Reported oil and gas spills declined considerably last year in Colorado, state data shows.
Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission data indicates companies reported 476 spills last year, down from 639 in 2019.
The group Center for Western Priorities says that 349 of last year’s spills involved new releases, as opposed to companies reporting what are referred to as historic spills that occurred earlier but they only discovered last year. It says that of the 349 new spills, the company responsible for the most —13.2%— was Caerus Oil and Gas, which operates locally in the Piceance Basin.
The COGCC database indicates that spills reported in 2020 included 258 in Weld County, which last year led the state in drilling activity, and has more than 19,000 active wells. Sixty-three were reported in Garfield County, which ranked third among counties in drilling activity last year and has 11,922 active wells.
Rio Blanco County, which had no new wells drilled last year, had 32 reported spills; it has 2,849 active wells. Mesa County had 11 spills. It also had no new wells drilled last year but has more than 1,200 active wells. Most of the county’s 11 spill reports last year involved Laramie Energy or Caerus.
Last year’s statewide spill total appears to be the lowest in the state since 2012, even as the state has tightened reporting requirements since then, meaning that some spills that previously didn’t have to be reported now do.
Part of last year’s drop in spill numbers may reflect the reduced drilling activity thanks in good part to the pandemic driving down oil and gas prices. Drilling last year began on just 99 wells in Garfield County, the least since 1999. Statewide, drilling began on 735 wells, down from 1,477 in 2019.
However, spills also involve existing wells and production, and Hannah Rider, a policy and research associate at the Center for Western Priorities, said statewide production didn’t take a huge hit last year. She thinks a significant increase in inspections by the COGCC last year and a big jump in the combined dollar amount of fines it imposed last year for violations compared to 2019 — even not counting a fine of more than $18 million issued last year in connection with a fatal 2017 home explosion in Firestone linked to an abandoned oil and gas line — may have contributed to the significant drop in spills.
The Center for Western Priorities also says the pandemic may have disrupted the observation and reporting of spills last year.
The group says the 349 spills it analyzed resulted in a total of nearly 23,000 barrels of liquids being released last year, including 6,680 barrels of oil and 13,413 barrels of produced water. A barrel is 42 gallons.
“Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and a global price war that hammered the oil and gas industry, thousands of barrels of toxic materials were spilled in Colorado last year, polluting surrounding lands and threatening the health of communities,” Rider said in a news release. “With nearly half of all spills within a mile of an occupied building and a third within 1,000 feet of surface water, Colorado must do more to protect its land, water, and communities.”
“Colorado has very low thresholds for reporting spills, which includes any spills of water or other fluids — even when they don’t leave the onsite containment. But that said, Colorado companies are continually working to improve their operational practices,” Dan Haley, president and CEO of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, said.
Caerus said in a statement that last year’s drop in spills in the state “is due to the oil and gas industry’s commitment to operating safely in our state.”
It said that unfortunately, the Center for Western Priorities’ “methodology simply ranks number of spills without context as to the impact, or lack thereof. None of our releases identified in the report impacted surface water or groundwater, and all of these releases have been or are being remediated to meet the COGCC … standards.
“We learn from every incident and implement corrective actions to prevent future releases. Caerus operates on more than 500,000 acres in rural Colorado and the volume released represents less than .008% of the produced water transferred and recycled through our gathering system.”
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