Colorado: 350 oil and gas spills in less than two years; benzene found in groundwater; fines are almost non-existent
Posted September 13, 2011 in Health and the Environment
There is an extremely important, and disturbing, story in the Denver Post today.
A Post investigation found that four oil and natural gas companies have been responsible for 350 spills in Colorado since January, 2010.
Just this summer, one company had three spills in Weld county alone that included highly toxic substances. Benzene, a known carcinogen, was confirmed to be found in groundwater.
In Colorado, about eight wells are being drilled each day. But The Post found that:
- spills are happening at the rate of seven per week.
- so far in 2011, more than 2 million gallons have been spilled of diesel, oil, drilling wastewater and chemicals.
- state regulators rarely penalize companies responsible for spills — issuing only five fines for spills that happened three or more years ago. What's more, state regulators have commended these companies for environmental excellence.
The spills are unacceptable. Any industry with that many accidents has a serious problem that needs to be fixed before it continues operating. But regulators continue to permit new wells. I think there is a combination of factors at work: not enough inspectors, inspectors and regulators are not strict enough, rules are not protective enough, and companies do not have strong safety standards in place. I also could not find any of these spills in the on-line database of the National Response Center, even though all spills are supposed to be reported there. The result is that public health and the environment are not being adequately protected.
The Post points out that the oil and gas industry opposes stronger regulations. Recently an industry official was quoted as saying that: "The public is skeptical of anything we say. The favorable perception of the oil and gas industry polls at seven percent....." It was suggested that the industry hire new messengers to improve its public perception, but it really doesn't matter who the messenger is. The public understands the facts: the oil and gas industry is a major polluter--contaminating air, water and land in communities across the country--and regulations are not sufficient to stop the industry from continuing sloppy practices that release toxic substances into the environment, endangering health. Much stronger rules are needed at the state and federal level to reduce the environmental impact of the oil and gas industry and protect communities across America. I hope Colorado's officials are as outraged as I am, and that we see a dramatic overhaul of regulatory enforcement there.
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Comments
Michael Cote — Sep 13 2011 06:26 PM
Excellent piece. Needs a link to appropriate officials' contact page so we can write...
DENCO — Sep 14 2011 01:01 PM
The best operators will always report the most spills. The best operators in this area also use closed loop drilling systems. They also spend millions remediating old poorly designed wells they inherited. There is definitely room for improvement within the industry and in other sectors as well. Most of these wells are surrounded by large industrial farm and some very disgusting feed lots. It would be interesting to see how the industrial farms would compare if they had to report all the chemicals they broadcast into the air and water. They do a great job of wasting water and destroying prairie habitat as well. The feedlots already do their part to ruin the mountain air.
http://newsroom.coga.org/pr/coga/document/COGA_Baseline_Program_Press_Release_8-2-11_.pdf
Amy Mall — Sep 15 2011 02:03 PM
Dear Michael: Thank you for the comment. Here is a link for contacting Colorado's Governor Hickenlooper:
http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite/GovHickenlooper/CBON/1251592968310.
And here is the contact for U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson:
http://blog.epa.gov/administrator/contact-us/
Amy Mall — Sep 15 2011 02:08 PM
Dear Denco: Thank you for the comment. I agree that closed loop drilling systems should always be used. Unfortunately, that is not the case now.
My colleagues at NRDC are also working to clean up factory farm pollution and reduce antibiotics in livestock; we agree that dramatic change is needed in that industry also:
http://www.nrdc.org/media/2010/100526.asp
Jill Menton — Sep 16 2011 01:28 PM
Denco, I'm not a write and really not time, this was sent to me so I'll write and not correct any spelling. I'm sure everyone here is bright enough to understand typos if not so be it.
Iagree feed lots can be a bigger hazard and continue to be ignored.
However, I'm not sure they are really hurting much outside their immediate area but do use chemicals that far exceed the oil industry. I know my family had a large cattle oiperation of over 6000 head for thirty years.
As for the oil frackers, I have visited many fracking sites before, during and after the job. I must say they delivery the best follow up work for a good enviornment I have seen. You can ususally find wild life and cattle grassing within 20 feet of the well once finished. Ususally a better enviornment thatn before they started. They even relocate wild life until finished and then retunr them to their original spot after completion. These people are on top of things and handle our enviornment better than most. A few spills doesn't bother me and in fact I don't recall them mentioning tey do clean thing afterwards and as they go. But remember the products they use are nothing to worry about unless sand, water and some of the garbabge that comes out of the ground is of concern. Most everything can be and is cleaned.
As for the chemicals in the ground, first off oil fracking doesn't use anything harmful to the oil are envirornment. To think they do you are only pushing an old cart full of people wanting to know everything about something they are not involved in. In fact just recently a chemist drank some of the fracking water at a national oil convention.
We are dealing with people that just want to create problems where there are none and that is sad since all it is doing is driving up cost for all Americans, sending jobs and companies out of America and for no reason other than to say someone wants to know and let's make it difficult for the to do businesss. These people should learn more, get involved and maybe even get a job in the oil field before trying to take on a problem that just doesn't exist. Really humours that those that want larger government controls are the ones that are destroying jobs in America.
Yet the oil industry is one of the few that are hiring in big numbers and now everyone want to shut them down. Yeap, true signs of socialism at work. Government control will not and has not ever worked for success of all the people. Once this administration is out you will see America go back to work. Wouldn't that be nice for a change.
It's time people knew more about what they speak other than to just jump on the band wagon of complaining and creating problems for no apparent reason or just because a special interest group says they should. If only people had something to do maybe we could get on with work and produtivity.
JIll Menton