PARACHUTE, Colorado - Environmental Protection Agency sampling of four large water spills from oil and gas storage pits on private lands of the Roan Plateau this winter found that the releases did not cause any lingering environmental impacts.

Dave Akers, manager with the state's Water Quality Control Division (WQCD), said the EPA's analysis found that concentrations of most contaminants associated with oil and gas production - organic contaminants like benzene and toluene - from Berry Petroleum Co.'s three water releases in the area "were very low, if not undetectable."

The EPA analysis, which was based on samples taken on April 3, also found that there were no detectable organic contaminants from Marathon Oil Co.'s 30,000-barrel water spill that created an "ice-feature" during the winter, Akers said.

Samples were taken at a spot where the four water releases flowed into Garden Gulch, which is northwest of Parachute. The sampling came at least two months after the spills were first reported to the state.

The EPA and the WQCD, which is a division of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), both conducted the sampling, Akers said.

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) has been investigating Marathon Oil Co. and Berry Petroleum Co. for the four spills - which all occurred from November to late January in the Garden Gulch area.

A COGCC analysis of the four water releases also revealed that they did not violate federal drinking water standards, said Deb Frazier, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, which oversees the COGCC. Frazier said agency testing of the spilled water occurred at a tributary in Garden Gulch below where the spills occurred.

The investigation into Marathon and Berry's releases is ongoing, Frazier said.

Several residents and ranchers in the area were concerned that the spills in Garden Gulch could have contaminated snow that would eventually run off into Parachute Creek - a source of irrigation water for the town of Parachute and area ranchers.

The EPA and COGCC's analyses of the four spills backs up statements Marathon and Berry Petroleum have already made about them.

Marathon, in a statement earlier this month, said four samples taken from its Jan. 31 release "did not exceed any of the primary drinking water standards, the creek stream standards or (federal) defined permissible exposure limits."

The company also said its spill did not occur on the surface. Instead, it was released from the bottom of a storage pit and traveled through the fractured shale and "appears to have formed as an ice flow on the side of the cliff."

Berry Petroleum also said sampling at areas adjacent to the pad showed that its three releases had a maximum amount of 1 part per billion (ppb) of benzene - a known carcinogen. That figure is well below the Environmental Protection Agency's safe-drinking-water threshold of 5 ppb.

Attempts to reach both companies were unsuccessful late Wednesday.



Contact Phillip Yates: 384-9117pyates@postindependent.com



Post Independent, Glenwood Springs, Colorado CO