Oil & Gas Spill of the Day - KERR-MCGEE - Is the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission Failing its Mission Statement?

If an inspector cannot visit the same well site for a long period of time, thus countless spills occur that could very well be prevented, would you agree that the actions are unsatisfactory in preventative measures by the State of Colorado to protect the health of its citizens from adverse environmental impacts caused by hydraulic fracturing?

Date Rec'd:	8/22/2011	Report taken by:	BOB CHESSON
DocNum:	2215568	API number:	05-123 -11202	Facility ID:	243411

Operator Information

Operator:	KERR-MCGEE OIL & GAS ONSHORE LP	Oper. No.	47120
Address:	P O BOX 173779 ATTN: PHILLIP S SCHLAGEL DENVER , CO 80217-3779
Phone:	(720 )929-6000	Fax:	(720 )929-7461
Operator Contact:	PAUL SCHNEIDER

Description of Spill:

Date of Incident:	8/12/2011
Type of Facility:	FLOWLINE
Well Name/No.	UPRR 42 PAN AM N TRUE 1	Fac. Name/No.
County Name:	WELD
qtrqtr: NESE section: 17 township: 1N range: 67W meridian: 6

Volumes spilled and recovered (bbls)
Oil spilled:	Recvrd:
Water spilled:	Recvrd:
Other spilled: 0	Recved: 0
GW Impact? Y (GW = groundwater) Surface water impact? N Contained within berm? N
Area and vertical extent of spill: 30-FT X 30 -FT
Current land use: AGRICULTURE
Weather conditions: 90 DEG F, CLEAR
Soil/Geology description CLAY
Distance in feet to nearest surface water: 40 (they mean 40 feet)
Depth to shallowest GW: 6 (they mean 6 feet deep)
Wetlands: 40 (they mean 40 feet away)	Buildings: 950
Livestock:	Water Wells: 430
Cause of spill:
EQUIPMENT FAILURE/CORROSION
Immediate Response:
THE WELL WAS SHUT IN AND THE PETROLEUM HYDROCARBON IMPACTED SOIL WAS EXCAVATED, GROUNDWATER WAS ENCOUNTERED IN THE EXCAVATION AT ~6` BGS. BTEX IMPACT TO GROUNDWATER WAS CONFIRMED BY THE LAB REPORT ON AUGUST 12, 2011, AT WHICH TIME THE RELEASE BECAME STATE REPORTABLE.
Emergency Pits:
NA
How extent determined:
SEE COMMENTS.
Further Remediation
FIVE GALLONS OF MICROBLAZE WERE APPLIED TO THE GROUNDWATER AND EXPOSED SMEAR ZONE SOILS PRIOR TO BACKFILLING THE EXCAVATION. GROUNDWATER MONITORING WELLS WILL BE INSTALLED TO DETERMINE THE EXTENT AND MAGNITUDE OF GROUNDWATER IMPACTS.
Prevent Problem:
THE FLOW LINE WAS REPAIRED.
Detailed Description:
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE SPILL/RELEASE INCIDENT: A CORROSION HOLE WAS DISCOVERED IN THE FLOW LINE DURING PRESSURE TESTING. THE VOLUME RELEASED IS UNKNOWN.

Field Visit/Follow Up
Name	Phone	Date
No Field Visit data found.  OUR TAKE

Once again we see a failure of equipment that has been labeled liable for releasing an ‘unknown’ volume of contaminant on the surface.Or is the State of Colorado responsible? Since Benzene, Toluene, Ethylene and Xylene, (BTEX) impact to groundwater was confirmed by the lab report on Aug 12, 2011, in an agricultural area, we are very concerned.

In some cases you will note that the acceptable levels of BTEX far exceed what’s allowed by the state. It appears that this spill was caused in part or exclusively by corrosion. Are the chemicals (frac-fluids) that corrosive that they eat through the metal pipes? Is this an indicator of just how concentrated the chemicals may be?

As we understand it, there are just a bit more than one dozen oil and gas inspectors in the state of Colorado to inspect the 40,000+ active oil and gas wells. Is this a failure of the state to provide adequate manpower to effectively and preventatively monitor the oil and gas wells in the entire state of Colorado?

Let’s use conservative numbers when we map this out. Say there are fourteen inspectors in the state and they are responsible to inspect and monitor 40,000 active oil and gas wells. Each of the fourteen inspectors would then be responsible for inspecting 2,857 wells every year, or 238 per month, or 8 wells per day. Now here lies the problem. That means that each well site will not be inspected for another year. This is a failure of the state to allow a well to not be inspected for an entire year. Through our investigations, we have found the number of spills where the inspector just happened to notice the pipe(s) underground were leaking contaminant for an ‘unknown’ amount of time and the volume of contaminant discharged is also ‘unknown.’

If an inspector cannot visit the same well site for a long period of time, thus countless spills occur that could very well be prevented, would you agree that the actions are unsatisfactory in preventative measures by the State of Colorado to protect the health of its citizens from adverse environmental impacts caused by hydraulic fracturing?

According to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Comission (COGCC’s) mission statement below, it appears that they may be failing.


MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) is to foster the responsible development of Colorado's oil and gas natural resources.

Responsible development results in:

The efficient exploration and production of oil and gas resources in a manner consistent with the protection of public health, safety and welfare
The prevention of waste

The protection of mineral owners' correlative rights

The prevention and mitigation of adverse environmental impacts




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