Range Resources pleads no contest to charges
Range Resources, one of the largest shale gas drillers in the state, has pleaded no contest to criminal charges of negligent oversight of two well sites in Washington County.
State Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced the pleading Friday, which resulted from a two-year state criminal grand jury investigation into environmental crimes committed by shale gas drilling companies across the state.
The grand jury’s investigation found Range “knowingly covered up” leaking problems at a drilling waste pit and a 3 million-gallon hydraulic fracturing fluid flowback impoundment at its Yeager well pad in Amwell Township, Washington County.
And at the Brownlee drilling site in Buffalo Township, Washington County, a wastewater storage tank leak breached a “poorly secured” containment liner and flowed onto neighboring property and into Buffalo Creek. The leak contaminated a small farm field, and its cleanup required the removal of approximately 100 trees and 12,000 square feet of soil.
“In Pennsylvania, clean air and pure water is a constitutional right, yet too often, frackers from across the country come to our commonwealth, walk into our communities, and ― sometimes without care or consequence ― strip us of those basic rights,” said Mr. Shapiro in a video announcement of the charges and pleading.
“Backed by big investors and big influence, too many fracking companies act like they’re above the law and put themselves ahead of the people who work on the job site, as well as the farmer, neighbor and children impacted by their operations. We’re here to remind these fracking companies that the people of Pennsylvania come first.”
Range pleaded no contest in Washington County Court of Common Pleas for the Brownlee drilling site to one count of disposal, processing and
storage of residual waste; one count of unlawful conduct under the Solid Waste Management Act; and one count of prohibition against discharge of industrial wastes.
At the Yeager Pad, the nocontest pleas were on two counts of disposal, processing and storage of residual waste and two counts of unlawful conduct under the Solid Waste Management Act.
As part of the Brownlee site plea, Range will pay a $6,000 fine to the Solid Waste Abatement Fund and $3,000 to the Clean Water Fund, and it will also make a $16,000 charitable contribution to the Washington County Watershed Alliance.
For the Yeager plea, Range will pay a fine of $41,000 to the Solid Waste Abatement Fund and make an $84,000 charitable contribution to the Washington County Watershed Alliance.
Range Resources issued a statement saying it has resolved the “misdemeanor charges” and “has already undertaken full remediation, approved by regulators, at both sites referenced in the presentments.”
The email also stated that the company has been a leader in innovations that have “enhanced the safety and sustainability of our industry.”
“We stand behind our track record as a company that operates in a safe and sustainable manner,” the company stated, “focusing on protecting our environment, our people and the communities where we work.”
The Yeager well site has a long and checkered history of spills, leaks and contentious legal issues. Range drilled a well on the Yeager farm site in 2009, and it also built a drill cuttings pit and wastewater impoundment next to the hilltop well pad and near the homes of Stacey Haney and several of her neighbors.
According to a 13-page grand jury document detailing its findings, the Yeager site was immediately beset with problems, including tears in liners that were supposed to prevent leaks and numerous spills. On more than one occasion, the impoundment went septic — meaning it was overrun with bacteria that produced “horrible smells throughout the area” — the document states, a problem Range tried to treat by applying “highly toxic chemicals.”
Ms. Haney, her family and their neighbors claimed the drilling and fracking operation fouled their air and water and caused a host of physical ailments. In August 2018, Range Resources and 10 other companies involved in developing the shale gas well site settled their claims for $3 million. The companies, in the settlement agreement, maintain that they did not pollute any water supplies or damage anyone’s health.
The Yeager well site was a centerpiece of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America” by Eliza Griswold.
“Today, Range Resources has answered for their actions, and they know what they’ve done as indicated by internal documents and their own plea,” Mr. Shapiro said. “But this is just the beginning. We are in the first stages of a long process to hold the well-connected accountable and meet the promise of our constitution to protect our environment for generations to come.”
In a March interview, Mr. Shapiro confirmed that his office had “more than a dozen” ongoing criminal investigations involving shale gas drilling, fracking and pipeline operations and said, “You can expect some will result in criminal charges in the near future.”
The 43rd Statewide Investigative Grand Jury has ended operations, but the AG’s office indicated that other information developed by the grand jury could form the basis for additional presentments and criminal charges.
Although the grand jury’s focus was on the shale gas industry and Washington County residents living near the gas operations were called to testify, at least 25 state Department of Environmental Protection employees also appeared before the grand jury sitting in Pittsburgh.
In November, the DEP confirmed it had hired four law firms to represent it and its employees in the AG’s investigation.