Tuesday, November 14, 2023

DEP Issues Record 5,653 Notices Of Violation To Conventional Oil & Gas Operators So Far In 2023; ‘Culture Of Non-Compliance’ Continues

The Department of Environmental Protection has issued a record 5,653 notices of violation to conventional oil and gas operators in 2023, with two months left in the year, according to DEP’s
November 3, 2023 Weekly Workload Report.   That’s 25% more than in 2021.

On November 13, PA Environment Digest reported DEP has issued at least 472 notices of violation to 90 conventional oil and gas operators for abandoning their wells without plugging them so far in 2023, according to DEP’s Oil & Gas Compliance Reporting Database. Read more here.

Just one conventional operator-- John B. Best-- was issued 64 notices of violation for abandoning conventional wells. John B. Best has 166 conventional wells registered in his name.  [Read more here.]

To put these numbers in context, DEP just issued its 2022 Oil and Gas Annual Report that said 5,416 notices of violation were issued to conventional operators during all of 2022.  Read more here.

DEP reported it had issued conventional oil and gas operators 4,514 notices of violation in 2021 in the 2021 Oil and Gas Annual Report.  Read more here.

2022 Violations

The most frequent conventional operator violations in 2022 were--

-- 671 for failure to plug conventional wells after they are abandoned by operators;

-- 168 for failure to construct and operate wells as required by law and regulations;

-- 161 for failing to manage conventional well residual waste as required by law and regulations;

-- 101 for drilling or operating, or altering a well without a permit.

Click Here to read the 2022 compliance report summary.

‘Culture Of Non-Compliance’

On December 29, 2022. the Department of Environmental Protection released the first-ever assessment of how well conventional oil and gas drillers comply with state environmental laws and concluded, “(the) conventional oil and gas industry’s recent record of compliance with Pennsylvania law is simply not good, particularly with regard to improper abandonment of wells.”

“A significant change in the culture of non-compliance as an acceptable norm in the conventional oil and gas industry will need to occur before meaningful improvement can happen.”

“This record of non-compliance will require DEP to further develop and refine its techniques for deterring violations and encouraging compliance with relevant statutory and regulatory provisions.”

Click Here to read more.

It is clear, just from the preliminary numbers in 2023, non-compliance by the conventional oil and gas industry continues to increase dramatically.

Significant Conventional Compliance Events In 2023

Here are just a few significant conventional well operator compliance events so far in 2023--

-- Illegal Road Dumping Wastewater Continues: In spite of the fact it is illegal to dump conventional oil and gas wastewater on roads, it is still happening unabated in conventional oil and gas drilling areas of the state, according to local citizen reports.  It is not clear what, if any action is being taken to stop the illegal practices.

Conventional operators are still fighting to make road dumping their wastewater legal.  Read more here.

-- Conventional Well Wastewater Takes Out Village Of Reno Water Supply: In July, a conventional oil well wastewater release from Petro Erie, Inc. production wastewater tanks was discovered on July 20 and was found to have contaminated the Village of Reno’s water supply in Sugarcreek Borough, Venango County leaving the community of over 550 residents and businesses without clean water for more than six weeks.  

Petro Erie, Inc. appealed DEP’s cleanup orders saying the “Appellant lacks the financial ability to comply with the Order.”  Read more here.

-- Equitrans Rager Mountain Gas Storage Area Groundwater Contamination Still Not Resolved: DEP continues to try to resolve groundwater contamination issues from conventional wells at the Equitrans Rager Mountain Gas Storage Facility in Jackson Township, Cambria County, the site of the 1.1 billion cubic foot uncontrolled venting of natural gas in November 2022.

Through 2023, DEP inspection reports said the same thing, “Equitrans has not yet demonstrated to the Department that groundwater impacts have been resolved” from the well plugging operations undertaken by the company to try to control the uncontrolled venting of gas.

DEP continues to take water samples from monitoring wells and other locations around the well site to test for indicators of contamination and continue to find pollution.

In September, DEP issued NOVs to Equitrans for failing to provide DEP inspectors access to their facilities when requested.  Read more here.

