CONNOQUENESSING TWP — Violations with a gas pipeline project in Butler County have brought a $1.5 million fine against a company by the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The DEP levied the fine against the natural gas pipeline company Stonehenge Appalachia LLC for nearly 200 violations of the 2012 Oil and Gas Act, Clean Stream Law, Dam Safety and Encroachments Act, and the Solid Waste Management Act.

DEP says the company caused “uncontrolled and unpermitted discharges of sediment” along the 18-mile pipeline known as Moraine East Gathering pipeline, which caused a large landslide of sediment into a stream and filled two wetlands northeast of the Bloom Well Pad in Connoquenessing Township with sediment.

The two wetlands — one adjacent to Little Connoquenessing Creek and another to the southwest — have not yet been repaired by the company. According to the DEP consent order, Stonehenge has 30 days to submit a restoration plan for DEP review and approval.

That plan must include removal and disposal of the sediment.

The violations took place between November 2015 and March, according to DEP

The department announced the penalty late Monday afternoon, saying the company had agreed to a consent order taking responsibility for the damage.

In a news release, Acting DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell called the agreement a positive step by Stonehenge, which had initially appealed DEP stop work and environmental remediation orders.

McDonnell said, “This type of man-made ecological impact is both egregious and avoidable, and never should have occurred. By this action, Stonehenge accepts both environmental and financial responsibility for their actions.”

In March DEP ordered Stonehenge to stop work on its 18-mile gas pipeline project, which the company says was being built to collect and compress shale gas from Rex Energy wells in eastern Butler County.

DEP inspectors found that the contractors allowed drilling fluids and other industrial materials into tributaries of Little Connoquenessing Creek and Stoney Creek in Connoquenessing Township.

DEP says its inspectors found the violations in February, in a pipeline construction area near Rex Energy’s Voll Compressor Station in Connoquenessing Township.

Stonehenge Appalachia is an affiliate of Stonehenge Energy Resources, a Colorado-based company that provides engineering and other services to oil and gas producers.