Gov. John Hickenlooper ordered oil and gas operators throughout Colorado to inspect thousands of wells and miles of associated pipelines to prevent a repeat of a fatal home explosion in Firestone.
Frederick-Firestone Fire Protection District chief Ted Poszywak on Tuesday blamed the April 17 blast on odorless gas that seeped from a severed 1-inch pipeline into French drains and a sump pit at 6312 Twilight Ave.
That flowline was connected to a nearby well owned by Anadarko Petroleum. Investigators found the valve for the line in the “on” position.
“In our experience, what has taken place here is highly unusual and required a confluence of a number of different events to come to pass,” said Matt Lepore, director of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, Tuesday at a news conference.
Operators have 30 days to inspect and test oil and gas flowlines within 1,000 feet of occupied buildings to ensure they are working property. Lines not in use must be properly marked and capped, and any abandoned lines must be cut 3 feet below the surface and sealed.
“We will take the steps we’ve outlined here to minimize any possibility of this happening again, and operators will be hyperdiligent and hypervigilant about anything like this ever happening again,” Lepore said.
The feedline blamed for the explosion was buried 7 feet down and was severed 6 feet from the southeast corner of the destroyed home’s foundation. A volatile mix of odorless methane and propane flowed from the well and saturated the nearby soil.
“Those inside the home would not have smelled it,” Poszywak said. Mark Martinez and his brother-in-law, Joey Irwin, were killed in the blast that critically injured Martinez’s wife, Erin.
State rules require operators to disconnect abandoned pipelines from wells, purge them of any oil or gas, and cut off and seal them at both ends. Notice of abandoned lines also must be filed with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and local authorities.
Lepore said the COGCC still was investigating whether Anadarko and previous owners of the well had followed state rules and whether the line was designated or should have been designated as abandoned.
“Might there have been rules violations in this sequence of events?” Lepore asked. “Yes, there might have been. So that is for us to evaluate.”
The purpose of the new inspections is to ensure that all systems, regardless of when they were installed or abandoned, comply with current state rules. Operators will have to report the results of their inspections and what actions they took.
The line in question was one of two connecting the well to a tank farm to the north. That tank farm was removed in 2002 to accommodate development, and the well’s production was directed to a new tank farm to the west. An old 2-inch line was cut and capped at the wellhead, but the 1-inch line was not.
As sewer lines were added and basements were dug out, there were multiple opportunities to sever the lines, said Lepore, who added the state doesn’t regulate development over abandoned pipelines.
However, a spokeswoman for Hickenlooper said the possibility of regulating new construction over existing oil and gas flowlines “will be part of our ongoing discussion into the issue.”
Oak Meadows subdivision builder Century Communities has hired its own fire and explosion experts to help investigate.
“We do not have any definitive answer for what happened,” spokesman Andy Boian said. “We are 100 percent committed to finding out what happened.”
The home that exploded was built in 2015, and the nearby well was shut down for all of 2016, a period of low prices. It started operating again at the end of January. No state inspection is required to restart a shut-in well.
State maps clearly define where active wells are located, but information on flowlines from those wells isn’t mapped. Lepore said the commission is considering requiring operators to submit information on the location of those lines.
Homeowners interested in finding out whether they are near a line should call 811, the utility line locating service, Lepore said.
“It’s horrible and horrifying, but there are a lot of wells that have been drilled and have operated for a very long time in this state, and this is an unprecedented sort of event in respect to those,” he said.
Anadarko Petroleum, the state’s largest oil and gas producer, on April 26 said it would shut down and inspect 3,000 of its vertical wells. Great Western Oil & Gas on Thursday said it shut down and inspected 61 wells with lines located within 250 feet of occupied buildings.
Extraction Oil & Gas joined the list Tuesday, before the state order came out, saying it had started inspections on 178 wells in Adams, Broomfield, Boulder, Weld and Larimer counties.
“We are in the process of comprehensively testing and inspecting our wells and related equipment, and we will have completed testing of all Extraction wells, flowlines and facilities that exist within 500 feet of occupied structures by Friday,” spokesman Brian Cain said.
He later added the company would comply with the governor’s broader order.
Commissioners with Adams and Boulder counties requested that operators inspect their wells last week, and Broomfield County late Tuesday went beyond the governor’s order.
“Broomfield is requesting that all operators submit to Broomfield copies of their updated emergency preparedness plans for all well sites in Broomfield, including location maps and types of above-ground and below-ground facilities, to include flowlines and isolation valves, and including any abandoned known flowlines,” the county said.
Environmental and public safety groups, as well as political leaders, turned their attention to the lines that moved oil and gas and the risk they posed to communities built in close proximity.
State Sen. Matt Jones, a Boulder County Democrat, on Tuesday warned of “a recipe for disaster that could cause people to get hurt.”
“As more information has come to light, it has become clearer that these oil wells, pipes and tanks are simply too dangerous to be in close proximity to homes, businesses, and schools,” Jones said. “We need to take steps to ensure a tragedy like this doesn’t happen again.”
Pointing to the recent Colorado Court of Appeals ruling that oil and gas production can only be done if it does not hurt people and the environment, Sierra Club “Beyond Oil and Gas” campaign director Harv Teitelbaum said COGCC regulators too often waive rules and approve projects “in service of drilling operator convenience and economic expediency
“As a result of these loopholes and rubber-stamped waivers, homeowners and prospective buyers in newer housing developments are not adequately informed of the potentially fatal risks they face,” he said.
Sierra Club members, he said, “are very concerned about this and suspect that this is not an isolated situation.”
Dan Haley, president and CEO of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, said the industry supports the state’s call to inspect flowlines and ensure safety.
“We are committed to partnering with the COGCC, our operators, home builders and Colorado communities to get it right. In the weeks and months that follow, we will endeavor to enhance flowline and pipeline procedures and remain committed to improving Colorado oil and gas production,” he said in a statement.
