From the Western Environmental Law Center, January 2023

From the Letter of Mike Scott, National Oil and Gas Campaign Manager, Sierra Club, September 16, 2023

From 9 to 5, I’m the Sierra Club’s Oil and Gas Campaign Manager. When I’m not working, you can find me hunting, fishing, rafting, or hiking in Eastern Montana where I live. I love this place, and one of the reasons I live here is so that I can enjoy the outdoors.

Oil and gas production has long been a part of this region, which brings many problems. Radioactive waste from drill rigs, brine water (often saltier than the ocean), and even crude oil ends up in our rivers and on our land. Pumpjacks (those big pieces of equipment that look like a nodding donkey or horse head) sit idle and rusting on the landscape. I live between three large oil refineries, and my farm actually was covered in oil from the 2011 Silvertip pipeline spill in the Yellowstone River. Oil and gas is everywhere in my community and in this part of the country.

That is why we need stronger rules that limit oil and gas exploration!

When oil and gas companies are allowed to operate however they see fit, it leads to pollution and accidents that impact the land, wildlife, and people. For example, unsealed, abandoned wells can leak oil and other pollutants into the air and water. This means drinking water can become contaminated, and the fish we eat are riddled with toxins. It also means a visit to public lands near oil and gas production could expose us to pollutants in the air that can make us sick.

Right now, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is updating its oil and gas leasing rules. This is a big deal because the current rules are broken and outdated, leading to the terrible impacts I’ve seen in Montana and across the West. The proposed rules don’t fix everything, but they do start to make reforms that will hold oil and gas companies accountable for their operations. This proposal will also end some of the built-in subsidies that oil and gas companies hoard when they lease public lands. A more transparent process will mean that our perspectives are finally taken into account before dirty fossil fuel projects are dumped into our backyards.

Join me in telling the BLM to strengthen these rules and finalize them as soon as possible!

>> Thanks for all you do, Mike Scott, National Oil and Gas Campaign Manager, Sierra Club

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SUMMARY APPROACH ~ For decades, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has sold off public lands to oil and gas companies for pennies on the dollar. This broken system has locked up vast amounts of land from any use other than extraction and left thousands of dangerous and polluting abandoned wells with our communities footing the bill to clean them up.

The BLM just proposed an update to leasing rules that would finally hold fossil fuel companies accountable for the damage they cause, end subsidies for oil and gas producers, and add competition to the leasing process. Tell the BLM to strengthen these rules and finalize them as soon as possible!

Take Action Now!

API number is a unique identification code

The Ohio River Valley Institute (ORVI) recently released a report entitled Diversified Energy: A Business Model Built to Fail Appalachia. Over the last several years, Diversified Energy has become the largest owner of oil and gas wells in the country! However, Diversified is not, for the most part, in the business of drilling new wells. It is buying up existing, declining wells and milking them now for all they are worth. But in the future thousands of their wells will not be producing enough gas to even pay to operate themselves, let alone to save the money to plug them.

Diversified already has a little more than 2000 wells in West Virginia right now that should already have been plugged! They only plugged 75 of these wells since January last year. Their disclosures to their stockholders (in Great Britain) raise a question whether thousands more that will need plugging will be coming, and whether Diversified will have the money in the future to plug somewhere around 10,000 wells in West Virginia that reach the end of their economic lives. We think they will become orphaned wells.

If you have a Diversified well on your land, and if it is not producing, please get hold of us. We would like to help to try to get it plugged while some money is still available, or by some other means, rather than have it left unplugged on you. Contact us through lawyer and co-founder Dave McMahon whose contact information is at the bottom of this blog.

Generally you will know if the well on your land is operated by Diversified because it will have Diversified’s name on it. If it does not and you still suspect it might be a Diversified well then:

There are two ways we can find out if the Diversified well on your land is producing (and if it is in fact operated by Diversified). One, you can send us your surface tax ticket or the information on it (we would need the county, district name, map and parcel number from that). Two, another more certain way to make sure we have the right well is for you to go to the well and get the API number off of the well. That number will look like 047 – 0_ _ – 0 _ _ _ _. (Other numbers that don’t look like that can be an old company well number of an equipment part number) Get us that API number. Here is a web page about API numbers. Or that page tells you how you can look up the information yourself on the West Virginia Geologic and Economic Survey website and others.

