The Wyoming Environmental Quality Department (DEQ) was established in 1973, is a Wyoming state institution to protect, conserve and improve the Wyoming environment "through a combination of monitoring, licensing, inspection, enforcement and recovery/remediation activities". It consists of 6 divisions and since 1992, the Council on Environmental Quality (EQC), an operating agency separated from 7 members appointed by the governor.
Suppressing issues has included since 2002 the effects of the rapidly expanding mineral and energy industry in Wyoming, such as natural gas production, fracking, oil refining, coal mining and uranium mining, including coal water methane management.
Video Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality
History
The Wyoming Legislature established the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in 1973 in passing the Environmental Quality Law.
In 2000, the Wyoming legislature passed the "Voluntary Remediation from Contaminated Sites" law which established a voluntary remediation program. Two memorandum of agreement from March 14, 2002 determines how regional DEQ and EPA 8 interact on contaminated sites: the Law on Resource Conservation and Recovery Agreements and Comprehensive Compensation and Comprehensive Environmental Accountability (CERCLA) Act.
Maps Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality
Responsibility
DEQ enacts state and federal environmental laws, including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the National Pollution Disposal Elimination System (NPDES), Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Superfund Amendments and Law Reauthorization III (SARA), Surface Mine Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 and the Wyoming Environmental Quality Act. Enforcement includes over 17.5 million acres of public land and 40.7 million acres of federal mineral estate, managed by the Land Management Bureau
Organization
In 2012, DEQ's Director is Todd Parfitt, who was appointed by Matt Mead, Governor of Wyoming; from 2003 to 2012 The director has become John Corra. In 1992, Wyoming reorganized all state agencies dealing with natural resources, and the legislature declared EQC to be a separate operating agent. There are also two independent entities appointed by the Governor, the confirmed Wyoming Senate: the Council on Environmental Quality (EQC) and the Industrial Supervisory Board.
In addition to its administration with the Office of Outreach and Environmental Assistance, DEQ has six divisions: abandoned mine, air quality, industrial location determination including wind turbines, land quality to permit/license underground and underground mines, solid wastes and hazardous wastes, and water quality. Communities can enter through four advisory boards: state & amp; investment board, advisory council for air quality, one for water and sewage, and one for soil quality.
In 2010, DEQ has 267 employees located in Sheridan, Lander, Casper, Rock Springs, Pinedale, and headquarters in Cheyenne, with the current state budget cuts between 5 and 10 percent. Wyoming's state budget allocation for two years from July 1, 2014, to 30 June 2016 predicts only 264 employees. In 2009, 74 employees performed nearly 2,900 inspections. DEQ has asked for more inspectors since 2003, and the request was defeated "with a clear desire not to know what was going on" as former Wyoming House Democratic Representative Pete Jorgensen.
Environmental Quality Board (EQC)
EQC has 7 members, and per law no more than four members can be from the same political party. By 2014, the EQC has a Republican majority. Until April 2016, members have:
By 2014, Rich Fairservis has been the CEO of Granite Peak Development, the largest developer of Wyomings, which built its crude oil facility into rail by 2014.
In 2013 Nick Agopian has been hired by Devon Energy as a government specialist and regulator.
In 2012 David Bagley leads the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at Wyoming University.
In 2013 Meghan O'Toole Lally is the 5th generation sheep and cattle ranchers.
In 2015 Megan Degenfelder has become a spokesman for Cloud Peak Energy coal producer.
In 2016 Tim Flitner is the fifth-generation cattle rancher at the Diamond Tail farm.
In 2016 Aaron Clark is an environmental consultant for oil and gas development and applying for natural resources licenses to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and in 2015 is a former Wyoming Game and Fish Commissioner.
Former member
Thomas Coverdale, Republican from Daniel until March 2016 and former chairman F. David Searle, Republican from Sheridan until March 2015. When his membership was extended and he became Chairmanin 2016 Fairservis moved from Casper to Natrona.
Establishment Board of Industrial Estate
This goes to the Division of Industry Division. In April 2016, the following members, which like the EQC have 7 members, and per law no more than four members may be from the same political party:
Corra has been an executive in the minerals and chemicals industry, by 2015 consulting for FMC Corporation per Wyoming University.
Miller has been Special Assistant, Vice President of Academic Affairs at Laramie County Community College.
O'Gara retired from teaching economics at Laramie college and has a business that offers business positioning and impact analysis (Wyoming Center for Business & Economic Analysis).
In 2015 Sandy Shuptrine leads the Teton District Conservation District. and is the only person who disagrees in approving an ammoni production plant in Rock Springs by Simplot, because it is only 30% designed and contains only one sentence about the potential release of the environment.
Peter Brandjord said in 2014 "that the Simplot proposal is one of the best applications he has ever seen". In 2000 he became Chairman of the Board of Wyoming Pension System.
Kenneth Lantta has KDL Consulting, and has worked for the oil and gas industry (Precision Drilling Company, L.P. Wyoming oil & gas industry safety alliance).
Former member
In 2002, former member Greg Bierei was hired by the Thunder Cundung Coal Company, L.L.C., operating the Black Thunder Mine as an engineering/environmental manager per accident investigation.
