Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality

The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) founded in 1973, protects, conserves and enhances the environment of Wyoming "through a combination of monitoring, permitting, inspection, enforcement and restoration/remediation activities". Pressing issues include effects of Wyoming’s rapidly expanding mineral and energy industries since 2002, such as natural gas production, fracking, oil refining, coal and uranium mining, including coalbed methane water management.

History

The Wyoming Legislature founded the DEQ in 1973 in passing the Environmental Quality Act.[1][2] In 2000, a Voluntary Remediation Program was established after the Wyoming legislature enacted the “Voluntary Remediation of Contaminated Sites” law.[3] Two memoranda of agreement from March 14, 2002 between the DEQ and EPA Region 8 define how the two agencies interact regarding the contaminated sites: The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Memorandum of Agreement and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) Memorandum of Agreement.

Responsibilities

DEQ enforces state and federal environmental laws, including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Superfund Amendments and Title III Reauthorization Act (SARA), Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 and the Wyoming Environmental Quality Act.[1] Enforcement covers more than 17.5 million acres of public lands and 40.7 million acres of federal mineral estate, administered by the Bureau of Land Management[4]

Organization

As of 2012, the DEQ's Director is Todd Parfitt, appointed by the Governor of Wyoming; from 2003 until 2012 John Corra was the Director. There are also two Governor-appointed, Wyoming Senate-confirmed independent entities: The Environmental Quality Council (EQC) and the Industrial Siting Council.

The DEQ has (apart from its administration with an Office of Outreach and Environmental Assistance), six divisions: abandoned mine land, air quality, industrial siting (includes wind turbines), land quality (permitting/licensing of surface and underground mines), solid waste and hazardous waste, and water quality.[1] The public can input through four advisory boards: a state land & investment board, an advisory board for air quality, one for water and waste, and for land quality.

As of 2010, DEQ had 267 employees located in Sheridan, Lander, Casper, Rock Springs, Pinedale, and headquarters in Cheyenne, with a state budget cut at that time between 5 to 10 percent.[5] The Wyoming state budget appropriations for the biennium from July 1, 2014, to June 30, 2016 foresaw only 264 employees.[6] As of 2009, 74 employees conducted nearly 2,900 inspections.[5] The DEQ has requested more inspectors since 2003, and requests were defeated "with the obvious desire not to know what’s going on” per former Democratic Wyoming House Representative Pete Jorgensen.[7]

Environmental Quality Council (EQC)

In 1992, Wyoming reorganized all state agencies that deal with natural resources, and the legislature formally declared the EQC to be a separate operating agency.[8] The EQC has 7 members, and per statutes not more than four members can be of the same political party.[2]:35-11-111 As of 2014 the EQC has a Republican majority, under the incumbent Republican Governor Matt Mead.[8] As of February 2015, these are the members per EQC website:

Name Residence Party affiliation Term expires
Thomas Coverdale Daniel, Wyoming Republican March 2016
Tim Flitner Greybull, Wyoming Republican March 2015
Meghan Lally Savery, Wyoming Democrat March 2017
David Bagley Vice Chairman Laramie, Wyoming Democrat March 2016
F. David Searle, Chairman, Sheridan, Wyoming Republican March 2015
Rich Fairservis, Secretary Casper, Wyoming Republican March 2015

Industrial siting council

It inputs into the Industrial Siting Division. As of 2015 it has the following members, which like EQC has 7 members, and per statutes not more than four members can be of the same political party:[9]

Name Residence Party affiliation Term expires
Greg Bierei Gillette, Wyoming Republican March 2015
Peter Brandjord Green River, Wyoming Democrat March 2017
John Corra Cheyenne, Wyoming Republican March 2019
James Miller Sundance, Wyoming Republican March 2019
Richard O’Gara Cheyenne, Wyoming Democrat March 2017
Sandy Shuptrine Jackson, Wyoming Independent March 2015