-- Conventional Well Leaking Natural Gas In Erie: As an example of the emergencies DEP and other companies respond to, in October DEP investigated a gas migration case reported by National Fuel Gas involving the Edward Bronakowski 1 conventional gas well operated by JF Pitonyak in Summit Township, Erie County.

A routine gas line check found gas coming from the ground at 1260 Robinson Road and National Fuel Gas took action to dig up the area and insert a steel casing over the well to capture gas coming from the well.

“A National Fuel gas vacuum truck is used to suck the gas from the ground in the areas with high percentage readings daily.”

-- Family Evacuates Home To Escape Impacts Of Abandoned Conventional Well: In October, a woman and her two young children had to move out of their home in Washington County to escape the impacts of an abandoned conventional well on their water supply and the air quality in their home after months dealing with the issues.  DEP made a commitment to plug the conventional wells near her home to try to resolve the issues.  Read more here.

-- “Routine” Venting Of Conventional Gas Wells: DEP’s inspection reports document the fact venting natural gas to the atmosphere is a “routine” part of conventional well drilling, in spite of recently passed Air Quality regulations that limit methane emissions from conventional wells.

Every conventional gas well is vented to the atmosphere for days to remove stray solids and liquids and other foreign matter from the well that could contaminate the stream of natural gas.  Read more here.

-- DEP Plugging 19 Abandoned Conventional Wastewater Injections Wells For EPA: In June, DEP started the process to plug 23 abandoned conventional oil and gas wastewater injection wells owned by ARG Resources, Inc. and Pennzoil Company in Elk County. The plugging contracts are being funded by well plugging bonds forfeited to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Underground Injection Well Program.  Read more here.

Weekly Compliance Dashboard

To learn more about the conventional industry’s “culture of non-compliance,” read PA Environment Digest’s Weekly Compliance Dashboard reports from DEP’s Oil & Gas Compliance Reporting Database.

DEP’s online posting of oil and gas inspection reports provide an unprecedented window into the conditions and practices their inspectors find in the field every day with conventional oil and gas well operations.

The weekly reports posted during 2023 are below.

Updates To Conventional Drilling Regulations Still Pending

Since 2016, when an update to conventional oil and gas drilling regulations were killed by the General Assembly and Gov. Wolf, DEP has been trying to get a new package of updates out for formal public comment.

Last December, Kurt Klapkowski, DEP Deputy Secretary for Oil and Gas Management, said the schedule for considering updates to environmental protection standards for conventional oil and gas drillers will be up to the incoming Shapiro-Davis Administration.  Read more here.

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.


[Note: The 2023 numbers are not complete due to the way DEP keeps adding inspection reports to its Oil & Gas Compliance Reporting Database.  The database does not indicate if or how these violations were resolved.]

[Note: If you believe your company was listed in error, contact DEP’s Oil and Gas Program.]

[Note: These may not be all the NOVs issued to oil and gas companies during this time period.  Additional inspection reports may be added to DEP’s Oil and Gas Compliance Database.]


Resource Links - Conventional Noncompliance:

-- DEP Report Finds: Conventional Oil & Gas Drillers Routinely Abandon Wells; Fail To Report How Millions Of Gallons Of Waste Is Disposed; And Non-Compliance Is An ‘Acceptable Norm’   [PaEN]

-- House Hearing: Let’s Work Together To Make Conventional Oil & Gas Industry Practices Cleaner, Respect Property Rights, Protect Taxpayers And Prevent New Abandoned Wells  [PaEN]

-- EDF: Pennsylvania Has 55,000 Oil/Gas Wells At High Risk Of Being Abandoned; 51,000 Wells At Risk Of Being Transferred To Low Solvency Owners; Current Conventional Well Owners Abandon 561 Wells A Year, On Average  [PaEN]

-- EDF: Conventional Gas Wells In Allegheny National Forest Leaked Over 6 Billion Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas In 2019; Conventional Operators Seek To Block Methane Limits  [PaEN]

-- EQB No Longer Has Statutory Authority To Change Conventional Oil & Gas Well Bonding Amounts To Help Prevent 400 to 600 New Well Abandonments A Year; Adopts Proposed Changes To Water Quality Standards For Comment [PaEN]

