The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office announced criminal charges against Equitrans LP, the Canonsburg-based gas storage company responsible for one of the largest methane leaks in recent U.S. history at a Western Pennsylvania facility.
The 2022 gas leak at Rager Mountain gas storage field in Jackson Township, Cambria County, released approximately one billion cubic feet of natural gas over a two-week period. The resultant plume travelled across Southern Pennsylvania, “as well as portions of Maryland, Delaware, and over the Atlantic Ocean,” according to a release by Attorney General Dave Sunday announcing the charges.
Nearby residents described hearing a “jet engine”-like sound coming from the storage field, smelling a natural gas odor, and experiencing headaches around the time of the leak.
What you need to know about the massive gas leak in Cambria County
The charges were recommended by a state investigative grand jury, which found the company employed “insufficient programs to monitor and mitigate corrosion” at the facility, according to the attorney general. “The lack of maintenance caused one of the wells to corrode and rupture,” Sunday said.
“This company’s failures to properly maintain this well went beyond negligence — the conduct alleged here demonstrates a reckless disregard for neighboring communities who were potentially exposed to unsafe air and water,” Sunday said. “Energy producers have a legal responsibility to protect the public from such exposures.”
The company was charged with 14 misdemeanor counts of unlawful conduct, prohibition against the discharge of industrial wastes and prohibition against other pollutions.
In addition to polluting the air, the leak led to water contamination, according to the attorney general’s office. A well control specialist brought to the site by Equitrans attempted to stop the leak by pumping salt water into the well. “This took several attempts, which heavily contaminated the soil, groundwater, and vegetation around the well with salt water,” the statement said.
The Rager Mountain storage field is one of 48 gas storage facilities in Pennsylvania, according to the DEP. It can store up to 9 billion cubic feet of natural gas. Gas is pumped underground into old, depleted gas wells drilled decades ago; it is withdrawn when utilities need gas.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection said the well leaked 27,000 tons of methane, the main component of natural gas. A recent study found the U.S. natural gas industry leaks 6 million tons of methane a year. Methane is a highly potent greenhouse gas, 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over a 20-year time period. It was the largest gas leak from a storage facility in the US since the 2015 Aliso Canyon leak in California.
In addition to methane, the Equitrans well leaked 223 tons of carbon dioxide and 106 tons of VOCs, the highest recorded emission level from any facility in Pennsylvania’s oil and gas sector in 2022, according to the DEP.
The DEP fined the company $1.1 million last year for the leak.
The company, which was acquired by EQT in 2024 and renamed Equitrans Midstream, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