While you are there at the well listen to hear if it is making a hissing sound in the pipes. That will mean that it is producing and we may not be able to get it plugged soon, but if you have other questions about it let us know. (If it is making a hissing sound as gas is escaping out of the pipes into the air, be sure to contact us!) If there is a no sound it may not be producing and, again, let us know about it – we might be able to do something to get it plugged to stop devaluing your land or before it pollutes your surface land, groundwater, air etc,

To avoid any lawyer ethical problems, or even the appearance of impropriety, this communication is branded as “advertising material”. We also have to note that the lawyer responsible for this email is David McMahon, a co-founder of WVSORO. His number is 304-415-4288. His address is 1624 Kenwood Rd, Charleston, WV 25314. His email is wvdavid@wvdavid.net. He is the person to contact about the well on your property.

>>> Advertising Material from David McMahon, Lawyer, Charleston, WV

Reference ~ West Virginia Surface Owners’ Rights Organization, 1500 Dixie Street, Charleston, WV 25311
info@wvsoro.org 304 346 5891

Drilling & fracking now reaching more properties

Article by Dave McMahon, Co-Founder of WV Surface Owners Rights Organization (WVSORO), March 4, 2022

Methane gas originates in shale formations laid down eons ago. Over the eons some of it creeps towards the surface and is sometimes trapped on its way upward in a porous and permeable sandstone formation that is topped with a denser cap rock formation above it to keep it from migrating further upward. Until about 2008, almost all gas drilling was to the gas trapped in those sandstone formations. A vertical well was drilled through the formation and fractures were put into the formation for the gas to flow more freely to the well bore. Originally these fractures were created by nitroglycerine, but more recently by pumping water (and accompanying chemicals and sand) under enough pressure to crack and lift the above rock, and leave sand in the cracks!

The limitation of this gas extraction method was that the well bore exposed to the rock was only as long as the formation was thick. The other limitation is that the gas trapped in the sandstone formations was somewhat limited because what gas migrated upwards into the sandstone was a lot less than stayed behind in the shale. The shale contains much, much more gas.

Why didn’t drillers drill the shale if it had more gas? Because it has almost no porosity or permeability. In the amount of time gas will flow a kilometer through sandstone, it will only travel one meter through a shale. So, putting a vertical well through the formation will get very little gas flowing out of the shalle into the vertical well bore, to the surface, and to market.

Drillers first tried to get more gas out of shale by increasing the volume of water used to fracture vertical wells. Instead of the conventional practice of using the amount of water that can be held in a tanker truck of water, they started using enough water to fill several olympic swimming pools. That worked somewhat better.

But then along came horizontal drilling. Techniques were developed to put the motor turning the bit drilling the well bore at the bottom, far end of the drill pipe instead of using a motor at the surface to turn the whole drill pipe all the way to the bit. Also highly accurate internal guidance systems were developed. Those two factors coupled with the new large-volume fracturing techniques created a revolution, a tsunami, of horizontal drilling in shale formations like the Marcellus and the Utica.

The new wells cost several million dollars each to drill compared to several hundred thousand dollars for drilling a conventional vertical well. One of these horizontal shale wells, however, produces 60 times the gas of a conventional vertical well, so they are much more economically efficient. You are unlikely ever to see a new conventional well drilled. (And the fact that many of the old wells will likely become orphaned is a separate article.)

The most likely pollution problem from a gas well occurs as it is first drilled vertically down through the water table. (Actually it’s second; the real most likely problem is spills on the well pads during drilling.) So if one well can serve to get the same gas as 60 wells, the chances of groundwater pollution from this first step in drilling is reduced by 60 times.

Also, conventional vertical wells have to be spread far apart, with a different well pad for each. Several horizontal wells, however, can be drilled from one well pad – 6, 8 or even more horizontal wells from one pad. So again, fewer well pads on surface owners (with the danger of spill prevention going bad also reduced). That one pad is much, much bigger, but still it is a huge reduction in surface use and spill risk.

