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EPA Orders Linn Energy, LLC to Stop Discharging

Release Date: 02/08/2010
Contact Information: Dave Bary at 214-665-2200 or r6press@epa.gov

(Dallas, Texas – February 8, 2010) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a cease and desist administrative order to Linn Energy, LLC, of Houston, Texas, for violations of the federal Clean Water Act.

A January 11, 2010, EPA inspection of the company’s oil field production facility in Osage County, Oklahoma, found an unauthorized discharge of oil field brine generated by production activities into a tributary of Salt Creek. The inspection also revealed that water located at the discharge point of entry into the tributary of Salt Creek was contaminated from brine discharges and salts.

Based on these findings, Linn Energy, LLC has been ordered to cease all discharges of pollutants from the facility and remove all brine from the flow path located between the facility and the discharge point of entry into Salt Creek. The company has also been ordered to remove all wastewater located in the tributary between the facility and Salt Creek, and within 30 days provide written certification 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/feb2010.html