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Colorado Oil and Gas Industry Pollution: In the News

This page highlights news on contamination issues and concerns related to the oil and gas industry. 

Note:  this list of articles does not begin to cover all of the news articles related to oil and gas contamination.  It simply provides an overview of some of the issues.

Excerpts from articles

Oil and gas emissions loom as Junction¹s primary air pollutant
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, September 28, 2006, Bobby Magill

Take a deep breath in downtown Grand Junction and the air you¹ll inhale will likely contain an amount of toxic substances similar to that found in Denver¹s air, a federal study says.  Within the Grand Junction city limits, vehicle tailpipes may be the primary culprit for local air pollution, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study.  But a Colorado Air Quality Control Commission report released last week pegs oil and gas development as the primary source of regional air pollution.

Fire burns at gas well site
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, May 10, 2006, Mike McKibbin

RIFLE - A fire at a natural-gas condensate tank and pit south of Rifle sent flames and smoke high into the air but no injuries Monday night, officials said.  The fire started shortly before 5:30 p.m. on the Cedar Springs Ranch in the Hunter Mesa area, said EnCana Oil and Gas spokesman Doug Hock. "The gas wells were shut in immediately and the Rifle firefighters allowed it to burn out," Hock said.

Natural-gas tank ignites
Denver Post, February 27, 2006, Felisa Cardona and George Merritt

As many as 50 people were evacuated from their homes in southwest Weld County on Sunday as thick, black smoke from a burning natural-gas tank spiraled into the air. The fire, which sent a plume of smoke visible for miles, burned a worker checking on a natural-gas compressor station on the gas-rich plains near the town of Fort Lupton.  The cause of the fire was unknown, according to Doug Hock, spokesman for Denver-based EnCana Oil & Gas Inc., which operates the compressor station. Hock said an alarm should go off if there is a problem, but he did not know if that happened in this case.

Wells add to pollution
Rocky Mountain News, February 24, 2006, Todd Hartman

Emissions from oil and gas wells northeast of metro Denver have already hit levels not projected until 2007, an unexpected spike that could make it harder to keep the region within federal pollution limits for smog. Mike Silverstein, a regulator at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, acknowledged oil and gas well emissions are likely to be higher than projected, and that health officials will be meeting with industry representatives "to start assessing how we are going to reduce emissions further from oil and gas."  Ken Wonstolen, general counsel for the Colorado Oil & Gas Association, didn't quibble with assertions of higher-than-expected emission increases, but said they might not be enough to result in much, or any, increase in smog formation.

Water from gas production spills into Mamm Creek
Glenwood Springs Post Independent, February 8, 2006, Donna Gray

A truck hauling 6,750 gallons of water produced from EnCana natural gas wells in Hunter Mesa overturned at the intersection of County Roads 322 and 315 (Mamm Creek Road) Sunday. According to EnCana spokesman Doug Hock, the driver of a tractor-trailer owned by Arnett Trucking Co. lost control about 1:30 p.m. while ascending a hill. The tractor remained upright but the trailer rolled and spilled its contents into Mamm Creek.   The water was highly saline but did not appear to contain toxic petroleum byproducts, Hock said. "The main thing they were looking for was a sheen (on the water) that would indicate hydrocarbons or petroleum," he said. "They didn't see any sign."  Mamm Creek empties into the Colorado River just south and east of Rifle and upstream of Rifle's municipal water intake.

EnCana violates storm-water rules
Telluride Daily Planet, January 18, 2006, Matthew Beaudin

State inspectors found an EnCana Oil and Gas facility in the west end of the county in violation of state-mandated erosion protections from stormwater runoff. Two site visits, one on Dec. 19, 2005 and a second on Jan. 4, found the facility out of compliance, ultimately leading to a notice, which the company received yesterday, an EnCana official said. Cindy Parmenter, Director of communications for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said the Water Quality Control Division of the department had initially responded to a citizen's report, conducted its own report, which is now under review, she said. EnCana spokesperson Doug Hock said the company had conducted an internal review of the site's stormwater management in November. The facility was not in compliance then, either. Dave Schneck, director of the county Environmental Health Department, said runoff could result in contaminants or sediment leaving the site, or that runoff entering trout habitat, which can alter water temperatures and smother the habitat in sediment.


Environmental board keeps oil-gas oversight
Rocky Mountain News, January 11, 2006, Todd Hartman

A state environmental board voted Tuesday to continue oversight of the state's oil and gas industry, a victory for local governments and environmentalists that pressed for more regulation of the fast-expanding industry. The Water Quality Control Commission, a nine-member board appointed by Gov. Bill Owens, unanimously agreed to give state health regulators a role in protecting streams and rivers from dirt and debris that can run off land disturbed by oil and gas extraction.  "It's so blatantly obvious that (oil and gas activities) have the potential of a major impact" to water quality, said Sybill Navas, a Vail businesswoman who serves on the water commission. [A]fter Congress exempted the industry from the federal Clean Water Act as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, industry officials challenged the state's authority to enforce its own clean water laws.  That dispute led to this week's hearing. Commissioners, pointing to a legal opinion from the Colorado attorney general's office, not only concluded that the state was within its rights to apply its own environmental rules but that constituents statewide were demanding it.

