More Details On New York Regulators’ Attempt To Fine A PA Drilling Site

As we noted ear­lier this week, New York envi­ron­men­tal reg­u­la­tors are levy­ing a $187,500 fine against Buffalo-based U.S. Energy, for allegedly pol­lut­ing a major trout stream.

The twist:  the nat­ural gas wells in ques­tion are located in Penn­syl­va­nia, not New York.

The Albany Times-Union takes a look at the issue:

Inves­ti­ga­tions by DEC and the state Office of Parks, Recre­ation and His­toric Preser­va­tion — con­ducted in August 2010, Novem­ber 2010, Sep­tem­ber and Decem­ber 2011, and this month — found the company’s roads upstream were cov­ered in thick, heavy mud that was being washed by rain into the brook.

Located about 60 miles south­east of Buf­falo, the 65,000-acre park attracts more than 1.8 mil­lion vis­i­tors annu­ally. A des­ig­nated trout stream, Yea­ger Brook was ren­dered “cloudy and gray” because of the pol­lu­tion, accord­ing to DEC.

“This enforce­ment action should pro­vide a strong deter­rent to other oil and gas well oper­a­tors in New York and neigh­bor­ing states whose oper­a­tions impact New York’s nat­ural resources,” said DEC Deputy Com­mis­sioner and Gen­eral Coun­sel Steven Russo. “We will not allow U.S. Energy’s actions in Penn­syl­va­nia to neg­a­tively impact New York’s waters.”

The com­pany tells the paper it will appeal the fine, since its oper­a­tions are reg­u­lated by Pennsylvania’s Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion, not New York’s Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Conservation.

In fact, DEP did levy a $200,000 fine against U.S. Energy back in 2009.

An impor­tant note: the wells in ques­tion here do use hydraulic frac­tur­ing to extract nat­ural gas, but they’re the much smaller ver­ti­cal wells – not the hor­i­zon­tal oper­a­tions most peo­ple asso­ciate with fracking.