Oct. 31-- Oct. 31--As state regulators prepare for public hearings on new oil and gas flow line regulations, they're also preparing to issue a notice of an alleged violation to the company whose well and uncapped flow line are blamed for a deadly home explosion in 2017 in Firestone.
Jeff Robbins, director of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, said Wednesday that his staff expects to issue a notice to Kerr McGee Oil and Gas, a subsidiary of Anadarko Petroleum Corp.
"We're evaluating the actions and inactions that resulted in the Firestone incident. We are evaluating whether those actions or inactions resulted in the violation of our rules," Robbins said.
The COGCC staff will identify which specific rules were allegedly violated and consider fines and other penalties. Robbins said the staff was waiting for a final report on the Firestone explosion from the National Transportation Safety Board, which issued a decision Tuesday.
The NTSB said the probable cause of the April 17, 2017, explosion that killed Mark Martinez and Joey Irwin was gas leaking from a 1-inch diameter line running from an Anadarko well near the house. The line had been severed but wasn't capped when a gas tank battery was moved before the subdivision was built.
Erin Martinez, Mark's wife and Joey's sister, spoke out in support of Senate Bill 19-181, a new law aimed at overhauling how oil and gas are regulated. One of the law's mandates is stricter regulation of flow lines, which run from the well to nearby equipment. A hearing is scheduled Nov. 20-22 on the proposed rules.
After the explosion, former Gov. John Hickenlooper ordered companies to identify and test their pipelines within 1,000 feet of homes. The regulations were updated in 2018.
However, The Denver Post reported Sunday that 30 months after the Firestone tragedy, not much progress has been made on the promised comprehensive public mapping of pipelines, due in part to the difficulty of locating them. Robbins said the proposed changes include far more specific mapping of the flow lines.
When the state issues a notice of alleged violation in the Firestone case, the company will appear before state oil and gas commissioners to accept or contest the notice. Occidental Petroleum, which acquired Anadarko earlier this year, didn't return a request for comment Wednesday.
Just as the release of the long-awaited NTSB report is shaping work on the series of rules being written to carry out SB 181, a new health study has prompted state regulators to make some changes as they strive to fulfill the law's objective of making public health, safety and the environment a priority. The study, released Oct. 17 by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, found that people within 2,000 feet of drilling operations might face a higher risk of short-term health impacts from emissions of benzene, a known cancer-causing chemical, and other substances in worst-case scenarios.
As a result, the COGCC said it will more closely scrutinize permit applications for wells within 2,000 feet of homes and other buildings. Criteria currently being used until new health and safety regulations are approved call for a harder look if the proposed site is within 1,500 feet of occupied buildings.
In addition, the COGCC will begin monitoring emissions at multiple well sites during different phases of pre-production -- hydraulic fracturing, drilling and "flowback," when the liquids injected during fracking return to the surface.
Weld County Commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer, who has been a vocal critic of SB 181, said during the COGCC's monthly meeting Tuesday that the county is offering to help state agencies with on-the-ground air-quality monitoring to gather more data about potential health effects.
Weld County, with about 21,000 active wells, is Colorado's largest oil and gas producer.
The findings of the health study, which began in 2017, have increased calls to halt any new drilling permits until all the regulations are updated, a process expected to stretch into next summer.
Wes Wilson with Be The Change, a group advocating for stronger regulations, said that discussion of the study's findings is playing down the health impacts of oil and gas sites on human health. The study shows there are still effects beyond 2,000 feet, he said.
"This study is showing that you have effects, such as hematological, neurological and respiratory effects, the very same effects that the population is reporting to you," said Wilson, who said the sites should be appropriately monitored around the clock. "We need to know the concentrations that are coming off these sites."
In contrast, Defend Colorado, which advocates for business and has fought more stringent air-pollution standards along the Front Range, has launched a series of radio and digital ads attacking the study as "junk science" and politically motivated. The ads accuse Gov. Jared Polis of using the study to target oil and gas workers even though the study began during his predecessor's administration.
"This study was commissioned by the Hickenlooper administration, was peer-reviewed and is an important data point. The Governor believes there needs to be scientifically rigorous testing to inform policy and rulemaking," Conor Cahill, Polis' spokesman, said in an email.