EnCana avoids fines, punishment for leak
Telluride Daily Planet, December 8, 2005, Matthew Beaudin

The EnCana Oil and Gas Company will not face fines or sanctions from the Colorado Oil and Gas Commission for a July 12 gas leak that kept  emergency crews out for a day and resulted in the temporary closure of air space. "Our findings are that they had taken measures to prevent that from happening," said Brian Macke, director of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. "This wasn't due to negligence," he said.
The accident occurred in EnCana's Hamilton Creek facility in the west end of San Miguel County, and an investigation into the leak revealed that that equipment failure was caused by sand moving through the natural gas line. Increased pressure in the line caused the sand to erode equipment and ultimately lead to a surface-level leak that spewed natural gas into the air, creating a small cloud just above ground. "We consider the matter closed at this time," Macke said. "Had there had been negligence ... then we would be taking stronger actions."

Hydrogen sulfide confirmed at well
Durango Herald, November 23, 2005, Jesse Harlan Alderman

A well in Bondad along the road leading to the Durango Nature Center tested positive Monday for trace amounts of the deadly gas hydrogen sulfide. A gas company official said it was not a problem.  Tom Blair, a vice president of Dugan Production Co. of Farmington, said the gas company drew a coal-bed methane sample from the Spatter No. 4 well near U.S. Highway 550 and County Road 310. The sample showed 1.5 parts per million of hydrogen sulfide - a miniscule amount, Blair said. Blair said more hydrogen sulfide would be found on the bed of the Florida River than in the  Spatter No. 4 well. He said the company does own some worrisome rigs west of Farmington, but those wells can contain as many as 500 parts per million of hydrogen sulfide.
In La Plata County, hydrogen sulfide has contaminated wells south of Redmesa, but has not  been detected outside that area. Several oil and gas experts said Monday it would be highly unusual if hydrogen sulfide was found in Bondad.
 
Natural-gas well fire brief but smoky
Glenwood Springs Post Independent, November 22, 2005, Dennis Webb

RIFLE - No one was injured during a brief but smoky fire at a natural-gas well site southeast of Rifle Monday morning. Jesse Smith, acting oil and gas liaison for Garfield County, said the fire reportedly occurred at a fracturing pit at a Bill Barrett Corp. well off County Road 315, or Mamm Creek Road. Well fracturing is done following drilling, and involves injecting pressurized fluids down the well to break up underground formations and improve flow of gas. Rob Jones, of the Rifle Fire Protection District, said the fire started around 10 a.m. and was extinguished by about 10:15 a.m. "It was out by the time we got there. There was quite a bit of smoke when we got dispatched," he said. A cloud of smoke south of Rifle was easily visible from as far away as Silt.

Gas-drilling activity overwhelms state agency
The Daily Sentinel, Saturday, November 05, 2005, Mike McKibbin

GLENWOOD SPRINGS - The record-setting pace of natural-gas development in Colorado has forced regulators to put off follow-up reports on public health, safety and welfare issues once drilling permits are issued, Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission Director Brian Macke said at last week's meeting in Glenwood Springs.  "We have a staff that can handle about 300 permits a month, but we're doing much more than that to keep up with the applications," he said. "But that means we don't have the time to do the follow-up reports."

EnCana expands Hamilton Creek site
Telluride Daily Planet, October 10, 2005, Matthew Beaudin

As EnCana's production increases throughout San Miguel County, the 
gas and oil giant has had to expand its processing facilities to keep 
up with itself. The energy giant needs to add compressors in order to move more 
natural gas from the site.  The roughly 1,200-horsepower compressor engines run on natural gas and emit compounds just like any other engine would, said Roland Hue 
of the Colorado Department of Public Health. . .the plant will be emitting 86 tons 
per year more of nitrogen oxide, 42 tons more of volatile organic compounds like benzene, and just over two tons more of hazardous air  pollutants, or HAPs. Another byproduct from the compressors is the emission of formaldehyde into the atmosphere. "The largest source of danger here is formaldehyde from the engine,"  Hue said. Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen, as is benzene, according Hue.

