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EPA Orders Smith and Smith Petroleum to Stop Discharging

Release Date: 05/12/2011
Contact Information: Dave Bary or Joe Hubbard at 214-665-2200 or [email protected]

(DALLAS – May 12, 2011) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a cease and desist administrative order to the Smith and Smith Petroleum Company of Avant, Oklahoma, for violations of the federal Clean Water Act.

The cease and desist order was based on an April 21, 2011, EPA inspection of the company’s oil field production facility in Osage County, Oklahoma. EPA inspectors found an unauthorized discharge of oil field brine and wastewater generated by production activities into a tributary of Tucker Creek. The inspection also revealed that water located at the discharge point of entry into the tributary of Tucker Creek was contaminated from brine discharges and salts.

Based on these findings, the Smith and Smith Petroleum Company has been ordered to cease all discharges of pollutants from the facility and remove all brine and contaminated soils from the flow path located between the facility and the tributary of Tucker Creek. The company has also been ordered to provide written certification to EPA within 30 days that these activities have been completed.

More about activities in EPA Region 6 is available at https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/region6.html

EPA audio file is available at https://www.epa.gov/region6/6xa/podcast/may2011.html