Ignacio company fined for water violations, EPA issues penalties for mechanical, reporting problems

Ignacio company fined for water violations, EPA issues penalties for mechanical, reporting problems by Emery Cowan, August 05, 2013, The Durango Herald
An Ignacio company that disposes of produced water from natural-gas and oil wells faces an $89,000 fine for multiple violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday it fined Maralex Disposal for several violations related to a commercial brine disposal injection well in southern La Plata County. The company failed to maintain the mechanical integrity of the well, failed to take weekly pressure readings and inaccurately reported pressure readings on the well. … The more than 60,000 barrels of produced waste injected into the well each month are laced with high concentrations of saline-produced water, benzene, tolouene, ethylbenzene and xylene, according to court documents from an October 2012 hearing about the violations.