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EPA cites Snow & Snow Inc. for Violating Safe Drinking Water Act

Release Date: 6/30/2004
Contact Information: Roy Seneca 215-814-5567

Contact: Roy Seneca 215-814-5567
PHILADELPHIA – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has cited Snow & Snow Inc. of Duke Corner, McKean County, Pa., and company owner Kerry Snow for violating Safe Drinking Water Act regulations designed to avoid contamination of drinking water supplies by underground injection wells.

Snow & Snow is the owner/operator of 47 “enhanced recovery injection wells” in two former oil production areas on Windfall Road in Eldred and Otto townships, McKean County, Pa. When these oil fields were operating in the 1980s, Snow & Snow’s underground injection wells pumped water underground to increase oil production from adjoining extraction wells. In 1989, Snow & Snow signed an EPA consent order agreeing to comply with Safe Drinking Water Act requirements designed to prevent these wells from contaminating underground drinking water sources.

EPA’s enforcement action cites the company and Mr. Snow for failing to permanently plug these wells within two years of shutting down operations, and for not complying with other rules designed to protect groundwater from possible contamination. EPA also cites these parties for failing to provide annual water monitoring for 1999 to 2003, and for failing to maintain adequate financial resources to close, plug, and abandon these wells, as required by the Safe Drinking Water Act.

The proposed order requires these parties to correct the violations and pay a penalty of $10,000. The cited parties have the right to a hearing to contest the alleged violations, the injunctive relief, and the proposed penalty.

For more information on EPA’s underground injection control program, visit https://www.epa.gov/ogwdw000/uic.html

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