The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality canceled a meeting with a watchdog group in December after a news story cited the group’s criticism of a pending pollution permit and public documents the group obtained about oilfield waste discharges.
DEQ called off a meeting scheduled with the Powder River Basin Resource Council on Dec. 7 after agency officials saw a WyoFile story in which the group criticized an agency proposal.
In written comments earlier last year, PRBRC and two other groups challenged the agency’s proposal to make a “major modification” to a pollution discharge permit issued to Aethon Energy Operating LLC.
The modification would remove effluent limits on, and sampling requirements for, radium, barium and zinc and end routine testing for a host of other pollutants discharged from the Moneta Divide gas- and oilfield. The groups’ comments on the proposed modification appeared in a Dec. 7 WyoFile article titled “After exceeding pollution limits, oilfield operator seeks relaxed permit.”
The article also cited public documents about Moneta Divide pollution and included statements and comments from the DEQ. The nonprofit PRBRC obtained the documents through a records request and shared them with WyoFile.
“It seems like a reprimand: ‘Oh no, you got the press involved so we’re not talking to you.’”
Jill Morrison, Powder River Basin Resource Council
Jill Morrison, PRBRC’s former executive director, had secured a Dec. 7 meeting with agency personnel to discuss the pollution permit and “the status of remediation activities” Aethon might have accomplished at degraded oilfield pollution discharge sites.
After the story was published, however, the DEQ backed out.
“My apologies,” Jason Thomas, a water quality manager at DEQ, wrote to Morrison on Dec. 7, “I’m going to have to hold off on today’s call. I didn’t realize the video call was concurrent with a published article on the [pollution discharge] facility (WyoFile 12/7/2021).”
Talk to spokesman
The proposed modified discharge permit was under review, Thomas indicated in his email to Morrison. “Until a final action is taken on the proposed permit modification for WY0002062, any questions on it will have to be routed through our communications person…”
The response miffed Morrison, who said her group has routinely met with DEQ personnel who helped explain the agency’s duties and actions. “I don’t know how to explain it,” Morrison said of the cancellation.
“I was quite surprised when he emailed us,” Morrison said. “It seems like a reprimand: ‘Oh no, you got the press involved so were not talking to you.’”
DEQ rejected that assertion. “The cancellation had nothing specifically to do with your article,” agency spokesman Keith Guille told WyoFile.
The meeting with PRBRC would have occurred “outside the public comment period,” he said. DEQ accepted comments on the permit modification for 30 days through Nov. 15 and received four. In addition to PRBRC, the Wyoming Outdoor Council and the Natural Resources Defense Council signed the comment letter WyoFile quoted.
“We have to have a beginning [and] end to these comment periods,” Guille said. “We just felt while that [permit modification] was pending it wouldn’t be appropriate to open that up to additional public comment.”
Powder River sought a get-together “regarding the WYPDES permit and the status of remediation activities,” according to an email Morrison sent the agency to set the meeting. “We had an appointment to visit with DEQ about the permit, the process, what’s been going on with the cleanup,” Morrison said.
“I’m quite sure we have met in the past with policy makers on permit issues during a time a permit is pending,” she said. It’s part of the group’s ongoing inquiries of and engagement with regulators and policy makers, she said. “We’ve got some more information, now we have more questions,” she said, characterizing the line of questioning she wanted to pursue.
Being canceled following a news story was a new experience, she said. “In my 30 years [with PRBRC], I’ve never had this happen that I can recall.”
She told DEQ there was no coordination between WyoFile and her group regarding the timing of the story, which cited documents and did not include any interviews with the groups questioning the permit modification.
“We did not know that an article was going to be published today [Dec.7] but we have been sharing information with [the] press on the ongoing issues regarding discharges from the Moneta Divide field,” she wrote the agency when the meeting was canceled.
Administration dismisses assertion
WyoFile asked Gov. Mark Gordon’s office whether meeting cancellation represented a rebuff of constituent engagement as a result of the group’s distribution of public records. Policy Director Renny MacKay rejected that idea.
The cancellation was “…based on whether the content of the meeting was proper under the Administrative Procedures Act…” MacKay wrote in an email.
“…[T]here was a pending decision coming from the staff involved in the meeting and the period for public comment had closed,” MacKay wrote. “After speaking with the Department of Environmental Quality staff I believe the cancellation of this meeting had nothing to do with [PRBRC’s release of] public records.”
“We know that DEQ will be more than willing to meet with members of the public after the permit is finalized,” MacKay wrote to WyoFile.
Talking to DEQ specialists regarding technical aspects of oilfield discharges and their control is critical to understanding what pollution Wyoming allows to be released into its waters, Morrison said.
