Nearly 1,200 oil and gas spills in the state in 2023 | News

Nearly 1,200 oil and gas spills were reported in Colorado last year, continuing a high trend that state officials say reflects stricter spill reporting requirements.

Information published on the National Energy and Carbon Management Commission website shows 1,192 spills and releases were reported last year, compared to 1,106 in 2022 and 854 in 2021.

Of last year's total, 867 occurred in Weld County alone. The oil-rich county is home to more than 16,000 of the state's 47,000 active wells and continues to be the center of much of Colorado's drilling activity.

Garfield County, with about 12,000 active wells but only a small amount of current drilling activity, recorded 92 spills last year, compared to 106 in 2022. Rio Blanco County reported 37 spills, compared to 43 l 'last year. In Mesa County, 11 spills were reported in 2023, two more than in 2022.

New state rules that took effect in early 2021 imposed stricter reporting thresholds for spills. Businesses must now report spills of one barrel (42 gallons) or more outside of berms or other secondary containment, and five barrels or more even when contained. Spills of any size that threaten water, public water systems, homes, livestock, wildlife and roads must also be reported, and new mandatory reporting also applies for certain other spills .

Additionally, the Energy and Carbon Management Commission in 2021 began requiring companies to submit remediation plans to document the closure of all facilities when wells are plugged and production facilities associated are decommissioned. Companies must document historical releases observed during this closure work.

The Energy and Carbon Management Commission considers spills to involve sudden releases and releases to be time-phased releases, which generally means they are detected long after they have occurred. This may include historical impacts associated with past operations and observed during facility closures.

“A direct result of improved environmental monitoring during (well plugging and abandonment) activities and facility decommissioning is an increase in reported spills and releases,” the commission said in a February report to the state water quality regulators.

He said that as of last October, 216 spills or discharges had been discovered and reported to wellheads during plugging and abandonment operations last year.

“Prior to 2021, these historic releases may not have been discovered or reported because no closure assessment was required directly at the wellhead; documenting the cleanup of these spills or discharges is a net positive for the environment and groundwater protection, despite the numerical increase in reported spills,” the commission said in its report.

The number of spills and reports of releases has increased sharply in the eastern half of the state, where most plugging and abandonment activities occur.

The Center for Western Priorities only tracks new spills in the state based on state records and says in a report that 414 occurred last year, compared to 453 in 2022. Weld County accounted for about half of the new spills, it says, while 82 occurred in Garfield County, 20 in Rio Blanco County and nine in Mesa County.

It says Caerus Oil and Gas, a major producer in western Colorado's Piceance Basin, continued to lead companies statewide in new spills, with 69, but that number is declining compared to 81 spills the previous year.

Caerus has thousands of wells in the region and has previously said the center's data appears to reflect its commitment to reporting all spills, regardless of their size or impact. He says he is working quickly to remediate impacts in accordance with state standards.

The Energy and Carbon Management Commission says that as of last October, five spills or releases into surface waters were reported last year to staff at the Water Quality Control Division of the 'State. As of December, 47 spills or releases that impacted or threatened to impact groundwater were reported for the year.

“Of these 47 spills or releases, 33 were historical releases (32 located in the eastern part of the state and 1 in the western part), and 14 spills were recent spills (11 of these recent spills occurred in the 'eastern and three in the western part of the state)', according to the commission's report.

The Center for Western Priorities says more than a million gallons of drilling fluids were spilled last year in new spills. Nearly three-quarters of this amount was produced water from production activities, and the remainder was other liquids, including relatively small volumes of oil, condensate and drilling fluids.

The state says more than 300 million barrels of water are co-produced each year with oil and gas production in Colorado.

The Center for Western Priorities said the amount of drilling fluid spilled each year in Colorado has declined slightly since 1999, even as annual oil production has increased over the past decade in the state.

“This suggests that increasingly stringent regulations intended to limit spills are effective and are not negatively impacting production,” the report said.

It says at least 54 of the new spills tracked last year occurred within 500 feet of a water well, at least 49 occurred within 500 feet of an occupied building and at least 86 occurred within 500 feet of surface water. But the center said many of the spill reports lacked information on their proximity to such features.

“Colorado regulators should work to increase compliance with these reporting requirements,” the center said in its report.