(Promoted by Colorado Pols)
Yesterday, Gov. Hickenlooper’s department of public health and environment (CDPHE) announced that they won’t levy fines against Williams Cos. for spilling 10,000 barrels of natural gas and toxic waste into Parachute Creek and the surrounding area in western Colorado.
Earlier this month, the Governor lobbied to water-down legislation to toughen fines for oil and gas companies who pollute, despite Colorado’s well-documented problem of spills, and lowest in the nation fines. The Governor’s actions ultimately led to the death of the legislation.
The Parachute spill, which occurred in the winter but wasn’t reported until the spring, has polluted water with cancer-causing benzene. In early May, benzene levels in the creek exceeded the federal safe drinking water standard.
In their statement, CDPHE said that they aren’t fining Williams because the spill “was not due to negligence but to accidental equipment failure.” So now Gov. Hickenlooper’s department of public health and environment only “protect[s] and improve[s] the health of Colorado’s people and the quality of its environment” part of the time? We didn’t find that caveat in their mission statement.
This isn’t the first time that the Hickenlooper Administration has failed to hold polluters accountable. A 2011 Suncor spill polluting the South Platte River is still being cleaned up nearly two years later, yet Suncor hasn’t been fined for dumping toxic levels of benzene into the water.
Unfortunately, it appears that the Hickenlooper Administration is fine with oil and gas companies polluting our water and communities with waste and toxins – otherwise, why not hold them accountable for polluting by enforcing fines?
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Do we fine people involved in a car accident if they were not negligent? How about other accidents?
More singling out of one of Colorado's biggest employers for punishment. Shame on you.
Yes- when they cause damage, they pay for it. Hell – even when there is no damage, if a law is broeken, even accidentally, fines are assessed.
Williams Energy…are you kidding? back that up. ..show your work.
When has Guppy ever backed up any "data" he's pulled out of his keester?
What are you talking about? You can rest assured that if Joe citizen did something that resulted in such massive damage somebody would be held responsible.
Guppy supports taxpayers subsidizing BigOil and picking 'winners.' No other explanation, given that massive state hours and federal hours (COGCC, CDPHE, EPA, OSHA) went into this and Wiliams is not paying a cent. That means you, me, and that little old retired guy down the street that worked hard all his life are footing the bill for Williams' 'accident' (that Williams did not even bother to report for three months…)
If the law specifically allows for exemptions in the case of accident then it is OK. If "accidents" are not addressed by the law then there ought be a fine. If it is from equipment failure then the company can sue the manufacturer.
Pin worms should never influence policy decisions except those that lead to their extermination
This is just one more example of regulatory capture. The CDPHE doesn't worry about environmental damage, they worry about all the money those poor companies have to spend to clean up their messes. Why add to their troubles by piling on fines?
I stopped believing that CDPHE had any concern for the environment when they approved the first new uranium mill in 30 years. The company proposing the mill has a going concern comment in the last audit that I saw–they won't be around to clean up any mess. That will make it much easier for CDPHE–no company to fine.
It's even easier than that – the company doesn't have to disappear! Just ask Cotter who right in front of CDPHE's noses has dumped all their contaminated equipment and buildings into a leaky impoundment, and called it a uranium mill decommissioning process. Local Fremont County residents have asked the state and feds for years to require Cotter to permanently dispose of their mess in a more remote location, instead of 2 miles south of downtown Canon City. But to no avail.
Wikipedia says: Negligence (Lat. negligentia, from neglegere, to neglect, literally "not to pick up something") is a failure to exercise the care that a reasonably prudent person would exercise in like circumstances. The area of tort law known as negligence involves harm caused by carelessness, not intentional harm.
Bob Arrington, a retired engineer and a member of the Garfield county Energy Advisory Board wrote in the blog http://fromthestyx.wordpress.com/2013/05/16/parachute-creek-spill-day-70/
"I find it unreal that they could have a spill go on from Decemeber 17- 18 to January 3, and not notice tanks weren't filling and then coming out there and seeing a burst gauge and not "know" the spill was big.
Even though it has been years since I worked on piping systems, I knew immediately what the problem was at EAB when I heard about the gauge. That means Williams did not have enough people monitoring flow transfer and/or they didn't know what they were doing. Or they had maintenance people, or whoever, that didn't know, or weren't trained to realize such serious problems.
No, it was incompetence, untrained people, and/or lack of monitoring and system planning. The underestimation of the initial spill was because incompetent people were doing the job without the skill or experience to make a call like that.
I could do it with limited, spoon fed information and a casual remark. Those guys had to know this was a major problem and did not ever respond to such until March. That, my friends, is human failure from inadequate skill and knowledge and/or from deliberately downplaying and minimizing the scope until they could jump into or marshal reaction people and equipment. The way the original story broke indicates both.
I think a $100,000 fine would be in order just to make sure their operations and people are brought up levels for such an operation.
On a personal note, that would have been my minimum bill for the professional work I did in "solving their problem" so they wouldn't have had to spend so much time and manpower chasing phantoms guessing scope. They could have intercepted the water spill earlier just from the prediction I gave them that their hydrologists failed to point out to them — and for pointing out the wrong agency on the job."
BTW, the Williams estimate was about 10,000 gallons vs. 10,000 bbls BUT that is what they say went into the ground – they claim the rest, 80%, "evaporated" into the air. That means they spilled actually over 50,000 gallons of liquid hydrocarbons including butane, propane, gasoline, and the BTEX group that contains the benzene.
OK, say it aloud all together:
Hickenlooper is OWNED by the oil and gas industry in this state. Period
. There shouldn't be any Dem or Repub that has any doubts about that now. The question is when will JQP wake the hell up, and get behind a primary challenger in 2014? When will rank and file Dems wake up to the fact that except for Polis, our Dems are really moderate Republicans with a few forays to the left every once in awhiile. And Yes, while the latest State legislative session got some things done on gun control, they suddenly lost their spines when the Gov shook his stick, and the lobbyists threatened and blustered. They should have passed the damn bills on a party line vote, and put Hick directly on the hot seat and the record as putting profits before health.
Here's hoping the Boulder City Council has the cajones of Longmont and votes for a ban. Here's hoping the Boulder County Comissioners…Are you listening?….extend the moratorium. Here's hoping the Dems next session follow the example of the Illinois State Legislature and pass some real reforms and protections on the fracking process, and impose significant penalities for screwups like this one that are mandatory–strict liability that hurts.
Right, fucking, on. Well said.