DEP Fines Cabot $120,000 for Susquehanna County Storage Tank Explosion and Spill

DEP Fines Cabot $120,000 for Susquehanna County Storage Tank Explosion and Spill

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA

Dept. of Environmental Protection

Commonwealth News Bureau

Room 308, Main Capitol Building

Harrisburg PA., 17120

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

12/2/2014

CONTACT:

Daniel Spadoni, DEP North-central Regional Office

570-327-3659

DEP Fines Cabot $120,000 for Susquehanna County Storage Tank Explosion and Spill

WILLIAMSPORT -- The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) today announced it has fined Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. of Pittsburgh $120,000 for a January storage tank explosion and production fluid spill at the Reynolds well pad in Jessup Township, Susquehanna County.

“This was a serious incident that injured an employee and resulted in a spill of approximately 2,835 gallons of production fluid from a 21,000-gallon storage tank,” DEP Director of District Oil and Gas Operations John Ryder said. “Some of this fluid escaped containment and impacted soil off the well pad.”

Ignited vapors in the headspace of the tank caused the Jan. 11 explosion and subsequent rupture of the tank.

DEP Emergency Response staff responded immediately, and follow-up inspections and sampling were conducted. Samples from an interception trench off the well pad showed high levels of constituents associated with produced water.

The department issued a notice of violation letter to Cabot on Jan. 17, citing violations of the Oil and Gas Act and regulations, Solid Waste Management Act, and Clean Streams Law.

Cabot remediated the spill with oversight by the DEP Northeast Regional Environmental Cleanup and Brownfields program.

For more information, visit www.dep.state.pa.us or call 570-327-3636.