Environmental group files pollution suit against Colorado oil, gas operators

DENVER — Wild Earth Guardians, an environmental advocacy group, is suing seven oil and gas companies that operate in Weld County for improper air pollution.

The suit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Denver, accuses Extraction Oil and Gas, Noble Energy, Crestone Resources, Great Western Operating, Mallard Exploration, PDC Energy, and Bonanza Creek Energy of  “operating massive sources of air pollution along Colorado’s Front Range region without obtaining legally required permits to pollute.”

According to Wild Earth Guardians’ complaint, the oil and gas operators have raked in more than $400 million while “evading their permitting obligation” as established by the federal Clean Air Act.

The seven companies are “are operating their facilities unlawfully and their operations should be enjoined until they obtain their required permits,” according to the complaint filed on behalf of the advocacy group by Boulder attorney Katherine L.T. Merlin.

The complaint, which specifically mentions 15 fracking operations in Weld County, also takes aim at regulators, who Wild Earth Guardians attorneys say have turned a blind eye to the pollution.

“Neither [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency] nor the State of Colorado have commenced, nor are they diligently prosecuting, any civil action in a United States or state court to redress the violations,” according to the complaint.

In March, Wild Earth Guardians sued the EPA and its director Andrew Wheeler over his failure to determine whether Denver and surrounding communities were compliant with ozone standards. The suit alleges that Wheeler violated the Clean Air Act by missing a Jan. 20, 2019, deadline to determine whether the Denver Metro-North Front Range Area complied with the 2008 National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone by the applicable deadline of July 20, 2018.

The suit filed Friday said the seven oil company defendants “have each constructed large oil and gas production facilities in the Denver Metro-North Front Range ozone nonattainment area, a region that is suffering from excessive smog pollution.”

The defendants “unpermitted and unlawful emissions have injured the interests of Guardians’ members in breathing clean air, living, and working in an environment unimpaired by unhealthy, noxious, and distasteful pollutants and odors, and viewing natural scenery unimpaired by haze and other constituents of air pollution,” according to the suit.

“By developing wells and putting them into production prior to obtaining permits, these companies have avoided compliance with stringent limits on smog-forming pollution and other toxic substances,” said Randall Weiner, an environmental attorney representing WildEarth Guardians, said in a prepared statement. “We will use these seven fracking companies’ own documents to prove their violations of the Clean Air Act’s permitting requirements.”

The suit asks the court to order the oil and gas operators to stop production until proper permits are obtained. Wild Earth Guardians is also asking the court to make the seven companies pay penalties of up to $99,681 per day for each of their violations.

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