The Environmental Protection Agency has slapped back six oil and gas air pollution permits to Colorado regulators, saying the state failed to require adequate monitoring of natural gas venting in the Garfield County systems and risked letting too much dirty air into the atmosphere.
The environmental watchdogs who objected to two oil and gas companies’ permits called the rare Trump Administration rejection a victory in their ongoing campaign to force Colorado into more monitoring of gas leaks, intentional venting and flaring. Repeated failures in any of those steps of natural gas gathering release harmful volatile organic compounds and methane that exacerbates carbon buildup in the atmosphere.
“This is a huge issue. If companies aren’t accurately measuring and reporting the amount of gas vented, then permitted venting is basically a free pass to pollute,” said Jeremy Nichols of the Center for Biological Diversity, which brought the objections. “It would be like the IRS letting people say they paid their taxes without requiring them to file a return.”
While the permits in question now are on the Western Slope, Nichols said, “this is a statewide problem that the Division isn’t ensuring companies are, in fact, fully complying with emission limits.”
In the nine Front Range counties that the EPA has flagged as in “severe” nonattainment of caps on health-harming ozone, Nichols said, “flaring is almost universally used to control ozone forming volatile organic compounds, and companies are regularly granted permission to routinely vent gas. … Inadequate monitoring is likely a key reason why the region continues to fail to meet clean air standards.”
A spokesperson for the state health department’s Air Pollution Control Division said the agency “has received and is reviewing the EPA’s decisions regarding these oil and gas permits. We aren’t commenting further at this time.”
Five of the partially returned permits are for a gas gathering and distribution operation by Bargath, now a subsidiary of Williams Companies.
“Williams is reviewing EPA’s order and looks forward to working with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to address any concerns identified in the order,” said Williams media relations spokesperson Tom Droege.
The EPA did not accept the environmental group’s objections to the portions of the permits detailing flaring requirements. The Center for Biological Diversity and other groups say remote flaring operations often fail or are turned off by companies for maintenance, which leaves methane and other gases to be released into the atmosphere without being reduced by burning.
The permits in question reflect state health department practices requiring monitoring of flaring success only once every five years, the Center for Biological Diversity said. The center is considering its options on continuing to object to the flaring portions of the permit that the EPA is allowing.
“If a flare is operating ineffectively for just one day, such as a day forecast to have high ozone, it could have tremendous implications,” Nichols said.
The state has 90 days to change the portions of the permit related to gas venting to bring them into compliance with the U.S. Clean Air Act, he said.
While EPA objections to permits aren’t unheard of, Nichols said, “they are unusual under arguably the most anti-environment administration that is blatantly subservient to the oil and gas industry. It’s shameful the air division is issuing permits that are so bad even the Trump administration has to object,” he said.