As of 2002, Bierei was employed with the Thunder Basin Coal Company, L.L.C., operating the Black Thunder Mine as engineering/environmental manager per an accident investigation.[10] Corra has been in the mineral and chemical industries in various executive capacities, per the Wyoming University, currently consulting for FMC Corporation.[11] Miller is Special Assistant, Vice President of Academic Affairs at Laramie County Community College.[12] O'Gara retired from teaching economics at the same college and owns a business offering business siting and impact analyses (Wyoming Center for Business & Economic Analysis).[13]

Division of air quality

Wyoming is divided into four air quality regions. As of 2014 the most strictly regulated area is Sublette County, which contain the two natural gas fields of Jonah Field and Pinedale Anticline Project Area (PAPA).[14] In 2013, 80 percent of the oil drilling permits issued by the Wyoming Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission were in Sublette County and four other counties (Campbell County, Converse County, Johnson County and Laramie County).[14]

In the Upper Green River Basin with parts of Sublette, Lincoln County and Sweetwater County companies with multiple-well developments must place pollution controls from the beginning of operations, while single-well developments only need to install them if they emit more than four tons of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) annually.[14]

In the 'Concentrated Development Area', comprising all of Carbon County, Fremont County, Natrona County and Uinta County and parts of Lincoln County, Wyoming and Sweetwater County, multi-well developments need pollution controls from the beginning, but single-well facilities may emit up to eight tons of VOC's per year.[14]

In the so-called 'state region' of all remaining counties, there is a VOC limit of 10 tons annually for all types of well developments, lowered from 20 tons per year only in 2007.[14]

In December 2013, the DEQ issued the city of Medicine Bow a permit for construction of a coal gasification plant. In 2011, the Sierra Club challenged the permit, and lost before the Wyoming Supreme Court.

Non attainment

Between 2008 and 2011, Pinedale had such high ozone levels, that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared it a nonattainment area.[14][15] For attainment, "the area must have three years where the fourth-highest ozone level falls below the national standard".[15] The American Lung Association gave the area a failing grade for ozone levels.[16]

A Wyoming Department of Health's public health investigation from 2008 to 2011 found associations between short-term changes in ground-level ozone and acute respiratory problems among residents seeking healthcare within Sublette County.[17] The Northern Arapahos and Eastern Shoshone tribes sought "state status" in order to administer air quality monitoring. In 2013 the EPA ruled on the request and determined the land actually belongs to the Wind River Indian Reservation and has for more than a century, despite a 1905 law opening it to non-tribal members.[18]

Division of land quality

The DLQ has a permitting and licensing site for coal, and one for noncoal, including uranium. In 2013, a DEQ feasibility study estimated that it would cost Wyoming at least $4.5 million and 1o new staff to take over regulation of uranium and thorium mining.[19] The mining industry has pushed the state to take over, saying the Nuclear Regulatory Commission charges too much and moves too slowly.[19]

Voluntary Remediation Program (VRP)

As of 3 January 2014 "more than 200" contaminated sites are part of the VRP. The program lists 18 abandoned and contaminated sites, also known as orphan sites, 17 of which affect the groundwater. As of April 3, 2014, there were 9 active orphan sites, 4 of them in Cheyenne, including the Cheyenne Perchloroethylene (PCE) Plume Orphan Site, the Casper PCE Plume Orphan Site, the Laramie PCE Plume Orphan Site, the Deluxe Cleaners and Tailors PCE and VOC Orphan Site and the former Lobell Refinery Orphan Site, as well as 9 inactive orphan sites.[3]

After a well blowout by Windsor Energy Corp near Clark, Wyoming in August 2006, which forced evacuations and took nearly 56 hours to plug with drilling mud, liquid gas condensate and natural gas were released through a cracked well casing 255 feet below ground. On January 12, 2007 the DEQ water quality division issued a notice of violation; the company settled in August 2007 by promising to participate in the 'Voluntary Remediation Program' and paid a $2,812.50 fine.[20] Monitoring wells showed groundwater contamination, but didn't include residential areas. In 2007, elevated levels of benzene in one private water well sped up the 2009 clean up schedule; Windsor had to deliver a clean up plan to the DEQ by May 1, 2008.[21] Not until 2010 did residents learn about the plan.[22] In May 2011, Windsor presented a final remedy draft to Clark residents in a public meeting, where residents criticized lack of monitoring private wells and "some expressed frustration with Wyoming state laws that they feel favor industry over personal property rights", and where "county and the state both work together, and they’re all extremely pro industry".[23]

