TribLive
By Timothy Puko
Ohio permanently revoked operating permits of a Youngstown company under investigation for allegedly dumping up to 20,000 gallons of gas drilling wastewater down a storm drain, state officials said on Thursday.
The company, D&L Energy Group, was a business partner for oil and gas companies, including about a dozen Pennsylvania drillers, state records show. But D&L employees flushed residual waste into a sewer that empties into the Mahoning River watershed on Jan. 31, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
“D&L Energy Group is currently reviewing the actions taken by ODNR relative to its companies’ operating permits, and intends to respond to, and perhaps appeal, such action at the appropriate time and in the appropriate venue,” spokesman Vince Bevacqua said in a written statement. “We cannot discuss the specific circumstances of the ODNR’s actions, nor our potential response, until these matters are concluded.”
Pittsburgh-area companies Consol Energy, EQT and MDS Energy and others, including Chevron and Rex Energy, tapping the state’s gas-rich shale, shipped wastewater to sites D&L operated, according to Pennsylvania records. Combined, they sent nearly 600,000 barrels of waste to D&L-operated injection sites between July 2010 and June 2012, records show.
