Settlement Will Reduce Air Pollution by Over 1,100 Tons Per Year
The U.S. Department of Justice and West Virginia’s Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) announced a proposed settlement with Antero Resources Corporation resolving alleged Clean Air Act and West Virginia Air Pollution Control violations involving the company’s oil and gas production operations in West Virginia and Ohio.
Under the proposed consent decree, Antero will undertake various projects to assess, modify, and improve monitoring and maintenance of vapor control systems at 242 of its oil and gas production facilities located in West Virginia and Ohio. These compliance projects, estimated to cost approximately $5.8 million, will result in a reduction of more than 1,100 tons of volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions annually.
Antero agreed to pay a $3.8 million civil penalty, divided between the United States and the state of West Virginia, a co-plaintiff in this case.
“This settlement demonstrates the Justice Department’s renewed commitment to common-sense, even-handed enforcement of the Clean Air Act,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). “I applaud Antero for taking responsibility to settle these important claims in a way that promotes the public interest and secures cleaner air.”
“The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of West Virginia is proud to have partnered with the State of West Virginia in reaching this settlement,” said U.S. Attorney Matthew L. Harvey for the Northern District of West Virginia. “This settlement exemplifies how a reasonable application of the Clean Air Act can benefit the citizens of West Virginia without posing an undue burden on continued oil and natural gas production.”
“This settlement demonstrates how coordinated enforcement among state and federal partners promotes accountability, reduces harmful emissions, and delivers meaningful environmental results,” said WVDEP Secretary Harold Ward. “The WVDEP and its Division of Air Quality thank everyone involved and are proud to finalize an agreement that brings cleaner air directly to West Virginians through the measures established this day.”
This settlement resolves Antero’s failure to comply with federal and state requirements to capture and control air emissions from oil and gas production facilities in West Virginia and Ohio. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and WVDEP identified the alleged violations through field investigations conducted in 2017 and 2019. As a result of these violations, Antero released VOCs into the air instead of capturing and controlling the emissions using specially designed equipment.
Under the settlement, Antero will take the necessary steps to ensure that its systems to control pollutants from atmospheric storage tanks are adequately designed and properly operated and maintained. Antero’s selected compliance plan includes an innovative automated response when the required tank pressure or combustion control device pilot monitor indicates that there may have been a release of VOCs into the atmosphere. The response system includes an alert to company representatives and temporarily ceases production operations associated with the over-pressured tank or unlit combustion control device. Once the pressure level falls back to normal or when the combustion control device is relit, production will restart. The settlement also requires a third party to verify Antero’s compliance with the agreement. These actions will significantly reduce harmful emissions from the company’s oil and gas operations.
Antero is also undertaking two VOC emission reduction projects to mitigate the environmental and public health harm attributable to their violations. First, it will permanently plug and remediate orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells in West Virginia as part of a $1.5 million project conducted over a period of three years. Second, it will enhance its well unloading operations so that gas that is periodically vented into the atmosphere can be recovered or routed to a control device.
Antero Resources Corporation is a publicly traded company headquartered in Denver and engaged in the exploration, development, production and acquisition of natural gas, natural gas liquids, and oil properties in the Appalachian Basin. It holds more than 500,000 acres of natural gas, natural gas liquids, and oil properties in this area, primarily in the Marcellus and Utica Shales.
The consent decree was filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia and is subject to a 30-day comment period. The complaint and the proposed consent decree are available at www.justice.gov/enrd/consent-decrees.
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