Also from the same Denver Post article:

http://www.denverpost.com/commented/c...

A COGCC inspector in December found the spill, and agency officials met with Lone Pine managers in January.

Lone Pine's operations are somewhat uncommon because the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has allowed the company, through a discharge permit, to release up to 420,000 gallons of drilling wastewater per day into the creek from settling ponds. A couple of years ago, CDPHE learned that Lone Pine's drilling wastewater did not meet state water-quality standards and, in September 2010, ordered the company to stop polluting the creek.

The CDPHE "cease-and-desist" order, however, "does not require that Lone Pine cease its operations while they return to compliance," agency spokesman Mark Salley said. CDPHE's water-quality division "is primarily concerned with the wastewater treatment facility's ongoing inability to reliably and consistently comply with the terms and conditions of its discharge permit."

(and...)

State officials say they are working with Lone Pine to correct deficiencies. The COGCC, which is part of the state Department of Natural Resources, is charged with both promoting and regulating the oil and gas industry.

"Here, you had a spill that not only impacted the surface but also appears to have impacted surface water. We take that extremely seriously. We will deal with that, with the operator, going forward," agency spokesman Todd Hartman said. "Landowners have asked the EPA to look at the issue. We welcome their participation."

Landowners say they are frustrated by the state's handling of environmental problems in one of the most pristine parts of the Rocky Mountain West.

"The wastewaters they dump should not be allowed. The water they are dumping is not even close in composition to the water in the creek. It changes it. You get algae blooms. It kills the quality of the creek," said Bill Dumler, 49, whose family owns a 1,000-acre ranch about a mile downstream from the oil field.

"This company is profiting off of damage to people's property, and they are not required to stop," he said. "These agencies that are supposed to be protecting the public don't seem to be doing the job."

Unbelievable.

The COGCC says, "Here, you had a spill that not only impacted the surface but also appears to have impacted surface water. We take that extremely seriously." Put that utter BS beside their action, allowing continued discharge of illegal pollutants for 2 years. Allowing up to 420,000 gallons of drilling wastewater per day into the creek.

The State of Colorado proves again and again, in its statements, its funding, its actions, its departments and its regulations, that it has no intention of controlling the business-as-usual damages this industry inflicts on Colorado's rural environment.

Unbelievable.

"The agencies that are supposed to be protecting the public don't seem to be doing the job."

Maybe they were away at that big shindig in Vegas with that other government agency that was established to keep costs down? Or maybe they were out of town, "inspecting" something down in Columbia, or busy learning how to "crucify" oil companies like the Romans...

In case you haven't been keeping up on current events, Steve, government agencies haven't been "doing the job" for quite a while now.
Why that is suddenly cause for alarm to you is anyones guess.

I'm sure you have a "solution" that somehow involves more government agencies, agents, rules or mandates.
As if one could pile manure high enough to eventually transform it into a rose garden.

http://youtu.be/CZ-4gnNz0vc

Before we rush to conclusions let's enforce the existing regs. This sounds like a small operation. I have been around drilling most of my life and the operations today seem visually very professional. This instance seems to out of the norm.

Mark,
Both are wrong, but this one instance pollution should matter more than who is chasing prostitutes. This pollution will hurt people's interests, livestock and property values more than the GAO party.

The pollution didn't touch you though. That's our central difference.

The quote you chose avoids it's other half, the fact that a private company is screwing people downstream. You skip that to slam your hated government on other matters? And the quote should be referenced to the rancher who made it, Bill Dumler, 49, whose family owns a 1,000-acre ranch about a mile downstream from the oil field. You are telling Bill to take a hike with his downstream worries, because your hate of regulation and oversight is all that matters.

Sure. I would apply heavy fines for this behavior. And revoke their permits for this well field.

The company, Lone Pine, was admonished by CDPHE in 2007 for operating a wastewater treatment facility without a license and told to investigate a poorly functioning separation tank. In 2010 they inadvertantly pumped toxins out of a treatment pond that went into the creek. No quantity was given. In 2012 a tanker truck released its produced water onto a county road. In 2012 an equipment failure repeated the same results as the 2010 incident.

I watched your video link. Couldn't stop laughing. Where in the video, expressing your half of reality, does this embarrassment of an oil company fit?

Nowhere.

Fred,
You read my earlier post there have been 1,000 Colorado spill incident reports since March 2010 in Colorado, with 178 reaching groundwater. You asked me what their definition of a spill was, remember? 200 gals or defines a reportable spill. How can you possibly now describe this as "out of the norm" ?