-- Conventional Oil & Gas Well Owners Failed To File Annual Production/Waste Generation Reports For 61,655 Wells; Attorney General Continues Investigation Of Road Dumping Wastewater  [PaEN]

-- Lawsuit Filed Against General Assembly, Governor Challenges Constitutionality Of Law Preventing DEP From Protecting Public Health, Environment From Harm Caused By Abandoning Conventional Oil & Gas Wells [PaEN]

Special 2023 Oil & Gas Compliance Reports:

-- DEP Issued At Least 472 Violations To 90 Conventional Oil & Gas Operators; 20 NOVs To 10 Shale Gas Operators For Abandoning Their Wells Without Plugging Them So Far In 2023  [PaEN]

-- DEP Issues Record 5,653 Notices Of Violation To Conventional Oil & Gas Operators So Far In 2023; ‘Culture Of Non-Compliance’ Continues  [PaEN] 

-- Shale Gas Operators On Track To Have More Violations In 2023 - Frozen Gas Infrastructure; Explosion; Pad Fire; Uncontrolled Gas Venting; Frack Outs; Major Spills;  Pipeline Crashing Thru A Home Highlight 2023 So Far  [PaEN] 

Weekly PA Oil & Gas Industry Public Notice Dashboards:

-- PA Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - Nov. 11 to 17 -- 37 Conventional Abandoned Wells; 1,260+ Shale Gas Spill; 1,000 Gallon Conventional Oil Spill In State Park; Rager Mtn Gas Storage Still Not Cleaned Up  [PaEN]

-- PA Oil & Gas Industrial Facilities: Permit Notices/Opportunities To Comment - November 18 [PaEN]

-- DEP Invites Comments On Renewal Of Danco Industries Petroleum Contaminated Wastewater Treatment Facility In Venango County  [PaEN] 

-- DEP Posted 66 Pages Of Permit-Related Notices In November 18 PA Bulletin  [PaEN]

Related Articles This Week:

-- State Dept. Of Health Pushing For Changes To Reduce Adverse Health Impacts From Natural Gas Development  [PaEN] 

-- Beaver County Residents Call For Accountability, Emergency Preparedness After Dozens Of Malfunctions, Pollution From Shell Petrochemical Plant  [PaEN] 

-- PUC Alert: Dec. 1 Utility Prices Are Changing - Natural Gas (+149% to -64.2%); Electric (+18.8% to -25.7%)  [PaEN] 

-- PUC Winter Natural Gas Reliability Overview Reports Now Available; But Do Not Address Winter Storm Elliot Issues  [PaEN]

-- Post-Gazette - Anya Litvak: Winter Storm Elliot’s Natural Gas Infrastructure Failures Not An Isolated Event; Report Says Electric Grid Still Vulnerable: ‘Winter Is Coming’

-- Utility Dive: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Investigating Possible Winter Storm Elliott Market Manipulation By Natural Gas Pipelines, Power Plants, Marketers

NewsClips This Week:

-- Observer-Reporter Editorial: Is Shapiro’s Voluntary Agreement With CNX The Right Move For Gas Well Safety?  ‘We Do Not Trust Foxes To Guard Henhouses’ 

-- Warren Times Editorial: Right Partnership On Gas Wells?  ‘We Do Not Trust Foxes To Guard Henhouses’ [Shapiro-CNX Statement of Mutual Interests]

-- Spotlight PA - Lilly Riddle: Companies Behind Mariner East II Pipeline Paid $42 Million In Pollution Fines To Pennsylvania

-- Spotlight PA: Did Mariner East Pipeline Construction Affect Your Water?  Contact Spotlight PA

-- EnergyPortal.eu: Mariner East Pipeline Penalties Could Set Precedent For Environmental Enforcement; Attorney General’s Office Cited For Lack Of Transparency On Remediation Efforts

-- TribLive: Westmoreland Water Authority Warns Of Mandatory Water Restrictions As Dry Autumn Persists, Beaver Run Reservoir Continues To Fall [Shale Gas Drillers Withdrawn Water From The Reservoir For Fracking] 

