Methane emissions cause ozone pollution (near term) & climate change (long term)

From an Article by Michael Booth, Colorado Sun, July 25, 2022

DCP Operating Company LP settles with federal and state officials over allegations of failing to detect gases contributing to Front Range ozone. This Colorado natural gas processor will pay a $3.25 million fine in a settlement with federal and state air pollution officials, after allegations the company failed to detect and repair leaks that contributed to worsening ozone problems on the northern Front Range.

DCP Operating Company LP and five related subsidiaries will pay the fines and make repairs, in a consent decree announced by the regional Environmental Protection Agency office in Denver after allegations of leaks and failure to repair at gas processing locations in Greeley, Platteville and other Weld County locations. Weld County is part of the EPA’s northern Front Range nonattainment area for ongoing ozone violations, and state and local governments must come up with plans to cut emissions that contribute to the health-harming gas.

The decree says DCP does not admit to liability for the allegations, but will have to pay the fine and also invest millions of dollars in equipment and systems to prevent new leaks. The decree was negotiated with EPA, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Colorado Air Pollution Control Division, part of the state health department.

“Enforcement actions like this are critical to improving air quality, particularly in places facing air quality challenges like Weld County,” Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division said in a statement. Soon after the fine announcement, the state health department issued another Ozone Action Day Alert for the Front Range, one of many so far this summer, warning vulnerable residents to avoid too much outdoor activity for 24 hours.

“EPA continues to deliver cleaner air through the rigorous enforcement of the Clean Air Act,” EPA Regional Administrator KC Becker said in a statement. “This settlement will reduce emissions of over 288 tons of volatile organic compounds and 1,300 tons of methane from production areas near northern Colorado communities, a majority of which are disproportionately impacted by pollution.”

Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Executive Director Jill Hunsaker Ryan credited state inspectors and enforcement personnel from the air division’s leak detection and repair program. She said the settlement will go to the state’s Community Impact Fund, which helps pay for local environmental justice projects.

DCP will now have to bolster leak detection and repair at facilities in the Greeley, Kersey/Mewbourne, Platteville, Roggen, Spindle, O’Connor and Lucerne processing plants, and the future Bighorn plant. The requirements include new equipment that leaks less, tightening compliance with rules, repairing leaks faster, and staff training. The decree says the company will also use optical imaging technology to find and repair leaks faster.

One repair on two turbines at the Kersey/Mewbourne plant will cost $1.15 million, and is expected to reduce VOCs there by 26 tons a year, and methane by 375 tons a year, according to the agreement. Natural gas processing facilities separate impurities and liquids from the gas. Methane also contributes to global warming, multiplying greenhouse gases by dozens of times the rate of carbon dioxide emissions.

Ground-level ozone causes respiratory illness, aggravates asthma, and can worsen existing heart disease.

A related company, DCP Midstream, was fined $5.3 million by New Mexico regulators in 2020 for alleged repeated violations of state air pollution emissions rules.

EPA and state officials say they are focusing tightly on northern Front Range oil and gas operations. The EPA last year reached a $1 million settlement with Noble Energy over alleged violations from oil tank batteries in Weld County floodplains.

DCP said in an email statement that the company started working on some of the fixes in the decree as early as 2019. “The settlement agreement resolves an administrative enforcement matter with the EPA and the State of Colorado and is also in line with our commitment to responsible environmental management and sustainability,” said DCP manager of public affairs Jeanette Alberg. The agreement “is consistent with our ongoing efforts to reduce emissions within our company footprint and is a positive outcome for all of our stakeholders,” she said. DCP is also upgrading Colorado facilities not mentioned in the settlement, the company said.

Environmental groups responded with skepticism, noting a recent hearing in front of the Air Quality Control Commission where northern Front Range cities said their own studies showed emissions are not down.

