EPA Fines Company for Deep Injection Well Failure

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

April 12, 2012 | 5:35 PM

Courtesy of Marianne Atkinson

The Irvin deep injection well site in Clearfield County, operated by Exco Resources.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced a Consent Agreement Thursday with Exco Resources, which operates a deep injection well in Bell Township, Clearfield County. Deep well injection sites are used to dispose of frack waste water by shooting the liquid deep into the ground at high pressure. The Clearfield County well had failed sometime in early April, 2011, according to a release issued by the EPA. But the company continued to inject the frack fluid until August, without notifying the EPA.
The EPA ordered Exco Resources to halt injections at the site. The agency fined Exco $159,624 for the violation, under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Exco Resources also needs to re-work its well disposal site, and gain approval from the EPA. Another deep injection well has been proposed for Clearfield County. State Rep. Camille George has introduced a bill that would put a two-year moratorium on any new wells in the state.