The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has reached an agreement with Houston-based Ultra Petroleum Corp. regarding alleged air-quality violations in 2007 and 2008.

In a consent decree filed May 5 in Wyoming’s First Judicial District Court in Laramie, Ultra must pay a $200,000 fine and complete two Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs) for eight separate notices of violation (NOV).

All alleged violations are located in Sublette County.

Ultra refused to comment for this article.

The violations pertain to the management of volatile organic compounds (VOC) during natural gas production.



Background



VOC are the vapors that emanate from petroleum products and they are a key component in the photochemical reaction that forms the hazardous air pollutant ozone.

Reducing VOC in Sublette County is particularly important after Gov. Dave Freudenthal declared the county in “nonattainment” for ozone on March 12. Federal law mandated the designation after the county’s winter ozone levels exceeded federal standards. The designation requires the state to create and adopt a federally enforced ozone reduction plan.

But prior to the designation, the DEQ initiated strict emission controls for natural gas producers in the Upper Green River Valley.

Those controls include devices that burn off VOC as they escape from gas production facilities. The devices, typically called combustors, break down VOC into carbon dioxide and water.



Violations



According to the consent decree, the DEQ alleged Ultra failed to properly route vapors to combustion devices on five facilities, and it failed to install functional emission control devices on two facilities.

The DEQ also alleges Ultra failed “to comply with the emission control devices monitoring and recordkeeping requirements for … 109 facilities” between January 2008 and June 12, 2008.

According to the consent decree, those alleged transgressions violated the Environmental Quality Act, the Wyoming Air Quality Standards and Regulations and the company’s DEQ operating permits.



Settlement



Under the terms of the consent decree, Ultra was required to pay a Stipulated Civil Penalty of $200,000 to the DEQ.

It is also required to complete two SEPs.

The first SEP is an accelerated completion of its Liquid Gathering System (LGS).

An LGS is a pipeline that collects produced water and liquid petroleum products from gas wells and transports those products to a central processing facility. The system is expected to dramatically reduce air pollutants by eliminating much of the gas production equipment cited in the NOVs and reducing the amount of heavy truck traffic needed to maintain the production sites.

Under an agreement with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Ultra is required to install a LGS in its Pinedale gas field by September 2010.

But under terms of the consent decree, the LGS must be completed by Dec. 31, 2009 – nine months prior to the BLM requirement. The decree also stipulates that Ultra must spend at least $25 million on the project.

The second SEP requires Ultra to submit a check for $116,250 to the University of Wyoming Environmental Engineering Internship Program.

The settlement also states: “Ultra neither admits nor denies that it violated any provision on the (Environmental Quality Act), the (Wyoming Air Quality Standards and Regulations) … or any permits issued pursuant to such authority.”



Coming to terms



DEQ Compliance Program Manager Bob Gill said the settlement was reached through discussions between Ultra and the DEQ.

According to Gill, when a company is cited it may opt to combine a fine with one or more SEPs.

“They are not required to do the environmental projects,” he said. “And we cannot force them to do those.”

In this case, Gill indicated that Ultra’s accelerated completion of the LGS would “have a considerable benefit.”

“That system will enable the company to remove a lot of field equipment that the company is having problems with,” he said.

Even so, some environmental advocates say the NOVs and their subsequent penalties are not changing the gas operators’ behavior.



Repeat offenders



One NOV within the decree from 2007 and another from 2008 allege Ultra did not properly route VOC to combustion devices – both those facilities were located in Stud Horse Butte area.

Then in March and April 2009, Ultra was cited with two nearly identical NOVs as those in the decree – and both in the Stud Butte Creek area.

Upper Green River Valley Coalition Coordinator Linda Baker says the repeated NOVs demonstrate that the consent decree did not discourage Ultra from committing repeat violations. She points to one NOV issued a week after Ultra’s vice president of operations signed the consent decree.

And Ultra isn’t the only company with multiple NOVs.

“Human health is being compromised,” Baker said. “Children are paying the ultimate price with their long-term health because of these companies’ disregard for air quality.”

While she believes the DEQ is doing an excellent job monitoring emission violations, she feels the agency needs a bigger presence in Sublette County.

“I don’t understand why the DEQ doesn’t have an office in Pinedale,” she said. “They just don’t have enough people out there in the field.”

Presently, the DEQ has one employee based in Sublette County.

But according to DEQ Public Information Officer Keith Guille, the agency is planning “on having (a second) representative placed in Pinedale in the near future.”

Regardless, Baker says it’s incomprehensible that energy companies would vent VOC after ozone pollution has spurred the community’s outrage and the state’s nonattainment declaration.

Financially, she believes Sublette County residents will bear the weight of the energy companies’ pollution through mitigation stipulations in the nonattainment process.

“The companies continue to disregard the community’s concerns and the DEQ’s concerns,” she said. “And they are making the rest of us pay for their malfeasance.”

To see the some of the NOVs and the consent decree, go to http://deq.state.wy.us/out/AQenforcementactions2008.htm.