-- TribLive: Westmoreland Water Authority Halts Fracking Water Withdrawals By CNX, Olympus Energy At Beaver Run Reservoir As Part Of Water Conservation Plan [Shale Gas Operators Took 301 Million Gallons From Reservoir This Year]

-- Williamsport Sun: Fracking Wastewater Spills At Eureka Resources Facility In Williamsport 

-- PA Capital-Star: PA’s Natural Gas Development Is Hurting Its Oldest Residents

-- Spotlight PA: PA Leads The Nation For Lyme Disease Cases; Oil & Gas Development, Fragmentation In Forests Boosts The Risk 

-- TribLive: PA Leads Nation In Lyme Disease Cases, Oil & Gas Development, Other Forest Fragmentation Boosting The Risk

-- Williamsport Sun: PA Leads The Nation For Lyme Disease Cases; Oil & Gas Development, Fragmentation In Forests Boosts The Risk 

-- Beaver County Residents Call For Accountability, Emergency Preparedness After Dozens Of Malfunctions, Pollution From Shell Petrochemical Plant  [PaEN]

-- TribLive: Invenergy Scraps Plan For Natural Gas-Fired Power Plant In Allegheny County

-- The Allegheny Front: EPA Finds Spills, Leaks, Heavy Metals At MAX Environmental Landfill In Westmoreland County [75% Of Waste Comes From Shale Gas Industry ]

-- Williamsport Sun: Fracking Wastewater Spills At Eureka Resources Facility In Williamsport

-- Williamsport Sun Letter: Fracking Falsehood Spread By Sen. Yaw, Others - By Dean Marshall, Lock Haven

-- WHYY: Amtrak Backs Off Plan To Install Natural Gas Boilers At 30th Street Station In Philadelphia, Crediting New Climate Goals 

-- Hydrogen Insight: Plug Power Share Price Plunges 40% After Firm Admits It Could Fold In Next 12 Months [Key Player In Western PA Hydrogen Hub] 

-- New York State: Massive Southern Tier Gas Drilling Spree Proposed - 6,500 Land Leases Sought For Plan To Extract Shale Gas, Store Carbon Dioxide

-- New York State: NY DEC, State Legislators Muted On Massive Plan To Extract Natural Gas, Store Carbon Dioxide In Southern Tier; But Green Groups Outraged

-- TribLive/AP: Ohio Commission Approves Natural Gas Drilling In State Parks, Wildlife Areas Despite Fraud Investigation

-- Financial Times: New EU Rules On Methane Leaks To Hit Oil And Gas Importers

-- Reuters: EU Agrees To Law To Hit Fossil Fuel, LNG Natural Gas Imports With Methane Emissions Limits 

-- Bloomberg: EU Sets New Rules On LNG Natural Gas Imports - Production, Transportation

-- Bloomberg: Oil Majors’ Carbon Capture Plans Dubbed A ‘Dangerous Delusion’

Weekly Oil & Gas Compliance Reports:

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - November 4 to 10 - Eight More Abandoned Conventional Wells; Venting Gas; Improper Plugging, Failed To Restore Well Pads  [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - Oct. 28 to Nov. 3 - Fire At PA General Energy Shale Gas Well Pad; 5 More Abandoned Conventional Wells; Replugging Shale Gas Well [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - October 21 to 27 -- Plugging 100th Well Tough Going; 30 Abandoned Conventional Wells Confirmed To 1 Operator [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - October 14 to 20 - 6 More Abandoned Conventional Wells; Conventional Gas Migration Incident; Inactive Shale Gas Wells [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - October 7 to 13 - More Abandoned Conventional Wells; Spills; Venting Gas; Emergency Well Plugging [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - Sept. 30 to Oct. 6 -- Company Tries To Limit DEP Investigation; Unauthorized Water Withdrawals; Can’t Pay For Reno Cleanup; Venting Gas Wells; More Abandoned Conventional Wells [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - Sept. 23 to 29; More Abandoned Wells; Oil & Gas Doesn’t Typically Issue NOVs For ‘Routine’ Venting Of Natural Gas, Will Air Quality Under New Regs? [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - Sept. 16 to 22 - 2nd Abandoned Shale Gas Well Pad? 5 More Abandoned Conventional Wells; Failure To Comply With Order [PaEN]

