August 27, 2010
COLORADO OIL AND GAS COMPANY PLEADS GUILTY AND IS SENTENCED FOR KILLING MIGRATORY BIRDS IN TWO STATES
DENVER – Encana Oil & Gas Inc. (USA), headquartered in Denver, Colorado, pleaded guilty and was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Denver yesterday for violating the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) in Colorado and Wyoming during the past four years, the Justice Department and U.S. Fish and Wildlife announced today.
The charges stem from the deaths of approximately 55 protected birds, including waterfowl and owls, at Encana’s uncovered natural gas well reserve pits and waste water storage facilities in Colorado’s Piceance Basin and in Sweetwater, Sublette and Lincoln Counties, Wyoming. The Court sentenced the company, pursuant to plea agreement, to the maximum fine of $15,000 for each of the two counts, and $170,000 in community service payments. The fines will be deposited into the federally-administered North American Wetlands Conservation Fund. The community service payments will be directed to the Congressionally-chartered National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, designated for waterfowl preservation work in each of the affected states. During an 18-month probationary period, Encana must also implement an “environmental compliance plan” designed to keep birds from coming into contact with oily waters at its facilities in the two affected states. According to papers filed in court, the company has already spent over $3 million to begin implementation of the plan.
“The United States is bound by several treaties to protect migratory birds, many of which cross international borders and are a resource we share with other countries,” said John F. Walsh, United States Attorney for the District of Colorado. “The Migratory Bird Treaty Act provides only criminal sanctions for unlawfully taking such birds and we treat corporate violations of this statute as serious offenses.”
“Environmental compliance plans, like the one in this case, help reduce the needless killing of protected birds in the future,” said Steve Oberholtzer, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Region Six. “Our agency will continue to investigate these killings and refer appropriate cases for prosecution.”
The Migratory Bird Treaty Act, enacted in 1918, implements U.S. commitments under avian protection treaties with Great Britain (for Canada), Mexico, Japan and Russia. The Act creates a misdemeanor criminal sanction for the unpermitted taking of listed species by any means and in any manner. The maximum penalty for a corporate taking under the MBTA is $15,000, or twice the gross gain or loss resulting from the offense, and five years probation: individual defendants also face imprisonment for up to six months. None of the birds killed in this case are listed as endangered or threatened under federal law.
Migratory birds often land on open wastewater ponds at oil and gas facilities and become coated with, or ingest, fatal amounts of hydrocarbons discharged into the water during drilling or production operations. Such killings can be prevented by scrubbing the water of contaminants before discharge, removing the ponds, placing an obstruction such as netting or plastic “bird balls” over the water to prevent contact, or installing commercially-manufactured electronic hazing devices which detect incoming flights of migratory birds and deploy noise and lights to scare them away from the area. Encana’s environmental compliance plan will employ these techniques, tailored to each facility, to prevent future mortality.
The cases were investigated by Special Agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and are being prosecuted by Senior Trial Attorney Robert S. Anderson of the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Linda McMahan of the District of Colorado.
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