The drilling of horizontal shale wells has greatly increased. There would be even fewer wells drilled (and hopefully fewer well pads) if the horizontal wells could be drilled longer and longer. The greater the length of the bore exposed to the formation (and fractured) the more gas comes up out of one well.

What has limited the full exercise of long horizontal well bore drilling technology is that the driller should have at least 640 acres of leased mineral acreage to drill these wells. If the driller can find one 640-acre mineral tract, that is all that is needed. But ownership of much of West Virginia, particularly in the area of the state being drilled by horizontal Marcellus Shale wells, is broken up into much smaller tracts. So the driller needs to get leases from the owner (or owners, there can be scores of heirship owners of a single mineral tract) of several separately owned, neighboring mineral tracts to put in a 640 acre “unit” for the drilling of the horizontal wells.

If the owner(s) of the mineral tract towards the end of a planned horizontal well bore will not sign a lease (or cannot be identified or located because there are so many heirs) then the driller has to make the horizontal bore shorter than the driller would otherwise make it. And remember the longer the bore the better, as noted before. So the driller wants to be able to force tracts into their units so they can drill longer bores. That is why the drillers want SB 694. It allows a commission to force tracts into a unit for drilling longer bores.

WV Surface Owners Rights Organization (WV-SORO) respects the views of those who want to leave any possible stumbling block in the way of hydrocarbon energy production. But our position has always been that, for the reasons above, as long as horizontal methane gas wells are going to be drilled, legislation that will allow longer bores from fewer wells to be drilled from potentially fewer well pads is a good idea. And the reality is that these horizontal shale wells are being drilled now and will be for the foreseeable future. So a good forced unitization bill is a good idea. (Note that this is commonly called forced “pooling.” But variations of the root word “pool” are used for three different concepts in the existing statutes so we use the term forced “unitization”.)

The problem has been that the forced unitization legislation introduced in the past has done the good things such legislation can do for the drillers, but not done good things for surface owners, and has not been fair to forced mineral owners in determining how much the mineral owners will get paid up front and for royalties. SB 694 is far from the best possible bill, but it is OK, and does have some significant benefits for surface owners.

1. First, the driller will still have to get the permission of the surface owner to drill one of their big horizontal wells pads. Though the drillers would like that to be something that could be forced upon the surface owner, the bill does not provide for it. The driller has to get the surface owner’s agreement. And, we advise surface owners to ask for $640,000 from the driller to agree to the placement of the pad on their surface!

2. Second, remember how one tract of minerals can have the ownership shared by scores of heirs? Sometimes it is not possible to find those heirs in order to pay them the royalty payments and signing bonuses. Under SB 694, if the mineral owners do not show up in five years, the surface owner gets not only all the back royalties for those five years, they also get title to that share of the minerals, plus all future royalties.

3. Third, there are legislative findings in the bill recognizing surface owners rights added into the Code that can be used by courts in interpreting and carrying out the bill.

4. Fourth, about one-third of WVSORO members also own the minerals, or a share of the minerals, under their land. So if their minerals (but not surface) are forced into a unit they will get very fair royalties paid to them and they will get paid very fair up front money calculated off a weighted average of what the drillers paid to owners who did sign leases.

That is not to say that SB 694 is perfect. We could have drafted something even better in the devilish details. Considering the political climate at the current legislature, and the unpredictability of the future, we believed it was the wise thing to say that we were OK with this bill.

>>> Update: SB 694 has passed the Senate, the House Energy and Manufacturing Committee, and House Judiciary Committee and is heading to the House floor.

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SEE ALSO: West Virginia University study finds natural gas pooling law could spark economic boom | WV News | Charles Young, March 9, 2021

This study examines the potential economic impact of instituting a unitization law in West Virginia. We define two scenarios whereby drilling activity in West Virginia is assumed to increase by either 5 percent or 10 percent above current levels. We then estimate the additional economic activity from three major sources: well construction, spending due to ongoing production, and royalties paid to rights-holders within the state.

The estimated cumulative economic impacts over a five-year period from construction, drilling, and completion would be between $1.1 billion and $2.1 billion, with employment between 4 thousand and 8 thousand job-years. Operational impacts are between $12.8 million and $25.6 million over five years. And impacts from royalties are expected to yield between 500 and 1,000 job-years.

