PITTSBURGH (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached a settlement with Fort Worth-based XTO Energy Inc. over alleged violations of the Clean Water Act stemming from a spill of gas drilling wastewater in central Pennsylvania.
The EPA says in a Thursday release that XTO agreed to pay a $100,000 penalty and spend an estimated $20 million to improve its wastewater management in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The alleged violations were at XTO’s Lycoming County facility.
The EPA says the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection discovered the spill, and that pollution was found in a tributary of the Susquehanna River basin.
XTO spokesman Alan Jeffers says the spill had no lasting environmental impact and that most of the improvements are in place. The company is a subsidiary of Irving-based Exxon Mobil Corp.