Two creeks tainted by decades of dumping from Moneta Divide oilfield drillers are officially “impaired” and unable to sustain aquatic life, state regulators say in a new report.
Parts of Alkali and Badwater creeks in Fremont County are polluted to the point they don’t meet standards for drinking, consumption of resident fish or sustaining aquatic life, a report by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality states. The agency listed 40.8 miles of the creeks as impaired in a biannual report required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Parts of the creeks are polluted by oilfield discharges, including hydrogen sulfide, ammonia and chloride. The industrial activity is responsible for low levels of oxygen in the water, turbidity and a black sludge that critics say is up to 6 feet deep.
Arsenic also is present, but state monitoring couldn’t determine its origin.
The report catalogs pollution downstream of discharge points where produced water — effluent from natural gas and oil production — flows from the 327,645-acre energy field operated mainly by Aethon Energy Operating in Fremont and Natrona counties.
“They’re not putting the health and safety of these streams’ water quality, fish and downstream water users above the interests and profits of Aethon.”
Jill Morrison
The “impaired” listings are a good thing that set the table for action, said Jill Morrison, who works on the pollution issue for the conservation group Powder River Basin Resource Council. But the listing comes only after years of badgering an agency that now should look to clean up the creeks.
“What we are saying is ‘thank you’ for stepping up to address these issues,” Morrison said. “We wish it was done sooner. You’ve got enforcement power; what steps are you taking to make Aethon clean this up?”
Environmental stewards
The DEQ issued a revised permit to the private Dallas company in 2020 allowing it to discharge oilfield waste into Alkali Creek, which flows into Badwater Creek and the Boysen Reservoir, a source of drinking water for the town of Thermopolis. The permit calls for monitoring and testing, among other things.
About a year ago, however, the DEQ sent the company a letter of violation for “reoccurring exceedances” of water quality standards for sulfide, barium, radium and temperature. That’s a violation of the Wyoming Environmental Quality Act, state rules and regulations, and the permit itself.
The April 28 letter states that the DEQ hopes to resolve the violation through “conference and conciliation.” DEQ wants Aethon “to show good faith efforts toward resolving the problem and to prevent the need for more formal enforcement action by this office.”
The alleged kid-glove treatment rankles Powder River’s Morrison. “They trade, back and forth, nice conversations and nothing happens,” she said.
DEQ asked Aethon for a response within 30 days. WyoFile requested on March 6 that the agency provide a copy of Aethon’s response but had not received it by publication time. (See editor’s note below for a correction regarding receipt of the response.) Aethon typically does not respond to media questions regarding regulatory enforcement and did not answer a recent request for comment.
The 2020 permit also requires Aethon to dramatically reduce the amount of chloride — salty water — it pumps onto the landscape. DEQ said the company is preparing to meet a late-summer deadline for that standard.
“Aethon continues to diligently work toward resuming treatment of effluent using the Neptune reverse osmosis treatment plant,” DEQ said in an email, “in accordance with the established chloride compliance schedule.”
Aethon’s website says the company has a “commitment to protect the environment and our people [and] operate responsibly.” The company is a “steward of the environment,” the website states.
Black sludge
The DEQ’s “impaired” listing addresses surface water in the two creeks through what’s known as a draft Integrated 305 (b) report. It is open for comments through March 25.
But there’s another issue that rankles critics, including the Wyoming Outdoor Council and the Powder River group — black sludge.
DEQ surveys of the creeks revealed “bottom deposits” containing mineral deposits, iron sulfides and dissolved solids, all contributing to low oxygen levels that kill aquatic life. After a phone conference with DEQ in February, Powder River’s Morrison said she learned that the bottom deposit of black sludge extends for about three miles and is from 6 inches to 6 feet deep.
A retired University of Wyoming professor who worked with the Powder River group analyzing Aethon’s permit called the sediments “totally loaded.” Harold Bergman said “that contaminated sediment will be leaching out contaminants into Boysen Reservoir for decades to come.”
He and Joe Meyer, a retired chemist who also worked with the conservation group, wrote that DEQ’s Aethon permit did not require enough testing for deleterious substances, did not consider what impact the mix of substances together has on aquatic life, and allowed as much as five times the proper amount of dissolved solids to flow out of the oilfield.
“You would not have that black gunk sediment if it weren’t for the Aethon discharge,” Meyer said.
A report of monitoring between 2019-’22 shows that aluminum exceeded discharge standards up to 17% of the time. Other than that, there’s still a question of what else is in the sludge.
“We don’t know about individual organic chemicals,” Meyer said. Reports only mention “the gross measures of organic compounds,” he said.
