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NW Pa. Injection Well Leak Went Undiscovered for 109 Days

MDN is going to eat some crow with this story. In 2016, we called attention to efforts by neighbors (and anti-fossil fuelers) in Warren County, PA, in testing water sources near a wastewater injection well that had been operating since 2013 (see Concerned Citizens Test Water Near NWPA Injection Well, No Leaks). There had been no leaks from the Bear Lake Properties Bittinger #4 oil and gas wastewater injection well site in Columbus Township for (at that time) three years. We pointed out that injection well leaks are rare. However, there has been a leak at the Bittinger #4 well, and it was a doozy, traveling approximately 1,770 feet from the well site. That’s a full one-third of a mile. Not good. Even worse is that the company (due to an errant employee) failed to report the leak to the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) for 109 days. Read More “NW Pa. Injection Well Leak Went Undiscovered for 109 Days”

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PA Investing $967K on New Gas Pipes in Heart of NEPA Marcellus

Pennsylvania’s Pipeline Investment Program (PIPE) grants cover part of the cost of building new natural gas pipelines to connect homes and businesses, typically in rural parts of the state, to homegrown Marcellus Shale gas supplies. We’ve written about many of the dozens of PIPE grant projects awarded over the years (see our PIPE stories here). Yesterday the State Dept. of Community and Economic Development (DCED) announced another $1 million PIPE investment, most of it going to a project in Susquehanna County in northeastern PA.
Read More “PA Investing $967K on New Gas Pipes in Heart of NEPA Marcellus”

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PA Game Comm. Does 2 Deals with PGE to Allow Drilling, 16% Royalty

Last week, the Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners announced it had cut two different deals with Pennsylvania General Energy (PGE). Both deals involve land swaps with the prospect of new shale drilling by PGE on the way in both Lycoming County and Sullivan County. The Game Commission’s remit is “to protect, propagate, manage and preserve the game or wildlife of Pennsylvania.” Money from shale drilling helps the Game Commission accomplish its objectives. Both deals with PGE will provide the Game Commission with a 16% royalty for any natural gas produced.
Read More “PA Game Comm. Does 2 Deals with PGE to Allow Drilling, 16% Royalty”

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Cameron Energy Says Eco “Religious Fervor” Destroying U.S. O&G

Yesterday we told you that a program would air last night on the Fox Business channel featuring Cameron Energy, a conventional oil driller in western Pennsylvania (see PA Driller Cameron Energy Featured on Fox “How America Works” Tonight). It was a fabulous program! We have an extended clip below. In the runup to airing the program, Fox interviewed Arthur and John Stewart, the owners of Cameron Energy, on the program “Cavuto: Coast to Coast.” The two had some interesting things to say about the Biden administration and the eco-zealot left’s attacks on fossil energy.
Read More “Cameron Energy Says Eco “Religious Fervor” Destroying U.S. O&G”

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PA Driller Cameron Energy Featured on Fox “How America Works” Tonight

A conventional oil and gas driller in northwestern Pennsylvania, Cameron Energy, will be featured on a one-hour show called How America Works, running on the Fox Business Network, tonight at 8 p.m. A film crew visited the Warren County company in April to capture Cameron workers doing their thing–“warts and all.” Cameron vice president and head of operations, John Stewart, says, “The end product is satisfyingly real.” Finally, an honest look at not only the great job done by the PA oil and gas industry, but a show that touts the benefits of fossil fuels.
Read More “PA Driller Cameron Energy Featured on Fox “How America Works” Tonight”

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PA Supreme Crt: No Production, No Payments…Doesn’t Cancel Lease

Here’s an interesting lawsuit in Pennsylvania with potential ramifications for both landowners and drillers. In 2013 a landowner in Warren County, PA filed a lawsuit against Mitch-Well Energy claiming the company had abandoned its leases (and its rights) by not producing marketable quantities of natural gas from several conventional wells. The company had also not paid a required annual fee in lieu of production royalties. For 18 years! Several lower courts ruled in favor of the landowner. Last week the PA “Supreme” Court (we use that term loosely) reversed the lower court rulings and said in this case, not producing gas for 18 years and not making any payments to the landowners during that time is not (yet) enough to claim the energy company has abandoned its lease rights.
Read More “PA Supreme Crt: No Production, No Payments…Doesn’t Cancel Lease”

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SWEPI Auctioning 189K PA/NY Conventional Acres, 1,500 Active Wells

