All News Releases By Date

Oil, gas companies agree to penalties for injection well violations

Release Date: 5/18/2000
Contact Information:
Sheldon Muller, EPA ,

Release Date: 5/18/2000
Contact Information:
(303) 312-6916,

Release Date: 5/18/2000
Contact Information:
Robert Homiak, DOJ ,

Release Date: 5/18/2000
Contact Information:
(303) 312-7353,

Release Date: 5/18/2000
Contact Information:
Rich Lathrop ,

Release Date: 5/18/2000
Contact Information:
(800)227-8917x6780
DENVER–Two oil and gas companies have agreed to pay

penalties under the nation's Safe Drinking Water Act

(SDWA) tied to their operation of injection wells in

Montana's Toole and Liberty counties between 1992 and

1996.


Worland, Wyoming-based Natural Gas Processing Co. and KCS Mountain Resources, Inc. of Houston entered into consent decrees with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency in documents lodged May 11 in U.S. District Court in Great Falls.

The SDWA governs the way injection wells are operated to protect underground sources of drinking water from contamination. It limits the amount of pressure, for instance, that an operator can apply underground in efforts to boost production of oil or gas. It requires operators to demonstrate “mechanical integrity” of wells and casings to assure contaminants are not leaking into groundwater.

NGP agreed to pay a $54,000 penalty. KCS agreed to pay $25,000 and spend another $31,000 plugging one or more injection wells abandoned by other operators in Montana. This is the first time that such a “supplemental environmental project” has been part of a settlement involving UICs or underground injection control wells in EPA's six-state Region 8.* SEPs allow defendants to spend money on projects to benefit the environment, unrelated to their own specific violations.

EPA's complaint covered 14 wells which NGP owned and operated until their sale to KCS in 1995 and another well installed by KCS. The complaint alleged violation of injection pressure limits, and failures to demonstrate well integrity, to notify EPA of a change in ownership (NGP only), to submit annual monitoring reports to EPA and to maintain financial responsibility. The latter is to insure that wells can be closed and plugged properly when no longer in use.