EnCana still has no answer on gas leak
Telluride Daily Planet , August 5, 2005, By D. Dion

EnCana Oil and Gas officials may have isolated the equipment failure that resulted in the July 12 gas leak, but they still don't know what caused it. "We will say that we're still investigating what occurred," said EnCana engineer Byron Gale. . . Gale theorized that the initial failure was in the production units where  the gas flows after it emerges from the wellhead. Gale said he thinks  that "equipment failure" in those units affected the pressure in the system and caused the casing valve to ultimately fail, allowing the leak. He said that the fracing  was unrelated to the accident.  Gale, who spoke to the Telluride Daily Planet with EnCana's  spokesperson Doug Hock on the line, said he "didn't know" what chemicals were used in fracing, aside from nitrogen. Both Hock and Gale promised to release that information, but as of press time Thursday, failed to do so.

Truck rolls on Mamm Creek Road 
Glenwood Springs Post Independent, July 21, 2005, Amanda Holt Miller

SILT - A Hydrovac truck, used to suck up mud on natural-gas drilling sites, rolled over Monday at the intersection of Mamm Creek Road and Jenkins Cutoff near Silt. The truck, which was contracted with EnCana Oil & Gas USA, was leaking a then-unidentified substance, said Jim Sears, the emergency operations commander for the Garfield County Sheriff's Office. "EnCana did respond," Sears said. "They told the deputy the substance was not hazardous, just water and dirt." "We had no hazardous material on board," said Scot Merkley, who owns the company. "It was just mud." This incident comes on the heels of a tanker rollover on Dry Hollow Road last week. That hazardous-materials cleanup of an oil byproduct from gas drilling took several days.

Tanker truck overturns, spills on Dry Hollow Road south of Silt
Glenwood Springs Post Independent, July 12, 2005, April E. Clark

Fumes filled the air and a yellow substance formed puddles along the Dry Hollow roadside south of Silt after a tanker overturned Monday. The spill occurred six miles up Dry Hollow Road around noon, causing a seven-hour road closure covering a half-mile radius. A truck reportedly carrying 189 barrels of what may have been produced water and condensates (a crude oil byproduct of natural-gas drilling) wrecked, causing the spill, said Garfield County oil and gas auditor Doug Dennison. Gary Gagne, who lives at 6538 Dry Hollow Road, said he first heard about the accident on his police scanner. Rushing home to check on his three dogs and two cats, Gagne said he was within 25 feet of his driveway when a plainclothes traffic controller directed his vehicle away from the site. Gagne said he saw two hazardous materials trucks near the scene of the accident but was unable to find out more information about the spill. "I saw two guys come down wearing respirators or gas masks; I'm not sure what they were wearing but they were definitely masks. That just sort of adds to my worries. What do I do?" Gagne said. "I'm very upset that I'm not getting phone calls. There's nothing more scarier than when the gas industry leaves us uninformed."

Well-known Weld rodeo contractor faces water charges
Greeley Tribune, May 28, 2005, Bill Jackson.

DENVER -- A Weld County man faces up to three years in prison and 250,000 in fines for violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act.  Mike Cervi, a well-known rodeo contractor and member of the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame who bought the former Farr Feedlot east of Greeley last year, entered a guilty plea Friday before U.S. District Judge Edward W. Nottingham. Cervi's charges are in connection with his ownership of Envirocyle, a company that recycled and disposed of wastewater from oil drilling operations southeast of La Salle. [H]e received a permit in November 1999 from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to inject the wastewater, which contains brine, into a deep underground water aquifer, via a commercial underground injection. Brine contains a number of toxic compounds.  In the spring of 2001, Envirocycle employees found fluids contaminated with petroleum in the well's leak detection system. After discovering the contamination, Cervi and James Bernal decided to solve the problem by sealing off the leak detection system so that fluids collected in the system would not reach the monitoring point. Cervi caused his ranch employees to place clean water into the sampling tube. His employee Rande Bernal also submitted fluid samples from the "dummy" sampling point to the Weld County Health Department, when both defendants knew that the fluid was not from the leak detection system but actually consisted of clean water brought to Envirocycle. The case was brought to the attention of federal authorities by the Weld County Health Department. It was investigated by special agents with the EPA's Criminal Investigations Division. The Colorado Attorney General's Office also played a crucial role in the investigation.

Drilling Near Nuclear Blast Cavity Called Risky Business
Los Angeles Times, May 9, 2005, Julie Cart
 
BATTLEMENT MESA, Colo.  On a bright fall afternoon 36 years ago, the Atomic Energy Commission and a Texas oil company detonated a 40-kiloton nuclear device inside an 8,000-foot shaft on a high meadow, an effort to crack into a bounty of natural gas trapped in a dense subterranean rock formation.  Federal officials assured the community that the Rulison test site, named after a nearby community, was safe. Still, they forbade oil or gas drilling on 40 acres surrounding the blast. Last year, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission added another half a mile to the federal off-limits zone. But now, another Texas energy company has proposed drilling within the half-mile zone. The company, Presco, says it will extract the gas using a nonnuclear process called hydraulic fracing, which like the original experiment is designed to shatter underground rock and tap into embedded stores of natural gas. The company says this can be done without disturbing the radioactive material that remains buried in the blast cavity.
But for hydrogeologist John Bredehoeft, for more than 30 years the U.S. Geological Survey's expert in tracking movement of underground water, there are too many unknowns to approve drilling at the Rulison site. "I'm surprised that the oil and gas commission doesn't require people stay a certain distance away," he said. "You don't really know what will happen. Why risk it? I would be a bit more prudent. If I were the oil and gas commission, I would try to keep people away from the blast site."

