At Least 12 Explosions In CO Oil & Gas Sites, Two Fatal, But Zero State Enforcement To Date
At least a dozen explosions have occurred on Colorado oil and gas industry facilities in the eight months since two men were killed when a home blew up in Firestone, a Denver Post review of state records found. Two of those explosions killed workers. The state has not taken any enforcement action in the April 17 Firestone deaths, saying there is no rule — and none is proposed — covering oil and gas industry accidents that lead to fatalities.
Colorado oil and gas industry regulators have responded to the Firestone disaster by proposing modifications of existing rules — to be hashed out in meetings next month — for pipelines under well pads that they call “flowlines.”
But none of the changes deals with industrial accidents that result in deaths. The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, set up by lawmakers to ensure orderly extraction of oil and gas consistent with environmental protection and public safety, lacks the authority to punish companies for fatal explosions, agency spokesman Todd Hartman said. Any COGCC enforcement action for other reasons against Anadarko Petroleum would have to begin “within one year of discovery of a violation,” Hartman said in a prepared response to Denver Post queries. Anadarko owned the leaking underground line blamed for the Firestone disaster.
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Local prosecutors? No Weld County agency is considering enforcement action against Anadarko in relation to the Firestone explosion, county spokeswoman Jennifer Finch said.
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http://www.denverpost.com/2017/12/06/colorado-oil-gas-explosions-since-firestone-explosion/