Feds Investigate Chesapeake For Potential Clean Water Act Violations

Scott Detrow

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Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.

Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.

Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

March 1, 2012 | 2:23 PM

Scott Detrow / StateImpact Pennsylvania

Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon

According to Reuters, the Department of Justice is investigating Chesapeake Energy for potentially violating the Clean Water Act at West Virginia drilling sites:

Chesapeake has responded to a subpoena request for documents related to four sites in the state that are already subject to CWA compliance orders from the Environmental Protection Agency, the company said in its annual regulatory filing on Wednesday.
“We understand that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is investigating possible criminal violations of and liabilities under the CWA with respect to three of the four sites,” Chesapeake said. “We are cooperating with the DOJ’s investigation.”
Under the CWA, civil penalties can be as high as $37,500 per day, per violation, and possible criminal penalties range from $2,500 to $25,000 per day.