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Energy companies charged with polluting stream

ENGLISH CENTER — Misdemeanor charges have been filed against Texas-based Anadarko E&P Onshore and a second company, Oil States Energy Services, of Clearfield, for allegedly polluting Little Pine Creek and a tributary of Bonnell Run in Pine Township, according to the state attorney general’s office.

The companies are accused of allowing wastewater to flow into the two waterways, “which caused the death of aquatic life” in mid-February 2015, Paul Zimmerer, a member of the Environmental Crimes Unit of the attorney general’s office, said in an affidavit.

He filed the charges earlier this month at the office of District Judge Jerry C. Lepley.

Anadarko, of H ouston, “leased property for gas exploration and production in the township” from the Bonnell Run Hunting and Fishing Corp., and the company “currently has six well pads on the property,” Zimmerer said.

Despite “verbal agreements” with the hunting and fishing corporation that no contaminated water would be stored on the property, Anadarko “placed 65 temporary frac storage tanks” on one of the pads, Zimmerer said.

“These tanks were being used to store flowback production water coming from four gas wells” on one of the pads, which in the affidavit was identified as Pad D.

Louis Grant Jr., the head of the gas committee for the hunting and fishing corporation, was notified on Feb. 17, 2015, that there was “a release of production water from frac storage tanks on Pad D,” Zimmerer said.

When he visited the site the next day, Grant saw that “the release originated from a tank overflowing from the top, despite being told there had been a faulty valve,” Zimmerer said.

A water quality specialist from the state Department of Environmental Protection also visited the site of the spill, the investigator said.

Zimmerer said that Anadarko “hired Oil States Energy Services as a contractor to handle the initial flowback water coming from the wells of Pad D, and then to monitor the produced water coming from the wells.”

Zimmerer said that an environmental health and safety representative from Anadarko estimated the release of wastewater was “25 barrels, or 1,050 gallons.”

The release, initially believed to have been brought about by faulty valves, actually was caused by “an open valve” on a frac storage tank, Zimmerer said Anadarko officials told investigators.

It was learned that at no time did DEP issue any permits allowing Anadarko or Oil States Energy to dispose of wastewater from Bonnell Run Pad D, Zimmerer said.

A pollution investigation by a fisheries biologist with the state Fish and Boat Commission determined that the release from Pad D resulted in “the death of 165 salamanders, with an estimated value of $6,100, as well as dead amphibian egg masses,” Zimmerer said.

Anadarko and Oil States Energy both were charged with pollution of waters and disturbance of waterways and watersheds. The companies each have been sent a summons to appear before Lepley.

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