SWEPI, formerly known as Shell Western E&P Inc., is the North American land-based drilling arm of giant Royal Dutch Shell. SWEPI has an active drilling program in the Marcellus/Utica region. Some of that active program has traditionally been in shallow, or conventional (not shale) drilling. Using a broker, SWEPI has put up a mammoth 189,000 acres of its conventional/shallow leases and wells for sale by auction. The leases and some 1,500 active oil and gas wells are located in Forest, Elk, McKean, and Warren counties in Pennsylvania, and Cattaraugus County in New York. The sale includes shallow rights (not shale rights) only. SWEPI claims there are another 10,000 potential well locations. Here’s the details…
Read More “SWEPI Auctioning 189K PA/NY Conventional Acres, 1,500 Active Wells”

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2 New Injection Wells Proposed for Warren, PA – EPA Reviewing

In early 2013, Bear Lake Properties in Warren County, PA (near the New York border) opened a new injection well to accept Marcellus Shale wastewater (see NW PA Frack Wastewater Injection Well Begins Operation). The new injection well faced stiff opposition. Columbus Township, where the well is located, originally passed and later rescinded a ban on injection wells under threat of lawsuit (see Columbus Twp, PA Ban on Injection Wells Rescinded). A few local residents tried to pressure the federal EPA, the agency that permits and oversees all injection wells, into reconsidering their approval (see Local Residents Protest 2 Wastewater Injection Wells in NW PA). In the end the EPA granted the permit. Since then, local residents have been testing just about every water source in the county to be sure the injection well isn’t leaking (see Concerned Citizens Test Water Near NWPA Injection Well, No Leaks). Good news: two more injection wells for Warren County are now going through the process of EPA reviews…
Read More “2 New Injection Wells Proposed for Warren, PA – EPA Reviewing”

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Concerned Citizens Test Water Near NWPA Injection Well, No Leaks

In early 2013 Bear Lake Properties in Warren County, PA (near the New York border) opened a new injection well to accept Marcellus Shale wastewater (see NW PA Frack Wastewater Injection Well Begins Operation). The new injection well faced stiff opposition. Columbus Township, where the well is located, originally passed and later rescinded a ban on injection wells under threat of lawsuit (see Columbus Twp, PA Ban on Injection Wells Rescinded). A few local residents tried to pressure the federal EPA, the agency that permits and oversees all injection wells, into reconsidering their approval (see Local Residents Protest 2 Wastewater Injection Wells in NW PA). Finally, anti-drilling group Clean Water Action tried to get the EPA to reverse their decision (see Anti-Drillers Go After EPA on PA Injection Wells Approvals). In the end, it didn’t matter. The EPA reviewed and re-reviewed and said the location and construction for the well is safe. Since that time, a group of local citizens began and have continued testing every well, pond, creek, swamp and mud puddle anywhere close to the injection well, looking for evidence that the well is leaking. Guess what they’ve found? Nothing…
Read More “Concerned Citizens Test Water Near NWPA Injection Well, No Leaks”

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WTC Upgrades Warren, PA Plant, Accept Marcellus Wastewater Again?

We’re returning to a story we last wrote about over a year ago. In October 2013 MDN told you the radical national anti-drilling organization Clean Water Action (CWA) had sued a small Pennsylvania company by the name of Waste Treatment Corporation (WTC) in Warren, PA in federal court claiming the company continued to accept, treat and discharge Marcellus drilling wastewater into the Allegheny River (see CWA Sues/Accuses Waste Treatment Corp of Continued Shale Pollution). WTC was supposed to have stopped that practice two years earlier, in 2011, after then-Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), Michael Krancer, got all such operations to cease and desist. Responses to the CWA lawsuit from both the WTC and the DEP raised more questions than they answered for us (see Waste Treatment, PA DEP Respond to CWA Lawsuit). In September 2014, CWA announced they had reached a settlement of the case with WTC agreeing to immediately stop accepting/discharging Marcellus wastewater (even though they say they don’t), install expensive new equipment, and then restart accepting Marcellus wastewater processing again (see CWA v Waste Treatment Corp Wastewater Discharge Lawsuit Settled). The new news is that WTC has installed the aforementioned new technology, news that we get from a press release from the company that sold them the technology. What we don’t know is when, or if, WTC will once again begin to accept Marcellus Shale wastewater at the plant…
Read More “WTC Upgrades Warren, PA Plant, Accept Marcellus Wastewater Again?”

