The Department of Environmental Protection published notice in the January 6 PA Bulletin announcing it has disapproved an Act 2 Land Recycling Risk Assessment December 21 on remediation of soil and groundwater contamination at the American Refining Group, Inc. Refinery in the City of Bradford, McKean County.  (PA Bulletin, page 54)

DEP said the report did not demonstrate attainment of the Site-Specific Act 2 Land Recycling Standard, one of three cleanup standards in the Land Recycling Program.

Disapprovals of these technical documents are not all that common. The company will have an opportunity to address the deficiencies and resubmit the assessment.

Site-Specific Standard

Under the Site-Specific Standard, cleanup levels can be developed specifically for an individual site based on the contaminants, exposures, and conditions unique to that site.

For the Site-Specific Standard, the following considerations apply--

-- For carcinogens, the cleanup levels for soil and groundwater are established at levels that represent a cumulative excess cancer risk of between one in 10,000 to one in 1,000,000.

-- For toxic chemicals other than carcinogens, soil and groundwater must be cleaned up to a level that prevents deleterious effects to the exposed population.

-- Current and probable future uses of groundwater in aquifers must be identified and protected.

-- Concentrations of contaminants in soil must protect against carcinogenic and other toxic effects based on direct contact with the soil. Soil cleanup standards must also be protective of groundwater uses.

-- The cleanup standards may be attained through a combination of remediation activities that can include treatment, removal, engineering, or institutional controls and can include innovative or other demonstrated measures.

When remediating to the Site-Specific Standard, detailed documentation of compliance is demonstrated by one of the options--

-- Document pathway elimination.

-- Documenting risks are at acceptable levels.

-- Attainment of the site-specific numeric standards must be demonstrated by collection and analysis of samples from affected media, such as surface water, groundwater, and soil.

Click Here for a DEP fact sheet on the site-specific standard.

Chemical Contaminants

The disapproved Risk Assessment for the American Refining Group, Inc. Refinery covered these chemical contaminants--

-- Soil contamination included Benzene, Toluene, Ethyl Benzene, Xylenes (total), Cumene (Isopropylbenzene), Methyl tert-Butyl Ether, Naphthalene, Trimethyl benzene, 1,2,4-(Trimethyl benzene, 1,3,4-), Trimethyl benzene, 1,3,5-, Fluorene, Phenanthrene, Anthracene, Pyrene, Chrysene, Benzo- (a)anthracene, Benzo(b)fluoranthene, Benzo(a)pyrene, and Benzo(g,h,i)perylene.

-- Groundwater contamination included Benzene, Toluene, Ethyl Benzene, Xylenes (total), Cumene (Isopropyl- benzene), Methyl tert-Butyl Ether, Naphthalene, Tri- methyl benzene, 1,2,4-(Trimethyl benzene, 1,3,4-), Trimethyl benzene, 1,3,5-, Phenanthrene, Pyrene, Chrysene for EU-1E.

Regional Contact

For more information on this action, contact the Environmental Cleanup & Brownfields Program, DEP Northwest Regional Office, 230 Chestnut Street, Meadville, PA 16335- 3481 by calling the general office number-- 814-332-6945 or “Bill” at 814-332-6671 [according to the PA Bulletin, page 54].

Visit DEP’s Land Recycling Program webpage to learn more about this program.

For more information on environmental programs in Pennsylvania, visit DEP’s website, Report Emergencies, Submit Environmental Complaints; Click Here to sign up for DEP’s newsletter; sign up for DEP’s eNotice; visit DEP’s Blog,  Like DEP on Facebook, Follow DEP on Twitter and visit DEP’s YouTube Channel.

