Chief Oil and Gas Subsidiary Pays $34,000 Fine, Surrenders Permit
after
Discharging Industrial Waste Illegally in Lycoming County
More than 25,000 Gallons Discharged to Big Run Watershed
PA-DEP
Release
7 January 2011
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
Dept. of Environmental Protection
Commonwealth News Bureau
Room 308, Main Capitol Building
Harrisburg PA., 17120
CONTACT: Daniel T. Spadoni, Department of Environmental Protection
North-central Regional Office, 570-327-3659
WILLIAMSPORT -- The Department of Environmental Protection announced
today that it has imposed a $34,000 fine on Chief Gathering LLC, of
Dallas, Texas—a subsidiary of Chief Oil and Gas—for illegally
discharging hydrostatic testing water at a pipeline project in Penn
Township, Lycoming County, in August 2010.
Chief Gathering builds and operates natural gas pipelines. Hydrostatic
tests involve placing water in a natural gas pipeline at the required
pressure to ensure there are no leaks before it is placed into service.
In conjunction with the enforcement action, Chief agreed to voluntary
surrender its discharge permit, and did so early in December.
“Chief clearly did not comply with the requirements of the DEP
discharge permit that was issued to the company in February 2009,” said
DEP North-central Regional Director Nels Taber.
DEP’s Water Management Program conducted an investigation on Aug. 12,
after Chief notified the department that a hydrostatic water discharge
had occurred the previous day—contrary to an earlier notification in
which Chief indicated that no discharge would occur.
DEP inspectors determined that 21,000 gallons of hydrostatic testing
water remained in storage on-site, but that an additional 25,200
gallons had already been discharged to the Big Run watershed. None of
the discharged water reached any nearby surface streams.
The investigation revealed numerous other violations, including:
• Failure to minimize the flow rate from the discharge point and
allowing the formation of a 150-foot erosion channel;
• Failure to submit accurate, detailed Notice of Intent project
information;
• Discharging hydrostatic test water with a total chlorine residual
greater than 0.05 parts per million;
• Allowing an unknown industrial waste to co-mingle in five storage
tanks with the hydrostatic test water, which was subsequently
discharged; and
• A failure to monitor the discharge for the specified effluent
parameters at the minimum frequency required.
The department issued a notice of violation to Chief, and the company
provided a detailed explanation regarding the event as well as
corrective actions taken to prevent a recurrence.
The fine was paid to the Clean Water Fund, which helps to finance
cleanups across the state.
For more information, call 570-327-3659 or visit www.depweb.state.pa.us.