“This just continues to underscore the oil and gas industry’s rampant noncompliance with clean air laws and the terrible toll that continues to be taken on air quality along the Front Range,” said Jeremy Nichols of WildEarth Guardians. “Studies have basically confirmed that oil and gas industry emissions have not decreased over the years. It’s good that regulators are pressing DCP, Nichols said, “but it doesn’t seem like industry is truly changing its ways and doing everything it can and should to comply.”

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CLEAN AIR COUNCIL Recommendation ~

Tell the EPA to finalize the strongest air pollution regulations possible. This includes a ban on gas flaring or venting unless in absolute emergencies, consistent methane monitoring at all oil and gas facilities (including smaller, leak-prone wells), and requiring “no-bleed” pneumatic controllers and pumps at all gas wells and compressor stations.

Natural gas pipeline accidents do happen!

From an Article by Eric Billingsley, New Mexico Business Weekly, Albuquerque, September 16, 2002

Two years after one of the deadliest natural gas pipeline explosions in New Mexico’s history, Houston-based El Paso Corporation has reached the last in a series of out-of-court settlements with family members of the victims.

On August 31, El Paso reached an undisclosed settlement with Martha Chapman and Jerry Rackley, who lost five family members on August 19, 2000 when a natural gas pipeline owned by the company exploded near Carlsbad, New Mexico killing 12 people. They were camped next to the Pecos River near the path of the pipeline when the explosion occurred.

Chapman and Rackley filed suit in the District Court of Eddy County in February 2000 charging El Paso with five counts of wrongful death. The case was set to go to trial on October 1 in the Fifth Judicial District Court in Chaves County. Claims for the other seven people killed were filed as separate lawsuits, and have been settled out of court for undisclosed amounts since 2000. The only amount disclosed was a $14 million settlement for one of the victims.

“The settlement resolves all outstanding civil litigation in the state of New Mexico associated with the rupture,” says El Paso spokesperson Mel Scott.

“Hopefully an important lesson has been learned by El Paso and the natural gas industry in general so this kind of tragedy can never again occur,” says Bob Schuster, attorney for Chapman and Rackley.

The Carlsbad explosion is still being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) to determine whether there was negligence on the part of El Paso.

Shortly after the blast, NTSB Chairman Jim Hall issued a statement saying that investigators determined the section of pipe that failed had not been inspected internally since the 1950s. A series of reports issued by the NTSB in June said “severe corrosion damage” was found on the bottom of the pipeline near the explosion site, according to a recent article in Natural Gas Intelligence, an industry trade publication. NTSB is responsible for determining the cause of the explosion.

The DOT is seeking a $2.52 million civil penalty from El Paso for safety violations including: failing to ensure qualified personnel performed corrosion control procedures; transporting corrosive gas on numerous occasions without taking proper and mitigative steps; failing to follow procedures for surveillance of its facilities; failure to take action to reduce the possibility of pipeline failure following a similar incident in 1996; and not having an accurate elevation map for lines involved in the Carlsbad incident, which would have shown where liquid could accumulate and corrosion could occur.

The penalty is considered the largest civil penalty proposed against a gas transmission pipeline operator in the history of the federal pipeline safety program, according to DOT officials.

El Paso has been issued several compliance actions from the OPS since 1984 that address maintenance procedures, timeliness in performing safety inspections, inadequate training of personnel on preventing corrosion, gas vent locations and valve security. The OPS also notes that on “more than one occasion” El Paso has failed to promptly restore and maintain protections against external corrosion on its system.

One year prior to the Carlsbad explosion, a liquid gasoline pipeline owned by Olympic Pipe Line Co. (which has since been purchased by Shell) leaked and exploded, killing two children in Bellingham, Washington.

The families of the two children sued Olympic, Houston-based Equilon Pipeline, Los Angeles-based Atlantic Richfield Co. which owned the petroleum products being transported in the line, and IMCO General Construction Co. which had apparently dented the pipeline a few years prior to the accident. That case was also settled out of court in April for $75 million, less than a month before going to trial.