PA Oil & Gas Industry Public Notice Dashboards:

-- PA Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - Dec. 30 to Jan. 3 - Saga Of Plugging Nancy 13; Conventional Well Emission Offsets; Venting Since June; Still No Well Integrity Reports  [PaEN]

-- PA Oil & Gas Industry Compliance So Far In 2023 - It Isn’t Pretty   [PaEN]

-- PA Oil & Gas Industrial Facilities: Permit Notices/Opportunities To Comment - January 6  [PaEN]

-- DEP Disapproves Land Recycling Risk Assessment For Dozens Of Chemicals At American Refining Group Refinery In Bradford, McKean County  [PaEN]

-- DEP Reviewing Act 2 Cleanup Reports For Trainer Refinery, Delaware County; Philadelphia Energy Solutions Refinery  [PaEN]

-- DEP Posted 49 Pages Of Permit-Related Notices In January 6 PA Bulletin  [PaEN]

Related Articles This Week:

-- DEP: Shale Gas Operator Found Responsible For Water Supply Contamination After Investigation Documents Chemical Contamination Spread Across 3 Townships In Greene County  [PaEN]

-- DEP Accepting Project Applications For $5 Million Shell Petrochemical Plant Beaver County Environmental Mitigation Community Fund  [PaEN]

-- Zefiro Methane Corp To Begin Monitoring Abandoned Conventional Wells For Plugging To Create Emission Offsets [PaEN]

-- Saga Continues For DEP Trying To Get A Conventional Operator To Plug Warren County Well Venting Gas Since At Least 2018  [PaEN]

-- Penn State Extension To Host Jan. 18 Webinar On Unlocking The Power Of Hydrogen  [PaEN]

-- PJM Urges United Action To Sustain Grid Reliability Through The Energy Transition, Avoid Unreliability Issues Of Natural Gas, Other Generators  [PaEN]

NewsClips:

-- Bob Donnan Blog: Fracked Up Greene County Water - Shale Gas Operator Found Responsible For Water Supply Contamination

-- PennLive Guest Essay: Gov. Shapiro Has Done An About-Face On Fracking By Aligning Himself With CNX After Charging Them With Environmental Crimes - By Karen Elias, Climate Reality Project, Better Path Coalition

-- Bob Donnan Blog: Frack History - The Massive Dunkard Creek Fish Kill 

-- Bob Donnan Blog: Dunkard Creek Fishkill In Greene County Caused By Consol Mine Discharge [Video]

-- TribLive Guest Essay: Celebrating EPA’s New Safeguards To Reduce Methane Emissions From Oil and Gas Facilities - By Vanessa Lynch, Moms Clean Air Force

-- TribLive: Lack Of Snow, Rainfall Factors In Declining Beaver Run Reservoir Levels In Westmoreland; Natural Gas Drillers Prohibited From Withdrawing Water

-- TribLive: 4 Mile Long Diesel Fuel Spill Shuts Down Route 66 From Apollo To Vandergrift In Westmoreland County

-- Post-Gazette: Casey Says Proposed DOE Rule Could Hurt Efforts To Develop Hydrogen Industry In PA

-- The Allegheny Front: Proposed Federal Hydrogen Tax Credit Rules Could Be Worth Billions For Projects, Including Those In PA 

-- Pittsburgh Business Times: Diversified Energy Sells Unknown Number Of Conventional Oil & Gas Wells In PA, WV, OH

-- WSJ: Southwestern Energy, Chesapeake Energy Natural Gas Producers Near $17 Billion Merger

-- Post-Gazette - Anya Litvak: Peoples Natural Gas Asks Regulators For Rate Increases For All Customers

-- Reuters: US DOE Approves $189 Million Loan For Real-time Methane Oil And Gas Facility Monitoring Network In Permian Basin

-- Reuters: US Natural Gas Producers Seek To Balance Production Cuts, Demand Rebound

-- Bloomberg: A No-Show Winter Is Upending The US Natural Gas Market Pulling Down Prices By About 35%

-- WSJ: US Shale Drillers Keeping World Awash In Oil, Natural Gas As Conflicts Abound

-- E&E News Energy Wire: 4 Oil And Gas Issues To Watch In 2024

[Posted: January 5, 2024]

1/8/2024