I can't read the link on my computer, but from the paragraph you wrote it sure sounds like justice...

Nate

The sad fact of the matter is, though, that when you only have "8-14" inspectors to cover the whole state's oil/gas drilling operations, things like this happen. Until our legislatures commit to keeping the big corporations accountable for their actions, and giving the agencies responsible for doing so enough resources, events like this will continue to occur. The same thing goes for DNRs, wildlife police, food inspectors, etc. I'm not a big fan of "big government" per se but if we're going to have it shoved down our throats, like it or not, the least they can do is do it RIGHT.

This is probably is about as an freak accident as the deep water well in the gulf.

Here is the link and story for those unable to bring it up.

http://coloradoindependent.com/59528

State set to levy record fine in benzene-guzzling natural gas case
Digg Tweet By David O. Williams 8/12/10 8:09 AM

A dubious record will likely be set when the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) meets over the next two days in Adams County: the highest fine ever levied against an oil and gas company for a spill in the state of Colorado.

Oil and gas drilling near the Roan Plateau. (Photo/Ecoflight.info)
Williams, the largest producer of natural gas on the state’s Western Slope, has agreed in principle to pay $423,300 in the 2008 spring-water contamination case of Ned Prather, an outfitter who chugged benzene-laced water from his drinking well on his 1,800-acre property northwest of Parachute.

After a lengthy and expensive investigation, the COGCC – the state agency that permits and regulates natural gas drilling in Colorado – concluded nearby Williams drilling activity was responsible for the contamination. Prather and his family have filed two lawsuits against Williams Production RMT Co. and Nonsuch Natural Gas Inc. seeking a jury trial and damages.

Williams officials dispute the state’s findings but reportedly want to settle to avoid incurring further legal costs.

“While Williams does not agree with the findings of the COGCC, we have mutually agreed with the COGCC to settle this and move on. With the area’s difficult geologic conditions and additional time and expense required to prove a source, Williams has agreed to pay the fine in lieu of paying legal expenses to fight the allegation,” the company said in a prepared statement last week.

If the state agrees to the terms of the settlement at its Adams County meeting, Williams would top an April fine of $390,000 against Oxy USA for pit-leak contamination in the Cascade Canyon area of Garfield County. Oxy also was hit with a $257,400 fine for a separate spill in the Rock Springs area.

The Prather Springs case has been particularly vexing for the state because it involved several operators in a volatile geological area and because there was a direct and immediate impact to human health when Prather guzzled benzene. The case was cited as a priority for COGCC director David Neslin and his staff in an interview with the Colorado Independent in May.

Neslin said at that time there an unacceptable backlog of enforcement actions for various spills, some of them dating back several years. Enforcement was a priority for the state agency moving forward, he said at the time.

In a more recent interview, Neslin said state staffing is catching up to drilling.

COGCC Director David Neslin
“Certainly staffing has lagged behind industry activity over the past five years,” Neslin said. “We’ve added additional permitting staff to catch up. We’ve also added inspection staff. I think it’s probably accurate to say our compliance staff has lagged behind as the number of active wells has increased during this period.”

Neslin said inspection staff has increased from eight to 14 between 2008 and 2010 and environmental staff has increased from five to nine between 2006 and 2010.

“We believe that the additional staff that was added was necessary and will benefit the state and all of our citizens in helping to ensure that energy is produced in a manner that protects public health, safety and welfare,” Neslin added.

Onshore drilling spills have also been highlighted in the congressional debate over regulatory reforms needed in the wake of the record offshore Deepwater Horizon spill by BP in the Gulf of Mexico. The Colorado Independent, reviewing the COGCC website, found 141 instances of self-reported produced water spills related to natural gas drilling by BP America in La Plata County (Colo.) alone.

Neslin said enforcement remains a top priority for his agency, but admits some of the cases, involving multiple operators drilling deep underground, require an almost CSI-like investigative approach that can be costly and time-consuming.

The operators themselves are statutorily responsible for cleanup costs if a culprit can be determined, but that often takes considerable time. The politically charged amended oil and gas drilling regulations pushed through by Gov. Bill Ritter and approved by the State Legislature in 2009 did increase bonding amounts from $5,000 to $10,000 per well for shallow wells drilled above 3,000 feet and $20,000 for wells drilled deeper than that.

But those bonds are only claimed by the state if the well is abandoned. The Williams fine would likely go into the Oil and Gas Conservation and Environmental Response Fund, which can be used for investigation or reclamation costs. In lieu of a fine, the state can require the operator to pay for an environmental study or some other program related to restoring the impacted resource, such as a water project.

It is interesting how many freak accidents occur when an industry is allowed to conduct itself as we have witnessed with energy development in Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico, and now Pennsylvania, isn't it?

And how victims of other people's cost-cutting plans like Ned Prather are not particularly consoled by the "freakness" of their situation?

Other than a few stints in cities, I've been on well water all my life. Many years ago we had a hand dug well (that I had to go down in on a rope and clean out) and a possum fell in it somehow and everybody got kind of sick before we figured it out. Other than that, and a time 20 years later when the creek flooded and ran down our well casing, I've never been sick from drinking well water. I'd rather drink my well water than any city water in the USA. I think if somebody poisoned my well with benzene because some massively profitable company spilled a load of chemicals somewhere and never told anybody, I might go crazy with rage. But, heck, that's just me.

I have an old friend who still drinks out of creeks in the Rockies, even though giardia is pretty much everywhere. I ask him why he still drinks that water, and he said "I think I'd rather be dead than not be able to drink out of the creeks that I grew up on."

That's a pretty strong position to take. I wish we had more folks like that.

Thats justice its hard to believe that after all of this they still want to build the pebble mine in alaska

FOLLOW THE MONEY