Larimer County, Fort Collins and the state oil and gas regulators have come to an agreement to finally end years of flagrant violations and illegal activity by Prospect Energy oil and gas company. Prospect has repeatedly violated state laws, caused oil and gas spills, leaked toxic chemicals into the air, and flared and burned excess gas illegally. Residents have been sickened and made numerous complaints to state and local regulators. ECMC has fined the company over $1.7 million dollars, but still the company refused top operate safely and was unable to pay the fines.
Prospect Energy operates 49 wells in Larimer County, 10 in Fort Collins and several tank batteries for collecting and storing water and oil. Most of the 59 wells are low-producing and are in disrepair. The company has been non-compliant with regulations for years and knows about the leaks, fires and spills.
Community members partnered with environmental groups including Earthworks and Sierra Club to pressure local and state government to take action against this rogue company. Earthworks filed multiple complaints with APCD. Larimer County filed formal complaints with state regulators at ECMC to force regulators to punish the company and end the violations.
The new arrangement will force Prospect Energy to cease operations in Colorado and strips it of it’s license to do business here. ECMC will suspend $1.7 million in fines in exchange for Prospect Energy instead using it’s funds to shut down and clean up its remaining well sites. Prospect is also required to clean up a flowline spill near the Country Club Reserve neighborhood.59 of Prospect Energy’s wells will be added to the ECMC Orphan Well program so they can be plugged and abandoned using taxpayer dollars and funds from O&G operators.
Prospect Energy still owes $337,000 in fines to Colorado’s APCD for air pollution violations. The new agreement required Prospect Energy to pay this amount off in installments, but missed its payments so far and is being sued by the Colorado Attorney General.
Although this collaborative, grassroots effort can be seen as a win for the community and should eventually lead to improvements in peoples’ health, it also demonstrates the woeful inability of the state’s ability to hold oil and gas operators accountable for their blatant illegal behavior. Prospect Energy ignored laws and poisoned the land, air, water and residents of Larimer County for years and years. ECMC’s ineptitude and ineffectual efforts caused irreparable harm. And this is not an unusual story, many other oil and gas companies operating in Colorado are just as irresponsible and have not been punished and forced to close their leaking, polluting wells.
