Date: 10/30/2013

Final
Flood Impact to Oil and Gas Facilities

WATER RESOURCES REVIEW COMMITTEE

Votes: View--> Action Taken:
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11:38 AM -- Flood Impact to Oil and Gas Facilities

The committee returned from recess. Tisha Shuller, President and CEO, Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA), described the impacts of recent floods on oil and gas development facilities in the South Platte River Basin and discussed the oil and gas industry's preparedness for flood events (Attachment C). She described the industry's response to the September flood including shut-ins of wells, the deployment of personnel, well monitoring, incident response, containment, cleanup, and reporting to state and federal regulatory agencies. She described daily updates provided by COGA during the flood and assessed the impact of the flood on the oil and gas industry. Ms. Shuller expressed concern about misinformation in the media about spills and other environmental impacts related to flood damaged oil and gas facilities and described COGA's efforts to correct that misinformation. She identified specific oil spills that occurred as a result of the flood and described the result of water quality testing by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. She also discussed volunteer flood relief provided by the industry to flood impacted communities

1030AttachmentC.pdf1030AttachmentC.pdf

11:38 AM

Ms. Shuller answered questions from the committee regarding oil release incidents that occurred as a result of the flood, lessons learned from the flood, and the need to change best management practices and regulations to ensure that oil and gas facilities are able to withstand catastrophic floods.

12:06 PM

The committee recessed for lunch.