The larger problem is the attitude of CDPHE and COGCC that supports this behavior across Colorado. Routt County should seriously take the advice of these irresponsible agencies in deciding regulations for wells above Milner's water? Would you?

I refuse to see oil as my enemy when it does 100 times more for me and my family than any alternative.

I hope oil companies cut you off one day.
Funny because if you had the courage of your espoused convictions you would not be on the grid.

I hope doctors refuse to give care to all those who bitch about their price. I am personally gratefull for expensive medical care.

I hope one day you guys experience the world you advocate.
But I pray to God the rest of us don't get dragged along like the innocent child on the highway hostage scenario.
Unfortunately, we can not seperate.

Mark,
Strongly enforced and stricter O&G regulation is obviously needed. That is my conviction. This industry is dirty. We just keep finding out how much worse the impacts really are.

Innocent bystanders should matter. Aren't you also concerned about Bill Dumler and his family on the ranch downstream from the polluting oil field - what about their lives? What about the residents of Milner who reside below the Camelletti wells?

Bill Dumler could (and should) sue the oil company for damages if the allegations are true.
The residents of Milner should have their baseline water tests and their test wells put in place.

Existing air and water quality standards should be enforced.

And after that, all the third parties should shut up and go away. But you have no intention of doing that, do you?

What industry that provides electricity, motor fuel, etc for the whole world would you envision that has zero pollution?

Existing air and water quality standards are not being enforced. The oil industry has also exempted itself from critical parts of those standards such as the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, also the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Leaving the Bill Dumlers to sue the largest industry on the face of the planet. That prospect is not sufficient and you know it.

Some pollution is unavoidable. But when Quicksilver fights controls that would reduce their emissions up to 95%, that is wrong.

But think about what you are saying, Steve.

Government is not doing its job, you are admitting that. Maybe it's government that needs changing, not oil companies?

If the oil industry (or anyone else for that matter) could simply "exepmt itself" from regulations that really says the enforcement is not being done, which puts the fault back on government for not doing it's job.

The reason I think you are so misguided is that you seek answers and solutions from the one entity with a broader record of failure than any other.

Government is not the answer. Never was. Never will be.

BTW, government, not oil, is the largest industry on the face of the planet. And it is, by far, the most corrupt.

Correct me if I am wrong. Your argument is that the corporations will look out for us.

Their problems with Colorado enforcement are not new. From 2010...

"Oil woes at North Park’s Hell Creek Ranch"
Posted on May 20, 2010 by Bob Berwyn

http://summitcountyvoice.com/2010/05/...

…,the Dumlers, long-time North Park ranch owners, say they don’t think the state is adequately enforcing existing rules for an oil drilling operation near their Hell Creek Ranch.

Just upstream of their spread, the Lone Pine Gas Company, Inc. operates an oil field that, according to the Dumlers, was not in compliance with state regulations for several years. Even after numerous letters to state officials, the family claims the well continues to ooze polluted and over-heated water into small tributaries that flow into the North Platte River just a few miles downstream.

In 2006, a documented spill shut the well down, smearing oil for two miles along the stream bank. When the waste water flow stopped, algae mats that had been building up disappeared. For a short time, Hell Creek flowed clear once again. When the well started pumping again, the water in Hell Creek turned muddy and the algae returned. State officials claim the algae is unrelated to discharge from the drilling operations, but the Dumlers say the timing of bloom makes it clear there’s a direct link.

In October 2007, a state water quality inspector notified Lone Pine Gas Company, Inc. that conditions at the facility did not comply with a discharge permit, and asked for a response by by Nov. 30.

“Failure to notify this office within the required time frame may result in formal enforcement action,” a district engineer with the Colorado Water Quality Control Division wrote in the Oct. 18 letter. Around that same time, state inspectors took water quality samples from Hell Creek.

The Dumlers said that, more than two years later, the oil facility is still operating on the permit that expired in 2006. There has been no enforcement, and the Dumlers are still waiting to see the results of the water tests.

State water quality officials said the issues raised in the inspection have been remedied, and said inspectors have visited the problematic oil field twice in the last three years. The average number of field visits for similar sites is about once every five years, said Steve Gunderson, director of the Water Quality Control Division.

This week, Bill Dumler wrote an e-mail to the Colorado Division of Wildlife, asking officials with that agency to consider impacts to aquatic ecosystems.
“Our experience highlights that the organization of oil and gas regulatory agencies within Colorado fail to protect the environment and only support the producers … Why weren’t the private land owners, particularly those downstream, contacted when the oil field issued their plan 10-plus years ago?” Dumler wrote.

