DEP Fines Seneca Resources Corp. $40,000 for Violations at
Marcellus Operation in Tioga County
Company Illegally Impacted Exceptional Value Wetland Restoration
Work Underway
PA-DEP Release
7 October 2010
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
Dept. of Environmental Protection
Commonwealth News Bureau
Room 308, Main Capitol Building
Harrisburg PA., 17120
CONTACT: Daniel T. Spadoni, Department of Environmental Protection
Northcentral Regional Office, 570-327-3659
WILLIAMSPORT -- The Department of Environmental Protection has fined a
Marcellus Shale driller $40,000 and ordered it to correct multiple
violations after discovering that the company illegally built an
impoundment on wetlands in Tioga State Forest, jeopardizing an
important natural resource.
DEP inspected the Bloss Township, Tioga County, site in March and found
that Seneca Resources Corp. of Brookville had filled nearly one acre of
“exceptional value” wetland without authorization, improperly built an
impoundment, and caused sediment runoff by failing to institute erosion
control best management practices.
The unauthorized fill in a wetland and sediment runoff were violations
of the Pennsylvania Clean Streams Law and the Dam Safety and
Encroachments Act.
“Wetlands are highly protected in Pennsylvania for a number of reasons,
but largely because many plant and animal species depend on them for
survival,” said DEP North-central Regional Director Nels Taber. “Beyond
that, they improve water quality providing a natural purification
system, add to a healthy environment, and help control flooding. It’s
important that we do everything possible to protect them, that’s why
DEP requires a permit before a wetland can be impacted.”
Exceptional value wetlands receive special protection under DEP’s
Chapter 105 Dam Safety and Waterway Management regulations based on
certain characteristics. The wetland that was improperly filled by
Seneca received the classification because it was located along the
Johnson Creek floodplain, a wild trout stream in the Tioga River
watershed.
DEP issued an Erosion and Sediment Control General Permit No. 1 to
Seneca in November 2009 so the company could build a fresh water
impoundment to store water for use in hydraulically fracturing
Marcellus Shale natural gas wells.
To correct the violations, DEP’s Oil and Gas Program required Seneca to
submit a wetland restoration and mitigation plan.
DEP approved the plan and the wetland restoration is underway. Seneca
has removed fill from the impacted wetland, but not finished final
grading or constructed the new, 0.86-acre exceptional value wetland.
For more information, call 570-327-3659 or visit http://www.depweb.state.pa.us