Range Resources 'Dumping Ground' Irks Cecil Township Officials

Editor's Note: This story was updated at 3:51 p.m. on Wednesday, April 10. I spoke with Department of Environmental Protection spokesman John Poisture, who clarified comments he made to Canon-McMillan Patch last week.

Range Resources has built an impoundment in Cecil Township that “has basically become a dumping ground”—and Supervisor Andy Schrader said the board didn’t know much about it until after the construction was already completed.

“We didn’t know about it,” he said. “By the time I found out about it, it was too late.”

That’s why supervisors sent a letter to the state Department of Environmental Protection in November telling them about concerns over the site—especially in light of information that Range Resources is planning a major modification there.

The letter sent by the township was in response to a notice received about those modifications from the DEP.

“I would like to see them remove it,” Schrader said of the Worstell Impoundment built in 2010 off Swihart Road in Cecil and Chartiers townships.

But township Manager Don Gennuso said that might not be feasible, since Range Resources received the only approval that was necessary under the permitted use ordinance from 2010.

All the Southpointe-based company needed was to submit an erosion plan and receive a grading permit, which it did.

Technically.

Gennuso explained that in the state of Pennsylvania, only a zoning officer is permitted to issue such permits, and at the time, a representative of Gateway Engineers was acting in that capacity for Cecil.

But since Gateway Engineers was also the company that made application to the township on behalf of Range for the permit, the representative, Dan Deiseroth directed the township’s code enforcement officer to sign the document.

And Gennuso said that once a permit is issued—even erroneously—it can’t be revoked.

“When I first received a DEP notice about this, I asked Dan (Deiseroth), ‘What is this?’ and he said he would take care of it,” Gennuso said. “And he did.”

He added: “He never told me there was a conflict of interest.”

Reached Thursday afternoon, Deiseroth said that he was not aware that a zoning officer needed to sign off on the document—and that he believed any official from the township could do so.

He also indicated that the permit itself was just a formality, as Range Resources had already received the proper permitting through DEP.

Correspondence from Range Resources to Cecil Township echoes Deiseroth’s remarks.

“It was more administrative than technical,” he said.

And Deiseroth was clear: “I just didn’t think it was appropriate for me to sign the permit.”

He added that this process was started while former zoning officer Wes Johnson was still employed with the township, and that he got involved “midstream” after Johnson left that post.

That technicality, though, is not the only concerning issue to supervisors.

Township officials said they are “irritated” that Range initially indicated the impoundment would be for fresh water only—and on numerous documents it is referred to as “The Worstell Fresh Water Impound.”

But that changed in July of 2010, when a permit sought by the drilling company indicated that Worstell would be an impoundment for fresh and wastewater from the fracking process.

And Gennuso said that had the township been informed that wastewater would be accepted at the site, the board would have required Range to submit a site plan.

Schrader agreed, and said there were other issues that should have been addressed before the construction proceeded—issues such as traffic, lighting and hours of operation.

The entire Worstell issue was brought to the surface again in February, when a Range Resources attorney unexpectedly showed up at the township’s monthly meeting asking why supervisors wrote the letter to DEP regarding the paved road and other improvements it intends to make for the site—and concerns it had about it.

The attorney, Blaine Lucas, presented a packet of information to the board, which included the grading permit.

And Schrader said he was surprised by the signature on the document.

“I think we should have been made more aware of it,” he lamented.

What’s more is that the wastewater that was being hauled in by trucks to the impoundment are coming from numerous wells from other communities where drilling activity is taking place. There hasn’t been drilling in Cecil since 2010, according to township officials.

“It’s one thing if our residents are making money off it, but they are dumping waste water for other areas where those residents are making money,” Schrader said.

Another potential concern, township officials said, was a sign-in sheet for a DEP meeting that took place on Sept. 26, 2012. The sheet shows that the meeting included some of the top brass from both the department and Range Resources.

But the township was never made aware of the meeting, and officials wonder what prompted the get-together.

Reached Thursday, DEP Spokesman John Poister confirmed that the log-in sheet was for a compliance meeting set up between the department and Range Resources to discuss various violations at several sites—but not the Worstell impoundment.

However, Poister said that in an informal discussion before the compliance meeting started, the department and Range discussed a leak at the Worstell site, as well as the installation of a monitoring wells.

Poisture clarified those comments Wednesday—saying he received additional information about the incident after the publication of this story. The spokesman said he found out Friday afternoon that the incident involved a waste tank with a faulty valve. About 30 gallons of recycled waste water escaped the tank, he said.

Poisture said that Range Resources replaced the valve, as well as nearby gravel. He said that further testing indicated that none of that water entered the ground.

Range Resources spokesman Matt Pitzarella did not return a voicemail on his cell phone Thursday morning seeking comment for this story.

The township is still waiting for a response from DEP to see if the board can try to at least ensure that the impoundment was built using best business practices.

Despite the concerns, there is little the township can do until it hears back from the department, Gennuso said.

“We just want to make sure the site was done correctly,” he said. “I am concerned about DEP excluding us from the process .”