice Energy B LLC and two of its affiliates have been fined $393,500 by the state Department of Environmental Protection for violations at natural gas well and pipeline sites in Greene and Washington counties.
Rice Drilling and affiliates Alpha Shale Resources LP and Rice Poseidon Midstream LLC entered into consent assessments with DEP in regard to the three separate cases that included a total of 17 violations stretching to 2012.
“All the issues have been addressed,” DEP spokesman John Poister said. “Everything has been remediated, and they are all in compliance.”
Though none of the violations was “enormous,” Poister said, “they are violations nonetheless.” Fines levied by the agency against the company are “commensurate with the violations,” he said.
DEP fined Rice Drilling for violations at sites in Amwell Township, Washington County, involving water lines used to transfer water between an impoundment and well site.
In November 2013, the company ran an above-ground water line within a water channel along the access road to the Hulk Well Pad, which was not authorized by its permit, DEP said.
It also installed an above-ground water line through a wetland in a manner contrary to its permit and placed three water lines under a streambed, whereas the permit called for the installation of only a single line beneath the stream.
In March 2014, the company also was cited for 21 stream crossings involving water lines without proper DEP permitting.
Alpha Shale was cited for a spill of well production water that occurred in August 2012 when a tank overflowed at its gas well site in Jackson Township, Greene County.
About 100 barrels of production water was spilled. Impacted soil was excavated and disposed of, and an incident report was submitted by the company and accepted by DEP, the agency said.
Rice Poseidon Midstream was cited primarily for failure to implement effective erosion and sedimentation controls at its pipeline construction projects.
On March 4, 2015, the company reported a slip that occurred following heavy rains caused sediment to cross Muddy Hollow Road and flow into an unnamed tributary of Webster Run in Jackson Township, Greene County. The company halted the discharge the same day, DEP said.
Between March 12 and 16, another slip along that same section of pipeline resulted in a discharge of sediment outside the limits of disturbance, temporarily closing Pettit Road.
The company was also cited for erosion and sedimentation control issues along a section of pipeline in North Bethlehem Township, Washington County.
On March 13, 2015, sediment-laden water flowed outside the limits of disturbance into an unnamed tributary of Pigeon Creek. In addition, about one quart of hydraulic fluid was spilled at two separate locations. The fluid was immediately remediated, DEP said.
The company was cited for failure to maintain erosion and sedimentation controls along a section of pipeline in Richhill, Gray and Center townships, Greene County. On July 7, 2015, after several days of rain, sediment-laden water ran into unnamed tributaries of Poland Run, Whithorn Run and Jacobs Run.
Rice Poseidon also was cited in July 2014 for violations at its Burnfield Meter Station in Jefferson Township.
The company, DEP said, failed to obtain an erosion and sedimentation control permit for construction of an access road and failed to install adequate erosion and sedimentation controls at a soil stockpile at the site.
A company spokesman could not be reached Monday for comment.