Utah Faces Toxic Water from Danish Flats
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Social
New Insights into 'Switchable Water' have Implications for Water Purification and Desalination
Evaporation ponds used to process the contaminated water in Grand County have released tons of toxic chemicals into the air since April 2008.
But the Colorado company running the 14-pond facility operated without a Utah air-quality permit for more than six years, public documents show, while providing officials faulty data that underreported its emissions and exaggerated the efficiency of its emission-control equipment.
Danish Flats Environmental Servicesfinally secured a permit earlier this month andagreed to pay a reduced $50,000 finefor its failure to seek one in a timely manner.
The Danish Flats experience reflects a larger threat to air quality posed by wastewater gushing out of Utah's increasingly busy oil patch. The permit issued by the state Division of Air Quality (DAQ) for Danish Flats was the agency's first associated with evaporation ponds, and it's now examining other evaporation disposal sites in Utah.
Danish Flats, located north of Cisco, at first avoided regulation by asserting its emissions were "de minimis," or too small to require a permit.
But a later, more reliable analysis indicated the company's emissions were not negligible, but were instead tens and possibly hundreds of tons a year — revealing the site was a major emission source forhazardous air pollutantsand volatile organic compounds.
"They were out of compliance for many years, but they hung on debating with DAQ over how to estimate emissions. It was clear they were never a de minimis source, ever," said Chris Baird, a former member of the Grand County Council and Planning Commission who is now executive director of the Canyonlands Watershed Council.
Danish Flats operations manager Justin Spaeth declined to discuss the company without his engineering team and has not yet arranged such an interview.
Spreading ponds »There are 15 pond "farms" operating in the Uinta Basin to handle the liquid waste, known in the industry as "produced water." All are smaller than Danish Flats — Utah's largest complex of such ponds — and each has claimed its emissions are too small to require a permit.
Six are on tribal land and under federal jurisdiction. Of the nine overseen by DAQ, two have recently conceded their emissions may exceed the de minimis standard and have begun the permit process, according to agency director Bryce Bird.
Oil and gas operators prefer disposing of their produced water by injecting it back into the earth. But that's not always possible, and millions of barrels wind up in evaporation ponds after equipment separates out hydrocarbon condensates — a light, valuable fuel.
The Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining, or DOGM, regulates the handling of this waste. But DAQ is now monitoring the air-quality impacts. Its permit for Danish Flats gives the company another 18 months to install a flare and related equipment to capture and burn pollutants — deemed the "best available" technology for controlling emissions.
Bird said DAQ believes the $50,000 fine is sufficient to secure compliance with state requirements in the future.
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