“That doesn’t tell us about individual chemicals,” Meyer said. How much, if any, BTEX chemicals — Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene and Xylenes that are harmful to humans — are in the sludge “we have no way of knowing.”
He stopped short of accusing DEQ of avoiding the question. For now, “they just wanted to get an overview analysis,” he said.
DEQ said it has a plan for the sludge. “DEQ’s Water Quality Division is monitoring any sediment flow in lower Badwater Creek to determine if there are any sediments that may mobilize towards Boysen Lake,” an agency official said in an email.
For Morrison, “the big question is what DEQ is going to require Aethon to do to clean up this mess,” she wrote in an email. Meyer and Bergman say simply dredging up the sludge is likely too dangerous because such an operation would dislodge substances and send them downstream. A more complex plan would be needed, they said.
Morrison criticized what she sees as the DEQ’s priorities. “They’re not putting the health and safety of these streams’ water quality, fish and downstream water users above the interests and profits of Aethon.”
Correction: WyoFile received but did not notice DEQ’s prompt response to its request for a copy of Aethon’s response. The story incorrectly stated that DEQ had not responded. See Aethon’s response in this new story — Ed.
DEQ IS PART OF THE PROBLEM: There is a seldomly used option to hold DEQ’s feet to the fire and that is to file a complaint with the Wyoming Environmental Quality Council asking for public hearings examining DEQ’s failure to enforce water quality regulations. These hearings are conducted similar to a court hearing and witnesses can actually be subpoenaed to testify; and, all of DEQ’s Notices of Violations and internal communication with Aethon would be admitted as evidence. Aethon would also be required to submit their internal documents about the Moneta Divide field. The council itself functions similar to a jury or congressional hearings and makes recommendations after hearing the testimony. This is a very powerful tool and one DEQ dreads since all of their actions over many years would be scrutinized by a independent council not on the DEQ payroll. Its time to take the Moneta divide water discharge issue to higher levels including petitioning for a Super Fund site listing, taking DEQ to district court and attempting to get a court order forcing DEQ to enforce the water quality regulations and EQC hearings examining DRQ’s failure to enforce water quality regulations requiring cleanup and compliance with CWA water quality standards. DEQ won’t do anything different unless a more aggressive course of action is taken – and in the meantime – they will look for ways to circumvent water quality regulations and be lacks.
I helped put together a group of 5 Wyoming counties that challenged DEQ in District Court here in Thermopolis and we were successful in forcing them to back off of their proposed revision to water discharge standards which were already set by the federal Clean Water Act. Its just that very few organizations take them to task so they continue in their ways until someone says enough is enough. Its time to have hearings before the EQC – that will correct their attitude for sure.
All DEQ records SHOULD be available to the public. I have tried to get records of the NOV’s that were issued to Encana while the Neptune plant was up and running and for the two years after it was shut down. This was years ago, but there were too many hoops to jump through as a private citizen and I gave up.
Here in fremont County, there was a local lab that did all of Encana’s sampling and testing of their water discharge. This was around 2009-2013-ish. The sampling included effluent that was discharged into Badwater creek and ultimately into Boysen reservoir.
DEQ knew of Encana exceeding permitted limits and did nothing about it. Encana was threatened with fines under the guise of NOV’s, but nothing was ever done. DEQ is complicit.
Somehow WYDEQ feels it is OK to play patty cake with a company that pollutes drinking water? (And claims to be a “steward of the environment”??)
The Town of Thermopolis should be outraged and should be suing the State to force Aethon either to get in 100% compliance or force them out of business.
I grew up in the Hudson Valley. GE dumped PCBs in the Hudson River for decades. Our drinking water came from the River. GE fought cleaning it up for decades.
This situation is no different.
From WYDEQ Water & Wastewater website: “The Water & Wastewater Program works to ensure safe and adequate supplies of drinking water and the proper disposal of wastewater.”
Maybe DEQ should put a disclaimer on its website because they certainly aren’t doing what they purport to do.
People are more important than Profits.
When the field was owned by encana, they exceeded their permitted effluent discharges monthly. DEQ issued multiple notice of violations but never tried to correct the problem. DEQ didn’t care about the pollution decades ago, now they act concerned?
State is all worried about AIS in “headwaters” but not oil field waste… bastards! Thermopolis drinks this water.
Alkali and Badwater Creek should be recommended as Super Fund sites as soon as possible. Coupled with the impaired stream listing, a Super Fund site designation would make it almost impossible for Aethon to sell the Moneta Divide Oil field – remember, they are venture capitalists who typically flip properties in about 7 years – not being to sell the property to a major would stymie their whole goal of flipping the property for a profit in the hundreds of millions. No one wants to buy an oil field with an impaired creek and a proposed Super Fund listing. The way I understand it, proposing the site as a Super Fund site then sets off a review by EPA as to whether or not a full Super Fund designation is warranted – the new impaired creeklisting will make it much easier for EPA to substantiate a Super Fund listing.
