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Oil & Gas Wastewater Release At Bear Lake Properties Injection Well In Warren County Went Unreported For 109 Days; More Contamination Discovered Along Related Wastewater Pipeline Route

A wastewater release discovered by DEP during a routine inspection on October 25 at the Bear Lake Properties LLC Bittinger #4 oil and gas wastewater injection well site in Columbus Township, Warren County went unreported to DEP for at least 109 days, according to a response to DEP's violations sent by the company on November 11.

The wastewater release, which DEP estimated traveled approximately 1,770 feet from the Bittinger 4 conventional well, down drainage swales, across an ATV trail and into unnamed tributaries to Brokenstraw Creek, occurred on July 8, 2024, according to the company.

At the time of the October 25 inspection, DEP found no action was taken by the well owner to contain or clean up the release.

The company said it met with DEP on Tuesday, October 29 after receiving the Friday, October 25 inspection report/violations to review the source and path of the release and impacted areas to develop a plan going forward.

Cleanup equipment was brought on site the same day to begin excavating contaminated soil and the cleanup. Water and soil sampling also began, according to the company.

In addition to contaminated soil, the company said it was recovering contaminated water from two “pool” locations using a vac truck which is being sampled for aluminum, barium, boron, chloride, iron, lithium, manganese, strontium, vanadium, zinc and selenium; know chemicals in oil and gas wastewater..

As of November 11, the company said “less than 1,000 gallons” of contaminated water was recovered-- nearly four months after the July release of wastewater. The wastewater is being disposed of in the injection well.

The company said an internal investigation found notes from the operator at the time of the July 8 release which said a valve failure caused a leak, but no information was included on the volume of the release or that it left the containment area around the well.

The company added, the employee left the company "unexpectedly" on October 18 "resetting their laptop to factory settings, dumping any files they had into the company truck and locking the keys in the truck before leaving the facility."

The company did not mention if any other employees provided information on what was obviously a large release of wastewater during the 109 days the spill went unreported to DEP.

The company said, "This sort of incident is not tolerated by BLP management. All remaining employees are going through additional training and management is providing them with all the necessary resources they need to eliminate these incidents moving forward."

New Wastewater Pipeline Release

During a follow-up inspection by DEP on Friday, November 8, DEP discovered another area of contamination 600 feet east of the Bittinger injection well facility along the path of an oil and gas wastewater pipeline bringing wastewater to the injection well for disposal from processing facilities in the area.

DEP conductivity measurements found the contaminated area was approximately 75 feet long by six feet wide with dead vegetation evident.

DEP’s report said Bear Lake Properties, LLC "was notified of this apparent release of fluids on [Tuesday] November 12, 2024. The source, extent and remediation of this release is expected to be documented in future correspondence" related to the original Bittinger 4 release.

Additional Measures

Bear Lake Properties, LLC said plans are being made to build a concrete containment area around the injection wells at the Bittinger facility with leak detection monitors tied to alarm systems to alert operators in the event of future releases.

The company also said it scheduled a mechanical integrity test of the injection well on November 13 to determine if it was compromised or had failed.

It said David Rectenwald, from the US Environmental Protection Agency, would be onsite during the test and the test results would be shared with DEP.

On November 19, an EPA spokesperson confirmed the well passed its mechanical integrity test and was returned to compliance with EPA’s Underground Injection Well Permit.

Click Here to read the well owner's full November 11 response.

DEP Investigation Continues

On November 19, a spokesperson for DEP said the Oil and Gas Program is continuing its investigation into the situation at the Bear Lake Properties injection well and information will be publicly available once the investigation is complete.

Visit DEP’s Underground Injection Wells webpage for more information on 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.

Resource Link:

-- DEP Discovers Wastewater Release At Bear Lake Properties Oil & Gas Wastewater Injection Well In Warren County During Routine Inspection [PaEN]

PA Oil & Gas Industry Public Notice Dashboards:

-- PA Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - Nov. 16 to 22 - $5.257 Million In Penalties; Conventional Well Owners Issued More Violations Than All Of 2023; More Abandoned Wells; Failure To Submit Shale Gas Reports [PaEN]

-- EPA, Justice Dept., DEP Announce $5.275 Million In Penalties, Plus $1.4 Million In Abandoned Well Plugging Funding Against Shale Gas Drilling Companies-- XTO Energy, Inc., Hilcorp Energy Company For Federal, State Clean Air Act Violations [PaEN]

-- DEP So Far In 2024: 6,907 Violations Issued To Owners Of Conventional Oil & Gas Wells - 153% More Than In 2021; 833 Violations For Abandoning Their Wells -- Exceeding All Of 2023 [PaEN]

-- Oil & Gas Wastewater Release At Bear Lake Properties Injection Well In Warren County Went Unreported For 109 Days; More Contamination Discovered Along Related Wastewater Pipeline Route [PaEN]

-- PA Oil & Gas Industrial Facilities: Permit Notices, Opportunities To Comment - November 23 [PaEN]

-- DEP Prints Corrected Notice Inviting Comments On New Air Pollution Permit For Revolution Natural Gas Cryogenic Processing Plant In Washington County; Plant Suffered Major Explosion, Fire In 2022 [PaEN]

-- DEP Posted 60 Pages Of Permit-Related Notices In November 23 PA Bulletin [PaEN]