Range Resources will begin remediation work on Monday to reclaim the land where a controversial water impoundment is thought to have leaked wastewater.

The Yeager impoundment, located in Amwell, PA, about 40 miles south of Pittsburgh, is at the center of a legal battle in which residents living in the area have requested that Range disclose all the additives and fluids used at the site.

Range told the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in March that it intended to close the impoundment. Earlier this month, the agency approved a nearly 100-page closure plan from the company.

According to that plan, the company will begin taking soil samples once the impoundment’s liner is removed to see if a wide variety of chemicals were leaked from holes discovered in it. The company could eventually remove several thousands of tons of soil from the area under its plan.

Range faced a similar situation in Amwell with its Jon Day impoundment in April. Its employees pulled back the liner during a routine upgrade and discovered a white substance on the soil that was later discovered to be chloride (see Shale Daily, June 12).

That impoundment, capable of holding roughly 15 million gallons of flowback and fresh water, had not been in use for about a year. The DEP said in June that up to 15,000 tons of soil would be removed from that site as well.

At the time chloride was found at the Jon Day site, DEP issued the company an open notice of violation, citing it for violating the Clean Streams Law and Solid Waste Management Act, which it did at the Yeager impoundment as well.