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A judge this week sentenced two Wyoming residents to one year of supervised probation and ordered them to pay $28,330 in restitution for their roles in illegally dumping oilfield waste on federal land in Carbon County.

Darwin Crawford and Mark Orchard, both of Baggs, pleaded guilty earlier this year to “willful injury and depredation of government property,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice. U.S. District Court Judge Alan B. Johnson handed down their sentences Monday.

The oilfield supervisors allegedly instructed “crew members” to dump about 10 barrels of waste “generated from oil-water separators and maintenance operations performed on produced water storage tanks” at the East Echo Springs Saltwater disposal facility in the spring of 2018, court documents state. The facility is located on U.S. Bureau of Land Management property southwest of Rawlins.

“The defendants instructed other crew members to ‘dig a hole and dump stuff from the junk tank’ into the pit, and to backfill the hole,” the DOJ said. Petroleum hydrocarbon levels at the illegal dump site measured 11,000-15,200 parts per million compared to a level of 18 ppm for an uncontaminated soil sample, according to a BLM investigation cited by the DOJ.

Sage thrasher. (Clay Stott/BLM Wyoming)

Crawford and Orchard worked as field operation managers for Crowheart Energy, which “cooperated fully in the prosecution,” according to Lori Hogan, a DOJ public affairs contractor. A roustabout for another company was part of a crew asked to do the dumping and notified the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which initiated an investigation, then handed it over to the BLM.

“The defendants’ actions caused permanent damage to U.S. lands owned by the taxpayers and endangered potential nesting sites” for the greater sage grouse and sage thrasher, Hogan told WyoFile via email.

Crowheart Energy cleaned the dumping site in 2024 to meet BLM standards, Hogan added. Multiple state and federal regulatory agencies confirmed with WyoFile that no company was cited for violations related to the criminal activity.

Reached by WyoFile, an attorney representing Crawford declined to comment. An attorney representing Orchard has yet to respond to WyoFile’s inquiry.

Both men pleaded guilty as part of an agreement with prosecutors, court records show. The terms of those plea deals were sealed, but when government lawyers asked earlier this year to reschedule the men’s sentencing dates, they noted that both defendants, as part of the agreement, pleaded guilty to a less severe version of the “willful injury and depredation of government property” charge.

The original charge carried a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. But the lesser charge — which is for damage less than $1,000 — carries a maximum penalty of a year behind bars.

A second charge against both men, “knowing and willful use of public lands in violation of Interior Department regulations,” was dismissed, according to court documents.

Read the 2023 indictment against Crawford and Orchard here. Read the sentencing document for Orchard here, and the sentencing document for Crawford here.

Call (307) 777-7501 or visit this website to report a spill or file a complaint to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality.

Call the BLM’s law enforcement dispatch at (800) 637-9152 to report a natural resource crime on BLM lands.

Dustin Bleizeffer covers energy and climate at WyoFile. He has worked as a coal miner, an oilfield mechanic, and for 26 years as a statewide reporter and editor primarily covering the energy industry in...

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  1. Dear Public,
    We need to charge anyone and I say anyone ‘dumping’ this ‘stuff’.
    Maximum jail time and maximum fines. This is a horrible crime. Then these two men instructed the others to do the same by dumping oilfield barrels on BLM land. The behavior of these two is unspeakable, and the damage to the land is permanent. Poor babies in nests are subjected to this crap! Shame on you guys!

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    1. What’s worse is that these two monsters are both supervisors instructing their team to follow suit in dumping this oil water waste. They need to be fired immediatly!

      Reply

  3. Glad the judge rendered this penalty. Next step, company needs to
    Fire these two men. They should have known better and did,they just wanted to take an easy disposal.

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  4. They should have been prosecuted to the full extent of the law. This is only a part of the disregard for PUBLIC land.

    Reply

  5. What was the motivation for these two managers to choose dumping rather than removal?

    Do company policies “incentivize” this practice? It certainly suggests they must.

    How many other times does this happen without any of the employees coming forward?

    Reply

  6. How many reserve pits and old locations and have been pushed in and reclaimed before environmental standards were put into place. 1. PLANET-2.SOCIETY-3. ECONOMY

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  8. Oil companies have been doing the same for years on the Wind River Indian Reservation for years????

    Reply