Natural gas supplier pleads no contest to environmental violations in Greene County
A natural gas supplier pleaded no contest last week to multiple charges accusing the company of several environmental violations in Greene County.
Greylock Production LLC entered the no contest plea Aug. 13 to four counts of Clean Streams Act violations and two additional violations of the Solid Waste Management Act for allegedly using unpermitted impoundments at unconventional well pads from 2015 until 2020, the state Attorney General’s office announced last week.
Greylock, which had purchased assets from Energy Corp. of America, became aware that many of its well pads had issues that caused leaks and contamination, including at least two at domestic water supplies, Attorney General Michelle Henry said in a written statement. The investigation also found that although Greylock inherited many of these problems, the company continued the conduct at a newer well pad that experienced a spill in February 2020, while the newer wells were still being drilled on the pad, Henry said.
The waste that spilled ended up in an unnamed tributary, and the attorney general accused Greylock management of ordering an employee to spray a defoaming agent on the rocks above the stream, which removed evidence of the spill but left all the pollutants in the water. The investigation also led to criminal charges against two employees, John David Sollon Jr., 55, of Waynesburg, and Donald Supcoe III, 38, of Morgantown, W.Va., who are accused of being responsible for overseeing these projects, according to the attorney general. Supcoe died June 13, but Sollon’s case is still pending in Greene County Court of Common Pleas.
The company must pay two separate $15,000 fines for the Clean Water Fund and the Solid Waste Fund, along with another $60,000 payment to the Chestnut Ridge Trout Unlimited Chapter No. 670 to benefit the Glade Run project and $50,000 to Stream Restoration Inc. to benefit the Maiden Creek stream restoration project. The company must also conduct site investigations at six of its well pads to determine if further cleanup is required, with any necessary remediation to be carried out under the supervision of the state Department of Environmental Protection.