Shale Wastewater Hauler Waives Hearing in Trial
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
27 September 2011
Robert Allan Shipman -- a Greene County waste water hauler charged
with illegally dumping millions of gallons of Marcellus Shale
drilling wastewater, and municipal and industrial sludge -- waived
his right to a preliminary hearing Monday.
Mr. Shipman, 49, of New Freeport, faces 98 criminal charges and 72
more counts against his company, Allan's Waste Water Service Inc.,
for allegedly dumping the drilling wastewater and other wastes
from 2003 to 2009 in Allegheny, Fayette, Greene, Lawrence,
Washington and Westmoreland counties.
Among the customers identified on the allegedly forged manifests
are natural gas companies that own deep Marcellus Shale wells and
shallower conventional oil and gas wells, a half-dozen municipal
sewage authorities and Hatfield's Ferry, a coal-fired power plant
owned by FirstEnergy, formerly Allegheny Power.
According to court documents, Mr. Shipman operated a $7 million
waste hauling business with at least 16 tanker trucks that dumped
contaminated wastewater on the ground and roads and into abandoned
mines and streams.
Some of those streams are tributaries of Dunkard Creek, which
meanders along the Pennsylvania-West Virginia line and where a
massive fish kill occurred in a 30-mile stretch in 2009.
A trial date has not yet been set.