In addition, if I remember correctly, Aethon has until September of this year to meet Clean Water Act standards for chlorides which will be almost impossible for them to meet – the Neptune reverse osmosis plant doesn’t have the capacity to treat the volume of water they are discharging – and, Aethon shut down the Neptune plant in order to save money and lied about it saying the plant was shut down for mechanical failure reasons – the reason its a lie, is that the oil field people are some of the world’s experts at fixing anything – they are very competent mechanics and could have repaired the Neptune plant in no time. Instead, they laid off the workers operating the plant and actually discharged more pollution as a result. The reason Aethon desperately needs EPA approval to inject into the deep Madison formation is that they know they can’t meet the chloride standards by this September and deep injection is their only viable method of economically getting rid of the discharge water.
Lee, you have good points but you are backwards in the life of an oil field. These assets were once owned by Encana, which is now known as Ovintiv. They sold to the much smaller Aethon when they got the cream off the top and washed their hands of it. Once the big company sells it to a smaller company that is enumerated in a dizzying conglomeration of llcs held by shady capitalists it becomes hard to pin the liability on one particular company. They run it until the costs to somewhat honor their license to operate become what they see as unbearable to an even smaller company. The whole idea is to profit from the hydrocarbon not the asset. That isn’t going to happen unless they miraculously find another Permian formation. Eventually it ends up with an even more mysterious shell company based out of a strip small with no employees and a contractor operates it. Eventually everything is shut down and that strip mall office is up for lease.
Ezra: Very, very interesting insight into the life of an oil field. What I was assuming was that the EIS authorized development on over 300,000 acres of land ; and that, Aethon would promote the potential of a very large oil field for which the EIS had already been done thus making expansion of the oil field much easier. In addition, Aethon did drill quite a few new wells adjacent to the shoshoni to Casper highway which apparently are good producers. At one time I looked up their daily production on the Wyoming Petroleum Commission website and it was a very impressive production – the figure of 70,000 barrels of oil and equivalents comes to mind – this indicated to me that it was a viable oil field although one with many really old closed in wells. If I remember right, their production was similar to the Marathon/Merit production in NW Wyoming. Marathon sold their NW Wyoming properties to Merit for around $700,000, 000 and I assumed that Aethon had purchased the Encana field for over $500,000,000 and was carrying a lot of debt; therefore, Aethon was hard pressed to pay off their debt and really make the field a profit producer. Bt now, Aethon must have reduced their debt substantially so their bottom line must look impressive; however, none of this is open public information since they are private capitalists and not required to publish their numbers like Marathon did upon the sale to Merit. Anyway, I have been assuming they do have a viable oil field with lots of upside potential due to the EIS authorization. They just need to solve the water discharge problem coupled with the upcoming renewal of their water discharge permit. Injecting into the deep Madison would solve many of their problems if they can get EPA approval; however, the negative publicity from the 303d listing may turn EPA against Aethon and the madison injection approval denied. if Aethon had shown good intents and been a good neighbor by keeping the Neptune plant open, cleaning up the creek bottom and recognizing the concerns of discharging into Boysen – their oil field could be a real producer and marketable to the big boys – however they haven’t solved the problems and it could get a lot worse for them. Those of us in opposition to the Aethon discharges are not against a well run oil field which creates jobs and tax revenue – we have been opposed to the discharges into Boysen and the DEQ looking the other way and never getting tough on the pollution. We want the jobs but not the pollution – thats a reasonable attitude isn’t it???
The sludge described in Angus’s piece has been developing over the life of production at Moneto Creek. DEQ has been allowing surface discharge of polluted water since the start of production and we are seeing that in an arid environment “the solution to pollution is dilution” does not work. Aethon is continueing the poor practices that prior owners of Moneta Divide Field have done. Unfortunately, they own it now and should be responsible for a solution. As stated in Angus’s piece, digging up the sludge will cause more problems than it solves. Fortunately, there are bacteria that can be used to mitigate some of the problem without dispersing the sludge. This will be a complicated problem to solve. DEQ needs to review all the surface disposal permits it has granted. It is not good to defecate in the nest.
The black sludge is generally iron sulfides and unspent Oilfeild chemical residue. All easily identified by lab. Arsenic build up is in the water. Likely below “legal limits”. But it is accumulated. State is not even enforcing their own rules regulations.