An ExxonMobil subsidiary will have to pay almost $20,000 for violating federal requirements at three injection wells within the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation. These wells were used to dispose of brine produced by other gas production wells.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced the settlement with XTO Energy Inc., a Texas-based energy company acquired by ExxonMobil in 2010, on Tuesday. The settlement resolves XTO’s alleged violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act’s Underground Injection Control (UIC) program.
“This settlement demonstrates that EPA takes compliance with the UIC program seriously,” said Suzanne Bohan, director of EPA Region 8′s Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Division, in a statement. “As the nation’s drinking water aquifers diminish in quantity, it is increasingly important that regulations to protect aquifers are adhered to, especially in historically disadvantaged communities like those within Indian Reservations.”
According to the EPA’s complaint, XTO sold three injection wells within the reservation to Utah Gas Corp. in July 2020 without notifying the EPA. Their first violation was failing to follow the EPA’s requirements for transferring those permits.
Because XTO did not properly transfer the permits, the company remained the permit holder for the wells and was responsible for permit requirements for all three wells, not Utah Gas Corp. The EPA did not transfer the permits for the three wells on the reservation to Utah Gas Corp. until March 2022.
XTO’s second violation was failing to address and repair one of the wells within the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation.
On Dec. 21, 2021, Utah Gas Corp. notified the EPA that the well had lost mechanical integrity. In email correspondence with The Tribune, a spokesperson for the EPA explained that there was a leak in the well’s casing 750 feet underground, a leak in the wellhead at the surface and a leak in the well’s injection tubing pipe.
Repairs on this well were completed in May 2022. The well’s mechanical failure did not impact drinking water in the area.
To date, the complaint states, XTO has not adhered to the EPA’s permit transfer requirements nor maintained the well that lost integrity. It was Utah Gas Corp. that submitted the proper documents for the permit transfers for the three wells in question and completed repairs on the well.
According to the settlement, XTO must pay a civil penalty of $19,718.08. ExxonMobil did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Tribune.
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