For filing falsified data for toxic substances on Colorado’s Front Range, six oil and gas operators have been hit with $2 million in fines and contributions for public projects.
The Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission recently approved the settlements with Bonanza Creek, Kerr-McGee Corp., Noble Energy, Crestone Peak Resources Extraction Oil and Gas and Highpoint Energy, reported the Colorado Sun.
The report said the ECMC’s fine schedule, the operators were liable for $11 million but will pay $1 million plus another $983,000 to fund public projects. The companies unknowingly filed the falsified reports when employees at two consulting firms, Eagle Environmental Consulting based in Wheat Ridge and Tasman Geosciences in Broomfield, companies that worked for the half-dozen oil companies, submitted falsified information to Colorado for 344 drilling sites along the Front Range from Northglenn to Severance.
The bad reports came to light in July 2024 when Eagle Environmental notified Houston-based Chevron and Denver-based Civitas Resources that an employee had falsified data. Kerr-McGee is an Occidental Petroleum Corp. subsidiary. Crestone and Extraction and Bonanza Creek were operated by Civitas, which is now part of SM Energy.
The oil companies went straight to the ECMC and revealed how the doctored reports included tests for soil, groundwater and organic contaminant sampling, including readings on benzene, total petroleum hydrocarbons and elements such as arsenic and barium.
The fines were cut by about 30% because each company agreed to settle rather than challenge the penalties in a litigated hearing. Another portion of the fines was suspended provided that the operators performed various tasks to check the validity of their data.
While the chairman of the Commission called the fines a “pragmatic solution to a challenging situation,” one member who voted against it felt otherwise.
“This has been a deep violation of the public trust through purposeful, not negligent, but purposeful fraud,” said the lone commissioner. “It constitutes deliberate fraud against the citizens of Colorado and against Colorado’s environment.”
The final vote for the fines was 4-1.
