The release of shale gas wastewater at the Brova and six other EQT shale gas well pads DEP determined were caused by corroded 3-inch metal pipes known as “dump lines” between equipment that separated natural gas from wastewater and wastewater storage tanks. Read more here.
EQT has repeatedly challenged DEP’s authority to request information and records during this investigation included a July 2024 Order and a previous subpoena, over incidents that began in December 2021, according to a copy of the DEP order obtained by a Right To Know request by PA Environment Digest. Read more here.
The Environmental Hearing Board said according to a status report filed by EQT and DEP, the parties have been actively involved in “robust” settlement discussions of the appeal since approximately March 2025
On February 12, 2026, the Center for Coalfield Justice filed a petition to intervene in the EQT appeal because its members have an interest in “opposing attempts to nullify a regulation that is legally ‘necessary’ to protect the groundwater resources that sustain them and their environment.”
The Center said the regulation EQT was challenging was 25 Pa. Code § 78a.64a that requires secondary containment around equipment on a shale gas well pad containing regulated substances like wastewater.
The Center it “has an interest in defending the Department’s authority to obtain certain information from regulated entities because “[o]btaining, analyzing, translating, and communicating information about Southwestern Pennsylvania’s environmental resources is essential to CCJ’s operations,” and it obtains such information from the Department via informal file reviews and the state’s Right to Know Law.”
EQT opposed the request to intervene saying “ CCJ’s sole interest in the appeal is in the legal precedent that might be set regarding the Department’s ability to require secondary containment under 25 Pa. Code § 78a.64a and to demand documents pursuant to its investigative authority under 58 Pa. C.S. § 3258."
EQT also said the Center failed to allege the resources at risk or likely to be at risk from the operations of its seven well pads involved in the appeal, although the Center said one of its members lives within one mile of the Brova well pad and another within two miles.
DEP filed a letter of “no opposition” to the Center’s intervention.
In its opinion, the Board said-- “To say that there is no connection between the Appellants’ operations at issue in this appeal and CCJ’s operations would be a stretch.”
The Board noted the Center conducts its operations primarily in Washington and Greene County and “CCJ’s membership and its operations as an organization will undoubtedly be implicated.”
“In particular, if the Board were to rule that the Appellants did not have to comply with the Department’s Order, the Appellants would not be required to install secondary containment for the dump line at the Brova Site.”
The Board said-- “There is nothing currently in the record before us to indicate that the problems experienced at the Brova Site and the other six well sites will not continue as time progresses, despite replacement of the dump line with a new pipe.”
“We are satisfied that the information provided in the affidavit has a sufficient level of trustworthiness to support the assertions made within.”
Click Here for a copy of the EHB Order. [EHB Docket: 2024117]
(Photos: Row 1- Initial report of release “more than 5 gallons” on Brova well pad that turned into 940,000 gallons; Corroded wastewater pipes; Wastewater pipe network laid out during investigation; Row 2- One of several monitoring wells drilled around the Brova site; Brova well pad impacts map; Continuing wastewater seep with distressed vegetation at Brova well pad (4.16.25).)
Resource Link:
-- DEP: EQT Production Co. Challenges Records Requests In Ongoing Investigation Of The 2020-21 Release Of 940,000 Gallons Of Shale Gas Wastewater In North Bethlehem Twp., Washington County And Similar Failures At At Least 6 Other EQT Well Pads [PaEN]
[Posted: March 9, 2026] PA Environment Digest
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