PA Environment Digest Blog: Oil & Gas Industry Spills, Releases Created Over 575 New Brownfield Sites So Far In Pennsylvania, With More Every Week

DEP reports spills and releases from the oil and gas industry have created over 575 brownfield sites being cleaned up under the Act 2 Land Recycling Program, as of September 12, 2023.

And more are being created every week, according to PA Environment Digest’s weekly review of notices in the PA Bulletin.

There are at least 196 oil and gas-related sites in the process of being cleaned up-- nearly 34% of the sites in process-- and 379 oil and gas sites have been completed-- about 14% of the sites completed-- in the counties with shale gas and conventional oil and gas drilling in DEP’s Southwest, Northwest, Northcentral and Northeast Regional Office areas.

It’s important to note these sites, most in rural or suburban areas, weren’t contaminated prior to oil and gas industry drilling, pipeline and compressor station construction and installation and operation of other oil and gas infrastructure.

The counties with the largest numbers of new brownfields caused by the oil and gas industry are-- Susquehanna County - 144; Greene County - 79; Washington County - 60; Bradford County - 44; and Lycoming County - 40.

Coincidentally, Susquehanna, Washington, Bradford, Greene and Lycoming counties are the top five producers of shale gas in Pennsylvania.

The numbers include new brownfield sites that are clearly related to oil and gas companies-- well pads, compressor stations, production wastewater spills and releases from pipelines contaminating soil, surface and groundwater.

The oil and gas industry is an industry. It handles huge amounts of water contaminated with pollutants, things as simple and harmful as salts, radioactive radium, drill cuttings waste and chemicals used for fracking.

There is the potential for leaks and spills at every step of this industrial process that is spread across Pennsylvania’s landscape. Read more here.

This, however, is far from the whole story about oil and gas industry spill and release cleanups.

First, the conventional oil and gas industry very rarely uses the Act 2 Land Recycling Program and its cleanup standards to deal with spills and releases.

The Land Recycling Program is voluntary. Operators going through the Land Recycling Program have to prove their cleanup meets either background standards, statewide health standards or site-specific standards based on the chemicals and contaminants, likely exposures and the medium involved-- soil, ground or surface water.

DEP’s Northwest Regional Office numbers show very low numbers of Act 2 cleanups related to oil and gas spills because that’s a prime conventional drilling area.

Conventional operators prefer to use other methods like excavating contaminated soil until they think they got it all. It’s unclear what the companies do when surface and groundwater is contaminated, other than try to use a vac truck to try to suck up contaminated water.

Conventional operators generally have many more spills and releases than unconventional operators and a significantly worse compliance record.

In the first eight months of 2023, DEP reports issuing 4,542 notices of violation to conventional oil and gas operators and 889 NOVs to shale gas operators, which include NOVs for spills and releases that need to be cleaned up.

Unconventional shale gas operators use the Act 2 Program much more often, but even with that, the numbers show when a major drilling company policy is to use Act 2-- brownfield cleanup numbers increase significantly-- see Susquehanna, Greene and Washington counties.

Second, the descriptions DEP uses for brownfield sites in both the in progress sites and completed sites databases do not always draw a clear line to oil and gas operations, so it’s safe to say there are more sites and spills and releases not included in these numbers, in particular, those related to truck accidents.

To see the new oil and gas industry brownfields in your county, visit DEP’s Land Recycling Program Results webpage.

Brownfield Cleanups In Process, Completed

Here are the number of new oil and gas industry-related brownfield sites in process and completed through the Act 2 Land Recycling Program by DEP Region and county.

Southwest DEP Region

In Process- Oil & Gas Completed- Oil & Gas Total Oil & Gas

Allegheny: 95 5 320 5 10

Beaver 6 1 59 1 2

Cambria: 6 3 26 3

Fayette: 16 10 22 3 13

Greene: 78 60 25 19 79

Washington: 65 40 66 20 60

Westmoreland: 29 8 87 4 12

*Total - 295 127 605 52 179

Northwest DEP Region

In Process- Oil & Gas Completed- Oil & Gas Total Oil & Gas

Armstrong: 11 3 3

Butler: 17 1 41 2 3

Elk: 7 1 31 5 6

Erie: 26 2 78 3 5

Forest: 12 5 5

Indiana: 32 9 9

Jefferson: 23 8 8

Lawrence: 22 2 2

McKean: 20 5 46 9 14

Mercer: 15 1 52 1 2

Venango: 7 1 32 4 5

Warren: 22 1 1

*Total - 92 11 402 52 63

Northcentral DEP Region

In Process- Oil & Gas Completed- Oil & Gas Total Oil & Gas

Bradford: 8 6 95 38 44

Cameron: 1 1 9 1 2

Centre: 9 1 1

Clearfield: 37 19 53 4 23

Clinton: 9 1 114 6 7

Lycoming: 20 14 173 26 40

Northumberland:17 1 1

Potter: 2 2 41 12 14

Sullivan: 4 3 16 5 8

Tioga: 19 7 73 19 26

*Total - 126 55 574 111 166

Northeast DEP Region

In Process- Oil & Gas Completed- Oil & Gas Total Oil & Gas

Lackawanna: 8 116 1 1

Lehigh: 33 1 325 6 7

Luzerne: 19 171 2 2

Schuylkill: 3 97 1 1

Susquehanna: 2 1 342 143 144

Wyoming: 1 1 29 11 12

*Total - 66 3 1,080 164 167

Grant Total - 579 196 2,661 379 575

*Not all counties in this DEP Region have oil and gas brownfield sites

Weekly Oil & Gas Compliance, Public Notices

You can follow the creation of new oil and gas brownfields through the PA Environment Digest’s weekly oil and gas public notices and compliance reports dashboard.

The most recent weekly reports are below.

FracTracker Alliance

On August 31, the FracTracker Alliance released its own analysis of oil and gas industry sites being cleaned up under the Act 2 Land Recycling Program with a focus on contaminated sites given final approval by DEP in 2022.

Click Here to read their report.

Report Violations

To report oil and gas violations or any environmental emergency or complaint, visit DEP’s Environmental Complaint webpage.

Check These Resources

Visit DEP’s Compliance Reporting Database webpage to search their compliance records by date and operator and the Inspection Reports Viewer.

Sign up for DEP’s eNOTICE service which sends you information on oil and gas and other permits submitted to DEP for review in your community.

(Photos: top- release of drilling mud at pipeline construction site; 63,000 gallon spill of production wastewater on State Game Lands; tank truck rolled over and spilled 4,600 gallons of drilling wastewater; bottom- Conventional oil wastewater spill polluted the Village of Reno’s water supply in Venango County.)

PA Oil & Gas Industry Public Notice Dashboards:

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - September 9 to 15; First Abandoned Shale Gas Well Pad? Another Leaking Equitrans Storage Well; Plugging Grant Twp. Injection Well [PaEN]

-- PA Oil & Gas Industrial Facilities: Permit Notices/Opportunities To Comment - September 16 [PaEN]

-- DEP Invites Comments On Section 401 Water Quality Certification For A Texas Eastern Natural Gas Pipeline Project Going Under The Schuylkill River In Chester, Montgomery Counties [PaEN]

-- DEP Posted 75 Pages Of Permit-Related Notices In Sept. 16 PA Bulletin [PaEN]