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EPA Orders Skull Creek Oil and Gas Company to Stop Discharging

Release Date: 04/16/2009
Contact Information: Dave Bary or Anthony Suttice at 214-665-2200 or r6press@epa.gov

(Dallas, Texas - April 16, 2009) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a cease and desist administrative order to Skull Creek Oil and Gas Company of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, for violations of the federal Clean Water Act.

On March 24, 2009, an EPA inspection of the company’s oil field production facility in Osage County, Oklahoma, found an unauthorized discharge of oil field brine from the facility to Hulah Lake. The inspection also revealed that water located at the discharge point of entry into Hulah Lake was contaminated from brine discharges and salts.

Based on these findings, Skull Creek Oil and Gas Company has been ordered to cease all discharges of pollutants from the facility, remove all brine and contaminated soils from the flow path located between the facility and Hulah Lake, and within 30 days provide written certification to EPA that these activities have been completed.

More about activities in EPA Region 6: https://www.epa.gov/region6

EPA audio file is available at https://www.epa.gov/region6/6xa/podcast/apr2009.html