Drilling company pleads guilty to contaminating water supply near Bulger
An Arizona-based pipeline and drilling company has pleaded guilty to polluting groundwater and a tributary to St. Patrick’s Run in the area of Route 22 near 121 Campbell Road in Bulger, the state attorney general’s office announced Friday.
Southeast Directional Drilling, a subcontractor of National Fuel Gas Supply Corp. of Brookville, pleaded guilty to three counts of violating the Clean Streams Law and was fined $15,000. The pollution happened during the installation of transmission lines, which were intended to transport natural gas.
Evidence obtained by a grand jury found that a month into the horizontal directional drilling process at the site, a small amount of drilling fluid was observed on the surface of the ground, indicating an inadvertent return. Instead of stopping drilling, the decision was made to ignore it. Employees of Southeast Directional Drilling testified that their supervisors told them to “(pretend) they didn’t see it, more or less,” according to the attorney general’s office. Employees also testified that when these spills occurred at other sites, “it is common within the industry to look the other way,” and not report the incidents.
The state attorney general’s office assumed jurisdiction over the case after a referral from the Washington County district attorney.