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EPA Fines PA Gas Plants for Accidents that Haven’t Yet Happened

Minority ReportIt’s something straight out of the Tom Cruise movie Minority Report. The federal Environmental Protection Agency has fined the owner of five Pennsylvania natural gas processing plants and one West Virginia plant (six plants total) $50,221 for spills and leaks at the plants–that never happened. The EPA says Elkhorn Gas Processing hasn’t done enough to prevent such incidents from potentially happening, and therefore the EPA is shaking them down and making them pay for possible future violations. Perhaps it’s more like The Godfather than the Minority Report? Talk about an abuse of power! Do you need any further evidence that the Obama EPA is totally out of control?…
Read More “EPA Fines PA Gas Plants for Accidents that Haven’t Yet Happened”

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CWA v Waste Treatment Corp Wastewater Discharge Lawsuit Settled

lawsuitIn October of last year MDN told you the radical national anti-drilling organization Clean Water Action (CWA) had sued a small Pennsylvania company by the name of Waste Treatment Corporation (WTC) in Warren, PA in federal court claiming the company continued to accept, treat and discharge Marcellus drilling wastewater into the Allegheny River (see CWA Sues/Accuses Waste Treatment Corp of Continued Shale Pollution). WTC was supposed to have stopped that practice two years earlier, in 2011, after then-Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), Michael Krancer, got all such operations to cease and desist. Responses to the CWA lawsuit from both the WTC and the DEP raised more questions than they answered for us (see Waste Treatment, PA DEP Respond to CWA Lawsuit). Since last year, the lawsuit has been quiet–at least publicly. Yesterday CWA announced they’ve reached a settlement of the case with WTC agreeing to immediately stop accepting/discharging Marcellus wastewater (even though they say they don’t), install expensive new equipment over the next 8 months, and then restart accepting Marcellus wastewater processing again…
Read More “CWA v Waste Treatment Corp Wastewater Discharge Lawsuit Settled”

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Utica Shale Drilling Ripple Effect in Northern Part of Play

Just because you don’t see a drilling rig and holes being drilled in the ground, it doesn’t mean Utica Shale drilling isn’t having enormous, positive economic benefits in a community. So says Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber officials. They point to the hundreds of permanent new jobs at area manufacturers–jobs created and sustained directly by the drilling industry.

More on the Utica supply chain and how it’s benefiting areas that haven’t (yet) seen their own Utica wells drilled…
Read More “Utica Shale Drilling Ripple Effect in Northern Part of Play”

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PA DEP Consent Decree Against Waste Treatment’s Warren Plant

A month ago MDN told you a lawsuit had been filed by anti-drilling Clean Water Action (CWA) against the municipal sewage treatment plant in Warren, PA operated by Waste Treatment Corporation. The lawsuit claimed the Warren plant, based on testing of the Allegheny River, continues to process and dump treated frack wastewater into the river (see CWA Sues/Accuses Waste Treatment Corp of Continued Shale Pollution). A day after that story broke, both Waste Treatment and the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection responded and said that no, the plant does not and has not treated shale frack wastewater since 2011 (see Waste Treatment, PA DEP Respond to CWA Lawsuit).

However, as we said at the time, the fact that the DEP had also (quietly) filed their own lawsuit against Waste Treatment raises more questions than it answers. We now begin to get some of those answers. Yesterday, the DEP announced a “Proposed Consent Decree” with Waste Treatment that will reduce the amount of total dissolved solids it releases into the Allegheny River. The (important) question remains: If the effluent from the Warren plant is not coming from processing shale fracking wastewater, where is it coming from? What is the source of this super-salty wastewater that’s being processed by this plant?…
Read More “PA DEP Consent Decree Against Waste Treatment’s Warren Plant”

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Penn State Gives Warren County Some Hard Truth, Hope re Drilling

Warren County, PA, located in the northwestern part of the state, is not in the “sweet spot” for Marcellus/Utica Shale drilling. That was the blunt (but kindly delivered) message from two Penn State Marcellus Education Team educators at a meeting yesterday at the Warren Public Library.

Warren County does have a few Utica wells: 12 permitted with 5 already drilled or being drilled right now. However, widespread drilling will not come to Warren in the near future. Question: Will it ever come to Warren? Answer…
Read More “Penn State Gives Warren County Some Hard Truth, Hope re Drilling”

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Waste Treatment, PA DEP Respond to CWA Lawsuit

Yesterday MDN told you about a wastewater treatment plant in Warren, PA that has been sued by Clean Water Action with claims the plant continues to receive, process and dump frack wastewater into the Allegheny River (see CWA Sues/Accuses Waste Treatment Corp of Continued Shale Pollution). Waste Treatment Corporation’s Warren operation was supposed to have stopped that practice in May 2011. The lawsuit says it’s still happening, based on the results of tests from last year by the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP).

Both Waste Treatment Corp. and the PA DEP have responded with statements addressing the CWA allegations and lawsuit. Waste Treatment says they did stop processing Marcellus Shale wastewater in 2011. The PA DEP says the agency filed its own lawsuit against Waste Treatment in September of this year. Frankly, it’s not at all clear to MDN what the real facts are in this case–yet. After reading the responses, we have more questions than answers…
Read More “Waste Treatment, PA DEP Respond to CWA Lawsuit”