Download the 29 page WVU Business Report here.

Permitting, inspecting and enforcement all need updating a.s.a.p.

>>> From an Article by Zack Budryk, The Hill (Online News), 01/05/22

WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. has more than double the amount of abandoned oil and gas wells than previously thought, according to a preliminary analysis by the Interior Department.

In a memo Wednesday, the department said there are currently more than 130,000 documented abandoned, or orphaned, wells. Comparatively, a 2019 report from the Interior documented a total of 56,600 orphaned wells across 30 states. Across the entire country they found that the number of abandoned wells in that report ranged from zero to 13,226.

The bipartisan infrastructure bill President Biden signed into law in November of last year includes $4.7 billion to restore and plug orphaned wells. In December, the department released guidance on state applications for grants under the program.

Since then, the majority of states, 26, have submitted notices of intent to apply for the grants, according to the memo. Nearly every state documented contained orphaned wells.

States applying for funding included Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming, according to the memo.

The Interior Department is set to publish the full amount of grant funding each state is eligible to receive in the months ahead, according to the memo. On Thursday, the Bureau of Land Management will host a presentation on its orphaned-well reclamation program.

Plugging orphaned wells has been top priority for Interior Secretary Deb Haaland since her nomination. The White House’s budget request for fiscal 2022 also included a proposal to more than double the enacted 2021 budget for orphaned well cleanup and reclamation, which the administration said would create 250,000 union jobs.

The White House’s more ambitious climate and social spending bill — which has not passed either chamber of Congress — would also put $41 billion toward environmental remediation, including reclamation of orphaned wells.

Its path forward remains unclear after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said in December that he would not back the package.

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SEE ALSO:WV-DEP seeks support to hire gas, oil well inspectors, Lacie Pierson, Charleston Gazette, January 18, 2022

Also during the meeting, the Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Harold Ward told the committee that department officials hope to be able to hire eight new natural gas and oil well inspectors before the state receives $165 million in federal grants to manage nearly 6,300 abandoned natural gas and oil wells.

The department currently employs nine people who are responsible for inspecting about 75,000 wells, or about 8,000 wells per inspector, Deputy Secretary of Environmental Protection Scott Mandirola told Senate Finance members during a budget presentation at the Capitol.

“Right now, we’re at a very difficult crossroads,” Ward said. “To be candid with you, we have a solution, and its proposed legislation this year.” DEP officials are asking the Legislature to approve a bill that would allow them to charge a $100 permit fee to raise $1.3 million to support the return of inspectors and other staff to the department’s Oil and Gas Division.

Senators on the committee were alarmed by the ratio of wells to inspectors, raising concerns about public safety as well as the workload on inspectors, even with the potential addition of eight more inspectors. “This is a tragedy that we’ve got wells and things that we know that are leaking,” Sen. Charles Clements, R-Wetzel, said. “Something’s got to be done.”

Many abandoned wells are not documented and still represent multiple risks

From an Article by Amy Lupica, Our Daily Planet, March 12, 2021

A new study published on Monday found that cleaning up the nation’s more than 2 million acres of oil and gas wells could result in billions of dollars of economic growth. Experts estimate that there are as many as 3.2 million gas and oil well sites no longer in use, and when companies leave or abandon these wells, they often leak harmful toxins into the atmosphere and groundwater.

For a long time, companies have claimed the cleanup is too expensive, but experts estimate the costs of cleanup are much more affordable than previously thought and could offer a much-needed economic boost to struggling former oil and gas communities.

Why This Matters: Abandoned oil and gas wells are an epidemic all on their own. The 3.2 million abandoned oil and gas wells are constantly leaking methane into the atmosphere, which captures up to 86 times more heat than CO2. The wells also put residents at risk of flammable or toxic water and even explosions. The fact that these wells are poorly mapped and challenging to find, makes them even more dangerous.

Despite these dangers to the environment and humans, the Trump administration rolled back Obama-era methane regulations that required gas and oil companies to monitor and repair leaks. But as oil and gas prices plummet, it’s clear that companies will never return for their abandoned wells, but cleaning them up is crucial to fighting climate change and ensuring that communities aren’t left behind in the transition to a green economy.

