Chesapeake Appalachia fined $565,000 for multiple violations of natural gas production

WEST VIRGINIA, US: The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has fined Chesapeake Appalachia LLC a total of $565,000 in civil penalties and reimbursement costs for erosion and sediment control violations, wetland encroachment violations and an April 2011 well control incident. Chesapeake was fined $215,000 for a March 2011 incident in West Branch Township, Pennsylvania, where sediment discharged into a stream classified as high quality that receive some of the highest levels of protection in the state.

Chesapeake has since paid $190,000 to the authority to repair and upgrade the water supply facility and has made assurances it will reimburse the authority any additional costs associated with the incident. The company has since installed silt fences, silt socks, gravel surfacing of the access road and a storm water capture ditch. In addition, Chesapeake paid $190,000 as part of a consent order and agreement after the operator lost control of a well head during hydraulic fracturing of the Atgas 2H Well in Leroy Township, Bradford County, Pennsylvania on April 19, 2011. A third incident also occurred in North Towanda Township, Bradford County, Pennsylvania.

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