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Range Resources pleads no contest in criminal case over spills

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Range Resources has pleaded no contest to a criminal conviction under a statewide grand jury investigation into negligent oversight at two Washington County Marcellus shale natural gas well sites.

State Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced the decision Friday involving leaks from the Yeager wastewater storage pond in Amwell Township and “significant” pollution at the company’s Brownlee site in Buffalo Township.

“In Pennsylvania, clean air and pure water is a constitutional right, yet too often frackers from across the country come to our commonwealth, walk into our communities, and – sometimes without care or consequence – strip us of those basic rights,” Shapiro said in a video released Friday.

The Southpointe-based company pleaded no contest in Washington County Court to 16 misdemeanor counts, including unlawful conduct and operating an unsafe or nuisance facility, Shapiro said.

The plea requires Range to pay $150,000 in fines and charitable contributions, money that will be divided among local watershed groups and solid waste abatement and clean water groups, Shapiro indicated.

At the Brownlee site, the company did not disclose to the landowner damages caused when a leak polluted a third of an acre on a farm in January 2018, according to the attorney general.

The leak at the Yeager impoundment was covered up, and it caused the family’s springs to become “dangerous and unsuitable for consumption” in June 2009, Shapiro said.

Range has completed full remediation at both sites, work that was approved by regulators, said company spokesman Mark Windle.

“Over the past decade, Range has led significant advancements in operational innovations that have enhanced the safety and sustainability of our industry, which include becoming the first company to voluntarily disclose our fracturing fluid, and to achieve 100% reuse levels through our water recycling program,” Windle said Friday.

“We stand behind our track record as a company that operates in a safe and sustainable manner, focusing on protecting our environment, our people and the communities where we work.”

He said there were no adverse health impacts at either site.

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