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SALT LAKE CITY — Colorado-based Ovintiv on Monday was ordered to pay over $16 million in a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice to resolve Clean Air Act violations stemming from the company's oil and gas production facilities on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in Utah.
The settlement requires Ovintiv — a producer of oil and natural gas — to pay the U.S. and Utah a civil penalty of $5.5 million, along with implementing "extensive compliance measures" to reduce pollution emitted from 139 of its facilities across the state.
The settlement also resolves a civil suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for Utah, alleging Ovintiv failed to comply with federal and state requirements to capture and control air emissions and comply with inspection, monitoring and record-keeping requirements from 22 of its oil and gas production facilities in the Uinta Basin.
These violations led to the illegal emissions of volatile organic compounds — known to contribute to asthma and increase the risk of developing other respiratory illnesses — along with large quantities of methane, which contribute to climate change, according to a statement from the EPA.
"This settlement reduces pollutants that contribute to ground-level ozone in the Uintah and Ouray Reservation communities and beyond that are already overburdened by health impacts from ozone," KC Becker, regional administrator who oversees Utah for the EPA, said in a statement. "We are proud to bring a strong enforcement presence to areas that are disproportionately impacted by air pollution released by the oil and gas industry."
In addition to the $5.5-million civil penalty, the settlement will require Ovintiv to take "corrective action" and start mitigation projects that carry an estimated cost of over $10 million across all 139 Utah facilities.
Doing so will eliminate over 2,000 tons of volatile organic compounds every year and eliminate methane emissions equivalent to a reduction of over 50,000 tons of annual CO2 emissions or "a reduction similar to taking nearly 13,000 gas-powered cars off the road each year."
"This case is a win for the environment and for consumers," said Todd Kim, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. "The work required under the consent decree will significantly reduce the amount of gas Ovintiv facilities vent into the atmosphere and return some of that gas to the sales pipeline where it can be sent to productive use."
