Colorado Interstate Gas Co. agreed to pay $1.02 million and install environmental controls to resolve charges that it violated the Clean Air Act at an eastern Utah compressor station, the US Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency jointly announced.
The El Paso Corp. subsidiary also agreed to fund operation of two ambient air quality monitoring stations near its Natural Buttes compressor station on the Uintah and Ouray Indian reservations, DOJ and EPA said.
A complaint filed with a consent decree in federal district court for Utah said that CIG installed engines at the compressor station but failed to either obtain a permit or control and test emissions sources at the facility. It said that the violations were discovered during EPA inspections and through EPA-required emissions testing at the compressor.
This was the fourth Clean Air Act complaint DOJ has brought this year against companies with gas operations on the reservation, according to John C. Cruden, acting US attorney general for DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.
The settlement will result in operation improvements that are expected to reduce emissions of hazardous air pollutants by more than 48,000 pounds per year and nitrogen oxides by 313,000 pounds annually, according to DOJ and EPA. The consent decree is subject to a 30-day public comment period and the court’s approval, they said.
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