This transcript was prepared from the YouTube video of the ECMC Commissioner Hearing on April 30, 2025.
Greg Duranleau, ECMC Deputy Director of Operations: Good morning, Chair Robbins and Commissioners. As you said, I’m Greg Duranleau, Deputy Director of Operations. Thank you again for giving me an opportunity to provide an update regarding the well control incident south of Galeton. As I’ve said in my previous updates, forgive me if I repeat what you’ve already seen, heard, or read in the news or from other sources. This is my third update in this forum. I’m providing an update today as I said I would when I first made comments about this incident to the commission on April 9th. My last update was on April 23rd. The recordings of my prior updates as well as additional Galeton-specific information is posted online on our website under our library and special projects page.
Today, I have several updates to recap for you that have occurred since last Wednesday. Based on the current status of this project, I propose this to be my last regular update. First, as I’ve said many times, this type of well control incident is rare. Based on the information provided from Chevron, we know that the incident is related to surface equipment and took place during a transition period at the well when the wellhead was being reconfigured from one purpose to another. The exact cause of the well control incident remains under investigation, including OSHA conducting their formal investigation into the incident.
89,013 BBLs (about 3.7 million gallons) of contaminated liquid and 7,194 cubic yards of contaminated soil (about 720 dump truck loads) have been removed from the Bishop A07-01 Pad as of April 25, 2025. They were hauled to the Pawnee Waste facility near Grover, Colorado.
That said, given what we do know preliminarily about the cause, on Friday, April 25th, Director Murphy issued a notice to operators, or NTO, regarding pressure management safety. As a regulatory authority, ECMC uses NTOs to communicate timely and important information to operators and may require certain action be taken as necessary and as part of ECMC’s regulatory program. The NTO issued Friday requires operators to conduct an assessment of their processes and wellhead procedures during the time period between drilling rig release and the start of production and to report that assessment back to ECMC. The goal of the NTO is to ensure proper application of technical, operational, organizational processes, specifications, and solutions to reduce risk to health, safety, welfare, and the environment during pivotal times in the development of a well.
One worker was injured during the “uncontrolled release” at Bishop A07-01, and was taken to the hospital with an ankle injury, according to the accident report filed with the ECMC.
Not to sound like lip service, if you will, but the NTO reflects ECMC’s mission to regulate the development and production of oil and gas in a manner that protects public health, safety, welfare, the environment, and wildlife resources. And again, just to be clear, ECMC issued this NTO out of an abundance of caution and in light of additional findings, initial findings from ECMC’s investigation into the Bishop incident. However, no final determination of the cause of the incident has yet been determined or announced. ECMC will continue to investigate in collaboration with the operator and other regulatory agencies the cause of this incident. As more specific information becomes available, ECMC may take additional action as necessary to protect public health and safety.
Moving on to updates about remediation status. First, I’d just like to note that many questions have arisen as to what was spilled from the wellbore. As previously stated, wellbore fluids are typically a combination of crude oil, condensate, natural gas, produced water from the geological formation and flowback water from hydraulic fracturing. On April 24th, ECMC posted Chevron’s analytical of source material document. That’s posted in the location file or the spill file for this site, again linked at that webpage. The document itself includes the test results and analytical results of samples taken on April 8th during the incident. The samples were taken from two locations near the source of the spill. One sample was taken from the Bishop pad itself and one from an emergency diversion ditch adjacent to the pad.
The analytical report is an 83-page document. In summary, the laboratory analyses identified multiple petroleum hydrocarbon compounds and the presence of certain metals that commonly occur in crude oil. The petroleum hydrocarbon compounds with health-based cleanup standards are those listed in ECMC table 915-1. Those contaminants of concern drive the remediation approach. If you’re so inclined, you can view table 915-1 online. It’s on the last page of the 900 series rules. Generally, crude oil is a mixture of multiple organic compounds and sometimes traces of metals. This mixture varies between oil and gas basins and may be variable between oil wells completed within the same oil and gas basin and the same formation.
Regarding my second update on remediation, ECMC received Chevron’s Form 27 site investigation and remediation work plan on April 25th, last Friday, and our team of environmental protection specialists are reviewing that now. It should be posted on COIS by the end of the week. That review process may involve questions back and forth with the operator. The Form 27 included the estimated volume of fluid recovered to date and the amount of impacted soils disposed of to date. The fluid has been and continues to be recovered by a variety of means including temporary collection pits and ditches dug adjacent to the location. Fluids also include recovered surface water from nearby Willow Creek which was impacted during the event.
The operator has commenced investigating and cleaning up adjacent and affected surface property, including residences, outbuildings, barns, landscaping, and personal property. While some residents remain displaced, this effort appears to be moving expeditiously to get folks back in their homes. Meanwhile, the ECMC environmental team and our contract support, which is Tetratech, are providing oversight of the work performed, reviewing information from the operator, and collecting both split and independent environmental samples in the field.
That pretty much summarizes my situational updates. However, I just wanted to note that effective this week on Monday, April 28th, the formal updates from the field will slow down. The remediation remains ongoing, but as it’s in the implementation phase, there are no significant changes anticipated to the strategy. The team is no longer having 6:30 a.m. operations meetings, so the cadence of new information will slow down. As I mentioned before, I would suggest that I no longer provide weekly updates at these hearings. But if something comes up that staff feels should be brought to your attention, we would certainly come back, or if you desire additional updates, we would certainly come back.
So that’s my update for you. I’ll conclude with just another big note of gratitude to all of those responding to the incident, especially here internally at ECMC, and again to the first responders including Galeton Fire and Rescue for the incredible work they did. That’s all I have. Thank you very much.”