DENVER — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced a settlement with El Paso Midstream Group LLC resolving Clean Air Act violations at the Bluebell Gas Plant near Roosevelt in Duchesne County.
The settlement requires the company to pay $20,000 in civil penalties and up to $235,000 toward funding and maintaining two regulatory air monitors in the Uintah Basin.
“This settlement will help to continue the much-needed air monitoring capacity on the Uintah-Ouray Indian Reservation that will help inform the management of air quality in the region,” said Mike Gaydosh, EPA’s enforcement director in Denver.
The settlement stems from a 2007 inspection and subsequent investigation of El Paso’s Bluebell Gas Plant, where regulators found El Paso failed to control hazardous air pollutant emissions and failed to implement a program for leak detection and repair.
The company has since worked cooperatively with EPA to bring the Bluebell Gas Plant into compliance. In 2010 the Bluebell Gas Plant was modified into a natural gas compressor station and is now known as the Bluebell Compressor Station.
In addition to the monetary penalty, El Paso will continue to fund two ambient air monitoring stations on the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation with the intention of reporting data to the EPA’s national database. This monitoring data will inform local officials and residents and contribute to the management and protection of air quality on the reservation.