Net Benefits: The study estimates that cleaning up all abandoned oil and gas wells in the country would cost about $7 billion, a small price to pay for over 3.2 million cleanup projects. That land could then be used for green energy development, business and housing projects, and carbon sequestration.

The researchers of the study estimated that the cleanup could bring in $21 billion in benefits.

Matt Moran, the study’s lead author, said, “for people who live near that land–that [money] has real meaning.” The cleanup alone would also create thousands of jobs for people who live in regions plagued by abandoned wells. The Biden administration has expressed support for well cleanup projects. “We are going to create more than a quarter-million jobs to do things like plug in millions of abandoned oil and gas wells that pose an ongoing threat to the health and safety of our communities,” said Biden in January.

Similar projects have already had success with the support of the federal government. The Abandoned Mine Land Trust Fund (AML) grants money to states and tribes to clean up defunct coal mines. Since its inception, the AML has helped build green infrastructure, boost tourism, and create jobs across America, with the added benefit of cleaning up toxic groundwater and pollution. It’s done so well that now, a bipartisan team of lawmakers and environmental advocates are introducing legislation to extend and expand it.

The new study’s authors hope that cleaning up oil and gas wells can yield the same benefits for oil communities as mine cleanups have for coal communities.

“If you have an abandoned piece of property, and you restore it back to its original condition, it’s worth something, and it’s worth more than it costs to do that,” said Moran. “If we invest in land restoration, we get a lot out of it.”

WV-DEP inspectors perform a critical function for our State

From an Article by Jeff Jenkins, WV Metro News, March 11, 2021

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A new fee that could bring up to $500,000 annually to the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Oil and Gas will next be considered by the full House of Delegates after approval by the House Energy Committee Thursday.

The measure, SB 404, would create a $2,500 fee that would be charged each time a drilling permit has to be modified.

Those obtaining permits for drilling for oil and natural gas currently pay a one time $10,000 permit fee but are not charged if the permit is modified. There were 200 modifications to existing permits last year.

State DEP Deputy Secretary for External Affairs Scott Mandirola told the committee Thursday the agency needs $2.4 million a year to run the Office of Oil and Gas with 25 inspectors. It currently has $1.1 million for next budget year. The new fee would provide $500,000 of the remaining $1.3 million needed.

The office currently only has 10 inspectors for thousands of wells.

“There are 75,000 wells including abandoned and orphaned,” Mandirola said.

WV-DEP well inspectors are currently funded through permit fees but drilling for natural gas has slowed down in West Virginia causing a significant reduction in fee revenue.

Mandirola said a modification fee is nothing new for the WV-DEP. He said permits for coal, water and air all have modification fees but there’s been no fee for drilling changes.

The bill, which now goes to the full House for consideration, has already passed the state Senate.

2015 explosion at Exxon Mobil Corp.'s Torrance, Calif., refinery

From an Article by E.A. Crunden, Greenwire, E&E News, December 2, 2020

EPA will not require three major industries to guarantee funding for toxic waste cleanups under federal Superfund law, finalizing a controversial rule in the last months of the Trump administration.

The agency said it would not mandate the chemical manufacturing, oil and gas, and coal power plant industries to provide financial assurance in the event of major accidents and crises.

“EPA has found that existing environmental regulations and modern industry practices are sufficient to mitigate any risks inherent in these industries,” said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler in a statement Wednesday.

The agency said it analyzed the need for new financial assurance requirements for those industries under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), looking at financial risks associated with those sectors. EPA said it also evaluated a range of other factors including the history of Superfund cleanups, economic trends and input from the public in its assessment.

“EPA reviewed and considered public comments to conclude that the level of risk is addressed by existing requirements and does not warrant new requirements for these industries,” the agency stated in its announcement.

That decision means no new rules will be introduced addressing the issue. It runs counter to the Obama administration’s argument that industries should have the financial means to fund toxic waste cleanups to ease strain on the government.

The decision affecting the three industries follows a similar move on hardrock mining. In 2017, the Trump administration opted not to impose new insurance requirements on that industry, generating significant litigation (Greenwire, Dec. 4).