In addition to removing effluent limits on and sampling requirements for radium, barium and zinc flowing from the field into Boysen Reservoir and the Wind and Bighorn rivers, the modified permit would end routine testing requirements for a host of other compounds: aluminum, arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, selenium, silver and thallium, according to the DEQ proposal.
“We used to be able to talk to the staff,” Morrison said. “I have great respect for the [public relations] people [at DEQ] but they don’t know the technical issues.
“They’re trying to manage the public relations and we’re trying to get to the bottom of ‘why isn’t this permit protecting our water,’” Morrison said.
Discharges flow into waterways above Boysen Reservoir, which supplies drinking water to communities downstream, Morrison said. “The public is often a forgotten interest when the requirement for the DEQ is to protect the public interest and resources.”
In a follow-up email regarding the cancellation, Morrison wrote the DEQ saying her group is “interested in understanding more about DEQ’s actions on ongoing clean-up issues and permit actions.”
So far, “I’ve heard nothing back,” Morrison said.
Shutting the public out makes this a very asymmetrical deal. The purpose of the DEQ is to inform & protect the public, who is not being served by being excluded from the technical communication channels.
Atom Trap Trace Analysis (ATTA) has the potential to solve many issues before people or critters get sick, by tracking the flow of fluids underground, or through large bodies of water. Being able to identify one molecule in a quadrillion is a potential quantum leap forward in holding people accountable for their actions.
Wyoming’s treatment of underground water flows are not based upon science, but rather reflect political influences. We need to step into the future with the best tools we have, not averting our gaze to avoid the inconvenient truths.
Did you notice that only 4 comment letters were received during the so-called 30 day comment period on this permit modification. That’s because DEQ went to great extremes to make sure the public wasn’t aware of the comment period, and those of us in Thermopolis, the most affected community were unaware of the proposed changes. They probably advertised in the Yuk Junction paper to make sure we didn’t know. Its getting to the point where Freedom of Information Act requests are the only source of information. Its time to take this whole matter to the Environmental Quality Council for extended public hearings and the District Courts to seek relief. How about some information from DEQ about the remedial action Aethon has take or not taken, to cleanup Alkalia and Badwater Creeks – remember the NOV they got about 2 years ago on the matter – it could be nominated as a Superfund site the creek pollution is so bad. I absolutely believe DEQ has been retaliating against WYOFILE and the PRBRC – I’ve seen it happen too often in Wyoming – State government is capable of ignoring the citizens concerns, sweeping it under the rug, selectively releasing only the information they want the public to hear and siding with the pollutors against the public’s best interest. We might get some relief from the EQC and courts though and possibly the EPA.
Good drinking water is of paramount importance so here’s a small contribution, a drop in the ocean.
Jill Morrison’s work trying to protect the environment seems to
be what DEQ should be doing.
Routing the public through the PR office while the company no doubt is in close contact with the DEQ technicians evaluating the permit and its implications is baloney and my friend Renny and the Governor’s Office know it.
Mr. Creighton is correct. Aethon wants the Wyoming public to subsidize its profits, its stockholders and no doubt well-paid corporate officers at the price of water quality in Boysen State Park, downstream on the reservation and further downstream in Thermopolis.
I’d like to know the tribes’ views of this application and hear from public officials in Thermopolis and other people downstream who will see their health threatened by this pollution.
I will not comment on the meeting being cancelled. I will comment about the effluent disposal. Loosening disposal requirements for surface disposal is a delicate issue to deal with. The disposed fluids seep into the unconfined surface aquifer and their travel in that system is highly unpredictable. The intermittent streams become less intermittent and carry the effluent further from the source increasing the area where seepage enters the unconfined surface aquifer. It also builds up in the sediments around the streams. How much will end up in Boysen? WDEQ needs to consider the economic cost of allowing this kind of damage to Wyoming water resources. The Operator should up their game and install better water handling processes. Gas prices are high and they can afford to put in better water treatment facilities. Does Wyoming need to subsidize the Operator’s profits at water quality expense?
Dan: When Aethon bought the Moneta Divide property, it had a fully functional reverse osmosis water treatment plant employing 8-15 people. They shut the RO plant down and laid off the people even though their DEQ permit required best available science water treatment in order to come into compliance with the Clean Water Act and their DEQ permit. Aethon has repeatedly strived for the cheapest method of disposing of their production water not whats best for the environment. And that includes injecting into the deep Madison formation in order to avoid treatment expenses. They are not good neighbors – polluting is a way of life to them – justified by money of course.
Thanks for the great reporting.