Pa. Man, Company Accused of Dumping Gas Wastewater
Charleston Gazette
17 March 2011
HOLBROOK, Pa. (AP) — A waste hauler and his company were charged
Thursday with dozens of criminal counts for what prosecutors said was
years of dumping millions of gallons of wastewater
from natural gas drilling, sewage sludge and restaurant grease into
streams and mine shafts.
The state attorney general's office filed 98 criminal counts against
Robert Allan Shipman and 77 counts against his company, Allan's Waste
Water Service Inc.
Prosecutors said Holbrook told his drivers to open valves at natural
gas drilling wells, often at night or during rainstorms, so the
wastewater would run into nearby waterways. He also is accused of
telling drivers to dump the contents of their trucks into a floor drain
that led directly to a nearby stream.
The charges come as environmentalists raise concerns that the natural
gas drilling rush sweeping Pennsylvania is contaminating rivers and
aquifers that supply drinking water around the state.
At issue is the water produced by drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or
fracking, of gas wells and how it's disposed. The millions of gallons
that come up from the wells are intensely salty and tainted
with barium, strontium, radium, and toxic chemicals used in fracking.
"This was a calculated and long-running scheme to personally profit by
illegally dumping wastewater, regardless of the potential for
environmental damage," acting Attorney General Bill Ryan said.
Prosecutors said the dumping took place between 2003 and 2009.
A spokesman for the attorney general's office, Nils Frederiksen, said
prosecutors are certain that the dumping caused adverse environmental
impact but that it can be difficult to connect it to
specific incidents.
The Environmental Protection Agency told Pennsylvania earlier this
month to begin widespread testing for gas drilling wastewater
contaminants not removed by water treatment plants. The
state is the only one in the country that allows gas drillers to
dispose of partially treated waste in its waterways, which supply
drinking water.
The state has said that an initial round of tests indicated no
contamination problems.
Shipman was charged with participating in a corrupt organization,
theft, forgery, pollution of waters, tampering with public records and
violating the state's Clean Streams Law, Solid Waste
Management Act and the Fish and Boat codes, among other counts.
He's accused of overbilling his customers by more than $250,000.
Shipman denies all the criminal allegations against him, said his
lawyer, Christopher Blackwell.
Blackwell said that the grand jury investigation began about a year ago
and that Shipman has provided prosecutors with nearly all his business
records from the years involved.
"On our side will be probably 20 drivers to testify, both former and
current drivers, to testify Allan never told them to do anything like
that," Blackwell said. "That was not a business task they
were ever asked to perform. The drivers that are making the accusations
seem to be disgruntled ex-drivers who seem to have an
ax to grind with Mr. Shipman."
Blackwell said Shipman, 49, and his wife own the company. Shipman was
released after posting $500,000 bail.
The grand jury report said the company hauled sludge from sewage
treatment plants, grease water from restaurants and fast-food chains
that can't be sent to normal sewage systems and the
wastewater produced by wells drilled into the Marcellus Shale natural
gas formation.
The southwestern corner of Pennsylvania is among the most intensely
drilled regions in the Marcellus gas drilling rush.
Investigators accused Shipman's company of illegally dumping waste at
several locations, including a brine disposal well called Morris Run,
which had come under scrutiny for lax security and possible
environmental problems.
In 2009, the EPA fined the well's owner, Consol Energy, of Canonsburg,
Pa., $158,000 for failing to keep gates locked or properly log the
trucks coming and going from the site. Federal
inspectors also raised concerns about the contents of the waste being
dumped, saying they suspected sewage was illegally being added to
the mix of fluids.
State regulators asked the EPA to shut down the well in 2009 after a
nearby waterway, Dunkard Creek, turned salty, feeding an algae bloom
that choked off life and killed fish in a 30-mile
stretch. Its cause has not been conclusively identified.
Shipman also has been accused of dumping into a waterway that feeds
Dunkard Creek.
Ken Dufalla, president of the Izaak Walton League of America chapter in
Greene County, said deteriorating water quality in Dunkard Creek and
other tributaries of the Monongahela River in that
area have led many local anglers to conclude there must be illegal
dumping going on.
"If there's a businessman dumping in his back yard, if it's true, it is
utterly outrageous, because we all live here," said Dufalla, whose
conservation group has grown from 19 members to 101 in the past
year, largely driven by concerns over the Marcellus shale drilling.
"If he is proven guilty, then shame on him. If he is not guilty, then
good for him. But it is disappointing that a local individual, if
involved in this, would do such a thing, because he's our neighbor. And
it hurts, to be honest with you."
The company's lawyer, Christopher M. Capozzi, said he was still
reviewing the grand jury report that was issued with the charges but
noted they did not make specific claims of environmental
damage.
"I didn't see any allegations to that effect," Capozzi said. "So it
seems to me, if that was a concern, the attorney general's office would
have mentioned it."
Prosecutors said that Shipman routinely told his drivers to combine
waste material into a "cocktail" to help conceal its ingredients and to
falsely inflate the volume of hauled material for billing
purposes.
The presentment said a municipal sewage authority, concerned that
Allan's Waste Water Service was illegally dumping sludge in Greene
County, alerted the state Department of Environmental
Protection, and the agency contacted the attorney general's office.
Katy Gresh, a Pittsburgh-based DEP spokeswoman, said the agency was
reviewing the permits issued to Allan's Waste Water Service to handle
such material. She declined to comment on the
potential environmental impact of the illegal dumping authorities say
occurred.
Court records say the company is located in Holbrook, about 60 miles
south of Pittsburgh; Shipman's addresses were listed as Holbrook and
New Freeport.