Advocacy organizations have already slammed EPA’s new rule as detrimental for taxpayers and the environment, as well as vulnerable communities. They say companies often declare bankruptcy to avoid liability for cleanups, something financial assurance can help prevent.

“For years, it’s been the most important rule that nobody knows about,” said Lisa Evans, senior counsel for the group Earthjustice, calling EPA’s findings “really a huge step backwards.”

Evans said the move holds outsize environmental justice implications, as industrial sites are often located near low-income communities and people of color. She said financial assurance both guarantees a source of funding for cleanup and encourages companies to adopt safer backups to begin with, limiting the chances of future Superfund sites.

Superfund experts say the program has suffered from chronic underfunding in recent years under Democratic and Republican administrations alike. That limited budget has hindered the pace of cleanups, with more than 1,300 sites currently on the National Priorities List. Proponents of financial assurance see it as a key mechanism for ensuring a responsible party is attached to a site in the case of a cleanup. Accident insurance is an example of a financial assurance mechanism.

The incoming Biden administration is likely to take a different approach and push forward financial assurance rules, but Evans said that would take some time given the nature of the rulemaking process. She criticized the Trump administration’s decision as a last-minute action that could extend that process by several years.

“We’re back to square one,” Evans said.

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See also: One person killed in Belle chemical plant explosion, Charleston Gazette Mail, December 9, 2020

Explosion and fire disturb Kanawha River valley in West Virginia on 12/9/20

ALERT — Oil & Gas Wells Need Attention

From Julie Archer, WV-SORO, Charleston, February 15, 2019

Help Prevent One of the Most (If Not the Most) Widespread Environmental & Property Rights Disasters in WV

One of, if not the most, widespread environmental and property rights disasters ever is now unfolding in West Virginia! WV-SORO needs your help to hold drillers responsible and keep this from happening.

Please contact your Senators and Delegate(s) and tell them to support a strong Orphaned Oil and Gas Well Prevention Act (SB 576 & HB 3065).

There are currently more than 4,500 orphaned oil and gas wells that have gone unplugged for so long that the driller/operator has gone out of business and there is no one to plug it. A company called Diversified is buying declining, conventional wells from EQT and other Marcellus Shale drillers. WV-SORO expects Diversified will plug only 310 of the 17,000 wells they have purchased in the next 15 years, and after 2019 to start leaving 10,000 more unplugged. These wells are located on surface and mineral owners across West Virginia.

The Legislature needs to pass the “Orphaned Oil and Gas Well Prevention Act” (SB 576 & HB 3065) in order to stop more wells from being orphaned. Currently operators only have to post a “blanket” “performance” bond in the amount of $50,000 – as little as $20 a well for some – when plugging costs $25,000 to $65,000 or more for each well.

It will be good if the Legislature passes other bills like HB 2779 and HB 2673, that will generate money to plug a few orphaned wells, perhaps 60 a year. (These bills have already passed the House of Delegates.) But we need the Orphaned Oil and Gas Well Prevention Act passed in order to prevent more wells from being orphaned by requiring what we are calling “plugging assurance” for three kinds of wells: 1) new wells, 2) existing wells that are producing but no longer producing in paying quantities, and 3) wells are transferred (often from a driller that can afford to plug its old wells to one that cannot).

“Plugging assurance” would be a single well bond in the actual cost to plug the well, or plugging assurance would be payment into an escrow account for each well in the treasurer’s office of the cost to plug the well when it is time.

Please contact your Senators and Delegate(s) and tell them to support a strong Orphaned Oil and Gas Well Prevention Act (SB 576 & HB 3065).

For additional information on why the Act is needed see here and here.

For more information on Diversified, see the following news articles:

>>> Sale of older gas wells concerns surface owners lawyer

>>> Diversified’s deal with West Virginia on plugging old oil wells shows rules need to change, environmental groups say

Contact: WV Surface Owners’ Rights Organization,
1500 Dixie Street, Charleston, WV 25311

info@wvsoro.org 304 346 5891

2017 Anadarko Explosion In Firestone, Colorado

From an Article by the Staff, Colorado Independent, May 11, 2018

Earlier this week, we reported on allegations made by six former Anadarko employees who say the oil and gas giant demonstrated a pattern of ignoring safety concerns in the years, months and weeks leading up to last year’s fatal explosion of a home in Firestone.

