From popularresistance.org:
The woes just keep piling up for Chesapeake Energy. The company is front and center in the nation’s natural gas fracking boom and it just got hit with one of the largest ever civil penalties for violating Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. The penalty was levied against its subsidiary, Chesapeake Appalachia LLC.
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In announcing the action against Chesapeake last week, EPA described the alleged violations like this:
The federal government and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) allege that the company impounded streams and discharged sand, dirt, rocks and other fill material into streams and wetlands without a federal permit in order to construct well pads, impoundments, road crossings and other facilities related to natural gas extraction.
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The settlement includes an estimated payment of $6.5 million to restore 27 sites in West Virginia, 16 of which involved fracking operations. It also includes a civil penalty of $3.2 million, which EPA describes as “one of the largest ever levied by the federal government for violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA), under the Section 404 program.”
http://www.popularresistance.org/...
10 million dollars might not seem like much to a company like Chesapeake Energy, which paid only 1% taxes on profits of over $5 billion last year. But the deterrent effect of a fine like this can not be understated.
According to the article, it's tricky going after frackers under the Clean Water Act, thanks to a weasely loophole created for the industry in 2005...by Dick Cheney. So again, no small victory here.