Group disputes gas drilling method
Durango Herald, April 14, 2005, Dale Rodebaugh

Injecting chemicals underground to boost oil and gas production is harming public water wells and shouldn't be exempted from federal oversight as proposed in the energy bill before Congress, according to a gas-industry watchdog group based in Durango.  The Oil and Gas Accountability Project released a report Wednesday that lambastes an  Environmental Protection Agency report, which it contends whitewashes the dangers of hydraulic fracturing. In a telephone press conference, experts from around the country supported the findings and  recommendations of the Oil and Gas Accountability Project regarding the hazards posed to underground water and human  health by frac'ing as it's called - high-pressure injection of diesel fuel or chemical-laced water to open cracks in  gas-bearing rock.  Among those speaking during the teleconference was Weston Wilson, an engineer with the EPA's  regional office in Denver. He has sought whistle-blower protection for saying the agency's conclusion that hydraulic  fracturing doesn't endanger drinking water was scientifically flawed. The watchdog's report recommended further study on the effects of frac'ing liquids on drinking water. It also said that hydraulic fracturing should not be exempted from the Safe Drinking Water Act. In  addition, the group recommends that unless they can be proved safe, all potentially toxic substances should be  removed from frac'ing liquids.

Unused well eyed as cause of home blast
Durango Herald, February 16, 2005, Shane Benjamin

A gas well with a long history of leaking methane and fouling ground water in Bondad is being studied as a possible cause for a double-wide trailer exploding last weekend. The old abandoned well - called the Spitter Well - is about 250 feet from the exploded home.  It was drilled in the 1920s or 1930s - before the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission was formed - and was improperly abandoned, said Morris Bell, operations manager for the commission. Gas leaking from the well has contaminated shallow ground formations and groundwater in  Bondad, Bell said. The commission spent about $200,000 trying to plug the well in the early 1990s and again in  1994.The explosion occurred about 9 a.m. Saturday when a man inside the home turned on a propane  stove. At first, fire investigators thought a propane leak caused the explosion. But the propane tank and lines appeared to be operating correctly, leading investigators to switch the focus to natural gas.  A 70-year-old man in the home was severely burned, according to a neighbor who called 911.  His hair was singed off and his clothes were burned to his body, the neighbor said.

EnCana plans cutting edge project in response to air-quality violation
Glenwood Springs Post Independent, February 3, 2005, Donna Gray

As part of a settlement for violating state air-quality regulations, EnCana Gathering Services has been ordered to design, construct and operate an underground gas-gathering system that will help eliminate air pollution. The violations occurred at the East Mamm Creek Compressor Station and the West Rifle Gas Processing Plant, both in Garfield County, and the Park Canyon West Compressor Station and the Dragon Trail Gas Processing Plant in Rio Blanco County.  EnCana was cited for exceeding volatile organic compound emission limits, in particular nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide, and for failing to comply with various notification requirements applied to the operation of the equipment at those sites. Inspections conducted by the state and the Environmental Protection Agency in 2003 found that VOCs were vented directly into the air at Mamm Creek, the Hunter Mesa gas gathering station and West Rifle.  The closed system will be designed to eliminate VOC emissions. Currently, these compounds are emitted when highly pressurized liquids are removed from the natural gas and stored in above-ground tanks.

County nosing into clean air issue
Glenwood Springs Post Independent, January 23, 2005, Dennis Webb

Researchers will use a mix of monitoring stations and trained 'odor assessors' to sniff  out the quality of Garfield  County's air over  the next two years. County officials hope the study will help show the degree to which natural gas development, traffic and  other activities foul the air residents breathe. The county will spend $380,000 on the study, but also received a $10,000 grant from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Western Garfield county residents have pressed for more monitoring out of concerns about emissions related to gas development. Dennison said the county initially asked the state health  department to set up a local monitoring program, but was told it  couldn't do so due to the state budget crisis. The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission made it clear it  would be up to the county to fund a program, Dennison said. The county also was turned down when it requested state energy impact funds for the effort.  "We're trying to do as much as we can with  $380,000 but unfortunately it doesn't go real far," he said.

For More Information

  • Read articles on health impacts occurring in oil and gas producing areas of Colorado.
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