Among those speaking out in a class-action lawsuit are the company’s former longtime chief lobbyist, Chris Castilian, and its former longtime spokeswoman, Robin Olsen – both of whom say Anadarko has lost its credibility when it comes to safety and corporate citizenship. Olsen is cited in the lawsuit saying that when she urged her boss to address safety concerns, he told her to “keep quiet” and “shovel shit.”

Indy Editor Susan Greene broke the story and spoke with KGNU’s News Director Maeve Conran about what these allegations mean for Anadarko’s operations in Colorado, for the broader oil and gas industry, for the state agency tasked with regulating oil and gas operations, and for this year’s gubernatorial election.

At issue, Susan says, is whether Anadarko has met its end of the social contract it has in our state and how much uncertainty folks in its gas patch are living with.

Also in question is the extent to which the company and its high-paid proxies are set on trying to avoid increased regulations and block U.S. Rep Jared Polis, a longtime fracking critic, from becoming governor.

Here’s the audio…. Listen Here

Co-author Dr. John L. Adgate, CO School of Public Health

From an Article by John Ingold, Denver Post, April 9, 2018

A new study led by researchers at the Colorado School of Public Health concludes that the air quality around oil and gas wells places those who live next door at an increased risk of developing cancer, but a state health official said Monday that more testing is needed to better understand what is happening.

The study looked at the concentration of cancer-causing chemicals such as benzene in the air near several oil and gas sites in northern Colorado. It contends that people living within 500 feet of an oil and gas facility have a lifetime excess cancer risk eight times higher than the upper limit set by the Environmental Protection Agency. What that means is that breathing the air near an oil and gas well for years at a time places people at additional risk of developing cancer above normal rates, according to the study.

Five hundred feet is a magic number in Colorado oil and gas regulations because it is the minimum distance the state requires new wells to be set back from existing houses. But the new study found at least a small potential added cancer risk based on air samples taken slightly farther away.

“The cumulative lifetime excess cancer risk increased with decreasing distance to the nearest (oil and gas) facility,” the study’s authors wrote.

The study was published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, which is produced by the American Chemical Society. Funding for the study came from the National Science Foundation, NASA, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Boulder County Public Health Department.

In a statement, Boulder County Public Health air quality program coordinator Pam Milmoe said the study shows the need for better emissions controls on wells and better detection of leaks, as well as stricter setback rules.

“The results underscore the importance of not locating extraction facilities near homes, schools and recreation areas, and having policies that require effective monitoring and reducing emissions from oil and gas facilities, for sites already in those areas,” Milmoe said.

The new study contradicts the results of one published last year by CDPHE, which found little evidence of health harms from living near oil and gas sites. That study found that lifetime cancer risk was not increased near wells due to exposure to benzene or other chemicals.

Lisa McKenzie, a professor at the School of Public Health and the paper’s lead author, said her study used California guidelines for assessing benzene toxicity, which are stricter than the guidelines used in the CDPHE study. She said her study also incorporates newer research.

In a statement, CDPHE executive director Dr. Larry Wolk said the new study’s most dramatic findings came for measurements inside the 500-foot minimum setback and said, so far, a CDPHE mobile lab conducting air monitoring in communities near oil and gas sites has not detected worrying levels of benzene or other chemicals. The department expects to have another report based on what it calls more comprehensive air-quality data completed this summer.

Wolk and McKenzie have clashed before over her previous findings of health risks to people living near oil and gas wells, and he said the latest findings need more follow-up research.

“This report underscores the potential public health importance of the 500-foot setback and the need to collect more comprehensive air quality data in communities in close proximity to oil and gas operations,” Wolk said.

McKenzie said the added lifetime risk of developing cancer was based on an assumption of 30 years of exposure — a period that may exceed the lifespan of an oil and gas well.

“In areas of oil and gas development, no one is living next to just one well,” she said. “They’re usually living in a area with a lot of wells.”