Department of Environmental Resources v. Federal Oil & Gas Co.

73 Pa. D. & C.2d 148
CourtPennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board
DecidedJuly 1, 1975
DocketDocket no. 74-071-CP-C
StatusPublished

This text of 73 Pa. D. & C.2d 148 (Department of Environmental Resources v. Federal Oil & Gas Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Department of Environmental Resources v. Federal Oil & Gas Co., 73 Pa. D. & C.2d 148 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1975).

Opinion

DENWORTH and COHEN, Members,

This is a civil penalty action brought by the Department of Environmental Resources (hereinafter DER) against Federal Oil and Gas Company (hereinafter Federal), the owner of a deep gas well prospect in McKean County, Pa., and Joyce Pipeline Company (hereinafter Joyce), the drilling company employed by Federal to drill the prospect. The complaint asks for civil penalties on two counts: first, that during the nine-day period (November 17 — November 25, 1973) in which the gas well was being drilled, defendants were responsible for the continuous discharge of industrial wastes — namely, drilling fines, oil and silt — into the waters of the Commonwealth in violation of [150]*150sections 301 and 307 of The Clean Streams Law of June 22, 1937, P.L. 1987, as amended, 35 PS §§691.301, 691.307; and, second, that defendants did not “design, implement or maintain a plan to prevent erosion and sedimentation” on the drilling site as required by §102.4 of the Regulations of DER, which was^adopted under §402 of The Clean Streams Law, supra. DER alleges that defendants are jointly and severally hable on both counts for civil penalties, which DER requests should be imposed in the maximum amount — $14,500 for the first count ($10,000 plus $4,500 for continuous violations) and $10,000 for the second count.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. On September 18, 1973, Federal, a Pennsylvania corporation, was issued well drilling permit no. McK-10394 by the Oil and Gas Division of the Department of Environmental Resources to drill a gas well at site number one on the Onofrio well farm in Corydon Township in McKean County. The permit states that the operator is granted permission to drill the subject site “in accordance with pertinent legal requirements.”

2. The drilling site was selected for Federal by an “independent petroleum geologist.” A permit to drill the site was then obtained and the site located and prepared by John DePetro, a “consultant petroleum engineer” employed by Federal for this purpose.

3. The drilling site consisted of approximately 1.3 acres on the west side of Forest Road 176 in the Allegheny National Forest.

4. To prepare the site, Mr. DePetro’s employe was instructed to bulldoze a road from Forest Road 176 onto the site, and to clear and grade the site. [151]*151The site was at an elevation approximately four to five feet above the roád and sloped slightly from a direction northwest to southeast. The entrance road located on the eastern portion of the site was approximately 30 feet long and was graded at a slope of approximately 12 percent. Mr. DePetro’s criteria for locating the road were that it be a short distance-from the Forest Road onto the site and not too steep a grade.

5. No erosion control plan was developed in the preparation of the site or maintained at the site.

6. The U.S. Forestry Service checks on the preparation of drill sites to guard against erosion. At the direction of Donald Burge, a ranger for the Allegheny National Forest, a ten-inch sluice was placed in the ditch under the entrance road to conduct runoff water from above the entrance road to below the entrance road. Mr. Burge’s office approved the preparation of the site.

7. Joyce, a sole proprietor doing business as Joyce Pipeline Company, was employed by Federal to drill the well.

8. Joyce constructed three sumps that were located in the eastern and southeastern portion of the site. In the drilling process, sumps are required for the purpose of catching and containing drilling fines, which are sandstone cuttings resulting from drilling into the ground. The cuttings are mixed with fluid and blown out a pipe from the drilling rig into the sumps.

9. Buck Lick Run is a native brook and brown trout stream that is annually stocked with fingerling sized trout. It flows in a northeast to southwest direction south of the gas well site. An unnamed tributary of Buck Lick Run, flowing north to south, runs adjacent to the gas well site. Buck Lick Run [152]*152flows into Sugar Run approximately two miles from the well site and Sugar Run flows into the Allegheny Reservoir approximately five miles from the site. Sugar Run is a productive native brook and brown trout stream that is stocked annually with trout from the Lamar National Fish Hatchery.

10. On November 17 and 18, 1973, drilling fines were being blown outside the sump and were discharging from the lower side of one of the sumps down the entrance road embankment into a wet weather ditch beside Forest Road 176 and from there into the unnamed tributary and into Buck Lick Run and on into Sugar Run and finally into the Allegheny Reservoir.

11. The drilling fines caused Buck Lick Run, which was clear above the entrance of the unnamed tributary, to have a distinctive white, milky appearance, which was visible, though progressively fighter, from the entrance of the unnamed tributary into Buck Lick Run all the way to the Allegheny Reservoir.

12. On November 17 and 18, 1973, oil from underneath the drilling machinery was observed discharging from the drilling site into Buck Lick Run by the same route described above. The oil caused a discoloration and sheen on Buck Lick Run for a distance of at least one mile.

13. The drilling operation was shut down once on November 20, and once on November 21, 1973, by the forester for the United States Forest Service because of the failure to contain drilling fines in the sumps.

14. By November 20, 1973, the leakage of drilling fines from under one sump had been stopped by fining that sump with a plastic finer.

[153]*15315. On November 20, 1973, the water in Buck Lick Run was still slightly discolored from the drilling fines and silt and sediment, but the discharge of drilling fines had been stopped.

16. On November 20, 22, 23, 24 and 25, 1973, oil was discharging from the drilling site into Buck Lick Run by way of the wet weather ditch and the unnamed tributary. Such oil was observable as a sheen or irridescence on the surface of Buck Lick Run and occasionally on Sugar Run. No evidence of oil was present above the entrance of the unnamed tributary into Buck Lick Run.

17. Grab samples taken from stagnant pools in the wet weather ditch on the night of November 23, 1973, showed the presence of large amounts of oil.

18. On November 24 and 25,1973, oil was found on rocks in Buck Lick Run below where the unnamed tributary entered Buck Lick Run.

19. All of the observations of oil in Buck Lick Run were visual. None of the representatives of the department or the Fish Commission who inspected the site at various times took samples of or measured the amount of oil in Buck Lick Run itself.

20. Grab samples taken November 28, 1973, showed nine parts per million of oil in the wet weather ditch and five parts per million of oil in the unnamed tributary.

21. During the nine-day period of the alleged violations — November 17 to November 25, 1973 —the weather was usually rainy.

22. On November 25, 1973, silt and sediment were running off the drilling site at an accelerated rate — that is at a rate faster than would have occurred if the site was not cleared of vegetation and opened up by the bulldozed entrance road to allow [154]*154runoff into the wet weather ditch and the unnamed tributary.

23.

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73 Pa. D. & C.2d 148, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/department-of-environmental-resources-v-federal-oil-gas-co-paenvhrbd-1975.