-- 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]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - September 2 to 8; Equitrans Issued NOVs For Failing To Provide DEP Inspectors Access To Facilities As Requested [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - Aug. 26 to Sept. 1-- Uncontrolled Venting Of Shale Gas Well; 4,600 Gallon Spill Of Shale Gas Wastewater; Cleanup Of Conventional Oil Wastewater Spill Barely Begins [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - August 19 to 25 - More Abandoned Conventional Wells; Gas Frack-Out; More Leaking Wastewater Tanks; Equitrans Cleanup Continues [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - August 12 to 18; DEP Orders Restoration Of Water Supply; Conventional Wells Abandoned; Leaking Methane, Fluids [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - August 5 to 11; Routine Venting Of Conventional Wells, Shale Gas Wells; Major Conventional Spills; Pipeline Subsidence [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - July 29 to August 4; More Abandoned, Leaking Wells, Reno Water Supply Contamination; Rager Mtn. Natural Gas Storage Area Spills [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - July 22 to 28 [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - July 15 to 22; 8 More New Conventional Well Abandonments [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - July 8 to 14; Failed Shale Gas, Conventional Well Plugging; Leaking Conventional Wells [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - July 1 to 7; New Brownfield Cleanups; Shale Gas Well Plugging Picks Up; New Conventional Well Abandonments [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - June 24 to 30 - Radiation Levels Prompt Shale Gas Wastewater Tank Decontamination; Replugging Conventional, Shale Gas Wells [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - June 17 to 23 - Federal Well Plugging Project & Dimock Area Shale Gas Well Inspections; Leaking Plugged Conventional Wells; Frack Out Investigation [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - June 10 to 16 -- Leaking Conventional Wells; 5 More Abandoned Conventional Wells; Using Tape To Repair Containment Liner [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - June 3 to 9: Plugged Conventional Well Frack-Out; 10 More NOVs For Abandoning Conventional Wells [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - May 27 to June 2 -- Conventional Operators Fail To Start Plugging, Fail To Cleanup Spills; More NOVs For Abandoning Wells [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - May 20 to 26; DEP Issues More NOVs For Conventional Well Abandonments [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - May 13 to 19: Struggle To Plug Tatonka Oil Co. LLC’s Nancy 13 Conventional Well Leaking Gas, Production Wastewater Since 2018; Citizen Complaint Finds ‘Bubbling’ Gas Well [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - May 6 to 12; Equitrans Gas Storage Area Issued New NOVs [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - April 29 to May 5; Major Shale Gas Wastewater Spill; 6 More Abandoned Well NOVs [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - April 22 - 28; Conventional Wells Venting Gas; Shale Gas Well Pad Spills [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - April 15 to 21; 10 Abandoned Well NOVs; New Crude Oil Leak; Defective Casing/Cementing [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - April 8 to 14; Shale Gas Drillers Create New Brownfields, 8 Wells Found With Defective Casing/Cementing [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - April 1 to 7; Leaking Gas Well On State Game Lands #87 Fixed [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - March 25 to 31; More Violations At Equitrans Gas Storage Area; Spring Walk Yields Hissing Gas Well On State Game Lands [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - March 18 to 24; Continuing Violations At Equitrans Gas Storage Area; 6 More New Well Abandonments [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - March 11 to 17; Fracking 2 Wells Interfered With Another Shale Gas Well In Westmoreland County [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - March 4 to 10; Big Week For Spills [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - Feb. 25 to March 3; More Well Plugging Sites Inspected [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - Feb. 18 to 24; First Violations Noted At New Well Plugging Sites [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - Feb. 11 to 17 [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - Feb. 4 to 10 - 12 NOVs For Abandoning Wells Without Plugging Them [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - Jan. 28 to Feb. 3 [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - Jan. 21 to 27 [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - Jan. 14 to 20 [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - Jan. 7 to 13 [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - Dec. 31 to Jan. 6 [PaEN]

[Posted: November 14, 2023]  PA Environment Digest

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