Source: Morning Call (Allentown, PA), August 5, 2016
Posted on: http://www.advisen.com
A subsidiary of ExxonMobil will pay a $400,000 fine to end a pending criminal trial alleging it intentionally and illegally polluted a Susquehanna River tributary with gas-drilling wastewater, authorities said Thursday.
Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s office announced the settlement to end the 2-year-old case against XTO Energy. The court-approved deal calls for XTO to pay a $300,000 civil penalty to the state Department of Environmental Protection and $100,000 to the Susquehanna Greenway Partnership for environmental projects in the Lycoming County area. The settlement also calls for the company to enter a court program requiring it to comply with strict environmental standards.
“This settlement will result in additional oversight over a company that was allegedly responsible for discharging thousands of gallons of fracking wastewater into the environment,” Kane said in a statement.
Lycoming County has been a hotbed of gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale. To get the gas, wells are drilled horizontally deep underground and a mix of chemicals, sand and water are used in the extraction process. Companies are required to contain the waste byproduct in containers as prescribed by state and federal law.
The XTO spill occurred in 2010 and was discovered by a DEP inspector, court records state. The inspector noticed a valve had been removed on several storage tanks, allowing wastewater to kill vegetation as it flowed into a small stream, court records state.
Kane launched a grand jury investigation after taking office in 2013. The grand jury found that between Nov. 12, 2010 and Nov. 16, 2010, more than 93,000 gallons of wastewater was transported to and stored at XTO’s Marquardt site in Lycoming County. An undetermined amount of wastewater leaked at the site, requiring 3,000 tons of contaminated soil to be removed.
The company was charged with violating state and federal clean water and solid waste laws. The company also was charged by federal authorities and paid a $100,000 fine to the Environmental Protection Agency.
The state settlement also calls for XTO to maintain compliance with a federal consent decree that it reached in 2013 with EPA and the U.S. Department of Justice. The decree called for several reforms, including the requirement that XTO spend an estimated $20 million on a plan to reform its wastewater management practices.
“This is an important step toward accountability, and we will continue to pursue prosecutions against companies and individuals who pollute the environment,” Kane said.