Now that the EPA is involved, COGCC is adding 2 new incident reports for this site. Each filed the day before the 4/26/12 Denver Post story.

Some watchdog.

Corporations look out for themselves.
So does government.
And both are staffed by corruptable men.
The only real difference is that when you are displeased with a corporation you can fire it and go somewhere else at any time.
With government you have to stay and continue to be abused; maybe just put on some thick makeup and wear long-sleaved clothes to cover the bruises, hmmm?

Corporations look out for themselves. They exist to make money.
Government (by the people, for the people) is intended to look out for the people. They exist to do what we want them to do.

They are both a pain in the ass. Both are staffed by corruptible employees and politicians. But only one is expected to protect us. Selling corporate stock, going elsewhere, accomplishes nothing.

Abuse? Why do you only see one side? You are for the big guy's well being and ignore the little guy? Milner residents don't need the added Quicksilver condition of a water quality monitoring well because they know how to call a lawyer? Bill Dumler has already been abused. He has stained property and a creek his livestock must avoid. Imagine you owned his spread.

Which little guys?
The little guys who's retirement fund has shares of Exxon?
The little guys who can't sell their mineral rights to pay for their kids education?
The little guys who would pay 1/3 of their weekly pay for a tank of "Steve Lewis" brand gasoline?

A while back a question was posed. Should we look at the STATED INTENT of legislation or should we examine the RESULTS?
Just because you EXPECT government to protect you does not mean they are doing it.

Also, I have been told that if someone owned a "spread" they wouldn't be a "little guy", they would be one of those evil, rich people who presume to "own mother nature" bla, bla, bla...

You really seem to love being for the "little guys"; "the commons" as you like to call them. You tell yourself and others that you are doing it for their benefit.
You are hurting them in ways you will never understand.

mark heartless,your "remedy" for pollution's caused at hell creek is a lawsuit?It would take years and then probably be thrown out of court.Here is an idea for you, America -Love it or Leave it....

How would I leave if you were in charge, Kathy?

There would be no gas for my car... or rubber tires
No roads made of petroleum-based asphalt.

There would be no jet fuel for air travel and no electricity for air traffic control towers.
No internal combustion engines of any kind.

I couldn't take a boat because they need oil or coal and most of them have hulls forged from coal/ coke burning steel mills and transported to shipyards by highways that don't exist in your world.

I couldn't take a train because they burn diesel and ride on rails forged by coke-burning steel plants and transported on the roads you wouldn't allow. Their rails rest on wood cross-ties protected from rot by oil-based creasote.

If I walked I might squish a bug or toad.
If I ride a horse it might fart and pollute the air with methane.

So just how the hell does a sane person even get out of your world if he wants to Kathy ?????????????????????

This appeared in the Pilot print version today, reprised from CBS :
http://denver.cbslocal.com/2012/05/08...
May 8, 2012
DENVER (AP) – Colorado health officials on Tuesday issued a new cease-and-desist order to Lone Pine Gas Inc., alleging violations of the Colorado Water Quality Control Act.
The company has oil and natural gas wells about 10 miles west of Walden in Jackson County.
It has a permit to discharge treated produced water into Spring Gulch Creek, but the new cease-and-desist order said the company has been discharging copper and iron at levels above what’s allowed under its permit.
The order warns of fines of up to $10,000 per day for water-quality violations. Lone Pine Gas has 30 days to respond to the order.
Stephen Shute, a minority owner in the company, said he was reviewing the notice.
Lone Pine Gas received a similar notice of violation in 2010, also from the water quality control division of the state health department, ordering it to stop polluting the creek. The company was still allowed to operate while it worked to meet conditions of its discharge permit.
In April, state health officials said that on multiple occasions last year, the company had discharged effluent with copper and iron levels higher than allowed. Some violations also were recorded this year.
The new cease-and-desist order gives Lone Pine 45 days to identify possible upgrades so that it can consistently meet conditions of its permit.
Lone Pine Gas also has come under scrutiny for oil spills dating back to 2006. Last December, a state oil and gas inspector detected an oil leak from Lone Pine Gas facilities extending for more than a mile along Spring Gulch Creek, which eventually flows into the North Fork of the North Platte River. The Colorado Department of Natural Resources says a cleanup has been under way for some time.
Staff from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have been assessing damage to the creek.