Natural gas supplier admits environmental violations in Greene County

A natural gas supplier last week settled several charges accusing the company of multiple environmental violations in Greene County.

Greylock Production LLC entered a no contest plea on Aug. 13 to four counts of violations of the Clean Streams Act and two additional violations of the Solid Waste Management Act, alleging it used unapproved detention ponds on unconventional drilling platforms from 2015 to 2020, the state Attorney General’s Office announced last week.

Greylock, which bought assets from Energy Corp. of America, became aware that many of its drilling rigs had problems that led to leaks and contamination, including at least two involving domestic water supplies, Attorney General Michelle Henry said in a written statement. The investigation also found that while Greylock inherited many of those problems, the company continued the behavior at a newer drilling rig that experienced a leak in February 2020 while the newer wells on the rig were still being drilled, Henry said.

The spilled waste landed in an unspecified tributary, and the attorney general accused Greylock management of ordering an employee to spray a defoamer on the rocks above the river, which removed evidence of the spill but left all the contaminants in the water. The investigation also led to charges against two employees, John David Sollon Jr., 55, of Waynesburg, and Donald Supcoe III, 38, of Morgantown, W.Va., who the attorney general said were accused of being responsible for overseeing those projects. Supcoe died June 13, but Sollon’s case is still pending in the Greene County Court of Common Pleas.

The company must pay two separate fines of $15,000 to the Clean Water Fund and the Solid Waste Fund. It must also make an additional payment of $60,000 to Chestnut Ridge Trout Unlimited Chapter No. 670, which will benefit the Glade Run project, and $50,000 to Stream Restoration Inc., which will benefit the Maiden Creek stream restoration project. The company must also conduct site investigations at six of its drilling platforms to determine if additional cleanup work is needed. Any required cleanup work must be done under the supervision of the state Department of Environmental Protection.