One year prior, Windsor Energy Group LLC had dumped at least 200 barrels of fluids from its Bennett Creek site near Clark, with the permission of the property owner and was fined about $5,000.[24]

Budget

The 2014 budget appropriated US$142,904,296 to DEQ. Half the budget, or $74,500,000 went to the Agency of Abandoned mine reclamation. The second largest post was for water quality at $23,276,958, followed by $17,155,165 for air quality.[6]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Overview". DEQ. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
  2. 1 2 "Title 35 - Public Health And Safety". Wyoming Statutes. Wyoming Legislative Service Office. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
  3. 1 2 "Voluntary Remediation Program". DEQ. State of Wyoming. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
  4. ↑ "Bureau of Land Management". United States Department of the Interior. 2014-07-29. Retrieved 31 July 2014..
  5. 1 2 Bleizeffer, Dustin (February 21, 2010). "Rising DEQ caseload draws concern". Casper Star-Tribune (The Billings Gazette). Retrieved 29 July 2014.
  6. 1 2 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Wyoming. "Budget and Fiscal Information,ENROLLED ACT NO. 41" (PDF). Retrieved 10 August 2014.
  7. ↑ Bleizeffer, Dustin (September 26, 2011). "Former state legislator; ‘All we lack is some leadership’f". Energy News (WyoFile). Retrieved 10 August 2014.
  8. 1 2 "Environmental Quality Council". State of Wyoming. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
  9. ↑ "The Industrial Siting Council". Department of Environmental Quality. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  10. ↑ "US Department of Labor Report of Investigation Fatal Fall of Highwall Accident". Wright, Campbell County, Wyoming: US Department of Labor, Mine Safety and Health Administration. February 20, 2002. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
  11. ↑ "Advisory Board, Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources". University of Wyoming. n.d. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
  12. ↑ "Directory, James Miller". Laramie County Community College. n.d. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
  13. ↑ Wyoming Center for Business & Economic Analysis (n.d.). "Personnel". Wyoming Network, Inc. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Storrow, Benjamin (May 26, 2014). "Behind the times- Wyoming air quality regulations lag in areas with new oil development". Star Tribune. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
  15. 1 2 Kelsey Dayton (4 May 2012). "EPA: Upper Green River Basin exceeded federal multi-year air standard". Casper Star Tribune. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
  16. ↑ "State of The Air, Wyoming, Sublette County". American Lung Association. 2013. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
  17. ↑ Kerry Pride, J. Peel, B. Robinson, A. Busacker, J. Grandpre, F. Yip, T. Murphy (December 2014). "Associations of Short-Term Exposure to Ozone and Respiratory Outpatient Clinic Visits— Sublette County, Wyoming, 2008–2011". Environ Res. pp. 1–7. doi:10.1016/j.envres.2014.10.033.
  18. ↑ Judson Berger (February 12, 2014). "U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT HEARING CHARTER". Fox News.com. Retrieved 31 July 2014. Wyoming officials prepare for court fight after EPA ruling hands land to tribes
  19. 1 2 Stephanie Joyce (2 December 2013). "State takeover of uranium mining regulation would cost at least $4.5 million". Wyoming Public Media. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  20. ↑ "MEMORANDUM To: Windsor Energy, Clark," (PDF). DEQ. August 22, 2007. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
  21. ↑ "Timeline for cleanup from Clark gas well blowout accelerated". Casper Tribune (The Associated Press). 27 February 2008. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  22. ↑ Richard Reeder (June 23, 2010). "Plans revealed for Clark gas well cleanup". codyenterprise.com.
  23. ↑ Martin Kidston (May 26, 2011). "WELL BLOWOUT Clark residents vent frustrations with DEQ, Windsor Energy". Billings Gazete. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
  24. ↑ "State, energy company reach settlement over alleged dumping". Billings Gazette. Associated Press. 19 January 2006. Retrieved 27 August 2014.

External links

Federal agencies:

State agencies:

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