Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Fayette County | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Wastewater
Fayette County Adopts Illegal Wastewater Injection Well Ban
Is Fayette County in southwestern Pennsylvania, with some 333 drilled and active shale wells as of the end of last year, turning against the Marcellus industry? Perhaps. And perhaps drillers will want to give the county a pass for future development following an unnecessary and illegal ban against wastewater injection wells passed last week by the three county commissioners — two Republicans (Scott Dunn and Dave Lohr) and one Democrat (Vincent Vicites).
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Pennsylvania State Rep. Charity Grimm Krupa (
On July 11, the federal EPA held an online hearing to accept comments on a draft permit it intended to issue allowing G2 STEM to drill a proposed new wastewater injection well in Fayette County, PA (see 
New shale permits issued for Jun 26 – Jul 2 in the Marcellus/Utica saw a dramatic increase, thanks to a bump in Pennsylvania’s numbers. There were 39 new permits issued last week, way up from 11 issued the previous week. Last week’s permit tally included 30 new permits in Pennsylvania, 8 new permits in Ohio, and just 1 new permit in West Virginia. Coterra Energy scored the most new permits with a whopping 12 issued in Susquehanna County, PA (for two well pads). Range Resources had the second most new permits, with 7 permits issued in Washington County, PA (for one pad).
It took us a while to track down this story, but we finally have details about the settlement of a class action lawsuit brought by roughly 60 landowners in Fayette County, PA, against Chief Exploration and Development, the former drilling arm of Chief Oil & Gas (now called Cyprus Exploration and Development). The lawsuit alleged that in 2008, Chief and its landman had cut a deal to lease the landowners’ property and then never paid the stipulated signing bonus. The lawsuit sought $7 million. The landowners ended up settling for $5.5 million earlier this month.
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced a consent order assessing a $600,000 fine against a trucking company that hauled drill cuttings from West Virginia and dumped them (without a permit) at several sites owned by the trucking company in Fayette County, PA. The unsanctioned dumping happened between the years 2012 and 2015.
Last week only Pennsylvania issued new permits for new shale well drilling–14 of them scattered around the state. Both Ohio (for the seventh week in a row) and West Virginia did not issue new shale permits last week.