Air quality division
Wyoming is divided into four areas of air quality. By 2014 the most strictly regulated area is Sublette County, which contains two natural gas fields from Jonah Field and the Pinedale Anticline Project Area (PAPA). By 2013, 80 percent of oil drilling licenses issued by the Wyoming State Oil and Gas Compact Commission are located in Sublette County and four other districts (Campbell County, Converse County, Johnson County and Laramie County).
In the Upper Green River Basin with parts of Sublette, Lincoln County, and Sweetwater County, companies with multi-well developments should place pollution control early on in operation, while single well development only needs to install it if they emit more than four tons of compounds organic volatile (VOC) every year.
In the 'Concentrated Development Area', which consists of all Carbon Territories, Fremont Regencies, Natrona and Uinta Regencies as well as parts of Lincoln County, Wyoming and Sweetwater County, multi-well development requires early pollution control, but facilities with single wells may be dislodged up to eight tons of VOC per year.
In the so-called 'territory of the state' of all remaining districts, there is a VOC limit of 10 tons per year for all types of well development, derived from 20 tons per year only in 2007.
In December 2013, DEQ issued the city of Medicine Bow permission for the construction of a coal gasification plant. In 2011, Sierra Club challenged the permit, and lost in front of the Supreme Court of Wyoming.
Non achievement
Between 2008 and 2011, Pinedale had high ozone levels, so the US Environmental Protection Agency declared it a non-contracted area. For achievement, "the region must have three years where the fourth highest level of ozone is below national standards". The American Lung Association gave the value of failure at the ozone level in the area.
Public health investigations of the Wyoming Department of Health from 2008 to 2011 found an association between short-term changes in ozone levels and acute respiratory problems among residents seeking health care in Sublette County. The North Arapahos and Eastern Shoshone tribes seek "status status" to regulate air quality monitoring. In 2013, the EPA decided on the request and decided that the land actually belonged to the Indian River Wind Reservation and had more than a century, even though the 1905 law opened it to non-tribal members.
Distribution of land quality
DLQ has licensing sites and licenses for coal, and one for non-coal, including uranium. In 2013, the DEQ feasibility study estimated that Wyoming costs at least $ 4.5 million and 1o new staff to take over the uranium and thorium mining arrangements. The mining industry has pushed the country to take over, saying the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is too costly and moving too slowly.
Mine reclamation
The Land Quality Division enforces the Federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of its 1977 liability to mining companies to ensure they can pay for mine reclamation costs. Wyoming does not require large mining companies to post bond guarantees. Instead, these companies can hold their own assets as "self-ties". The bankruptcy of large coal mining companies could jeopardize the $ 2.2 billion that DEQ has allowed in self-bonding.
After Arch Coal declared bankruptcy, DEQ agreed to receive $ 75 million instead of $ 486 million in binding obligations. After Alpha Natural Resources declared bankruptcy, DEQ agreed to receive $ 61 million instead of $ 411 million in binding obligations. On March 28, 2016, DEQ assured the federal Open Mining Office that Peabody Energy's self-sufficient ties remained adequate. Before Peabody Energy declared bankruptcy on April 13, it held $ 1.47 billion in self-bonding liabilities, including $ 900.5 million in Wyoming alone.
Voluntary Remediation Program (VRP)
On January 3, 2014 "more than 200" contaminated sites were part of the VRP. The program lists 18 abandoned and contaminated sites, also known as orphaned sites, 17 of which affect ground water. On April 3, 2014, there are nine active orphaned sites, 4 in Cheyenne, including Orphan Pley Cheyenne Perchlorethylene (PCE) Site, Orphan Plum Casper PCE Site, Laramie PCE Plume Orphan Orthopedic Site, Deluxe Cleaners and Tailors Orphan PCE and VOC Sites and former Yatium Lobell Refinery Site, and 9 orphaned inactive sites.
After a well explosion by Windsor Energy Corp near Clark, Wyoming in August 2006, which forced the evacuation and took nearly 56 hours to plug in the drilling mud, liquid gas and natural gas condensates were released through a 255 foot cracked well casing under the ground. On 12 January 2007 the DEQ water quality division issued a notice of infringement; the company settled in August 2007 promising to participate in the 'Voluntary Remediation Program' and pay a $ 2,812.50 fine. Well monitoring shows groundwater contamination, but excludes residential areas. In 2007, elevated levels of benzene in one personal water also accelerated the 2009 cleanup schedule; Windsor had to submit a cleanup plan to DEQ on May 1, 2008. Not until 2010 residents learned about the plan. In May 2011, Windsor presented a final draft improvement for Clark residents at a public meeting, where citizens criticized the lack of monitoring of private wells and "some expressed frustration with Wyoming state laws that they felt preferred the industry rather than private property", and at where "regions and countries both work together, and they are all very pro industry".
A year earlier, Windsor Energy Group LLC had dumped at least 200 barrels of liquid from the Bennett Creek site near Clark, with permission from the property owner and was fined about $ 5,000.
Budget
2014 Budget adjusted US $ 142,904,296 to DEQ. Half the budget, or $ 74.5 million, goes to the Agency of Abandoned mining reclamation. The second largest post is for water quality at $ 23,276,958, followed by $ 17,155,165 for air quality.
References
External links
- Official website
- Wyoming Environment Quality Board
Federal agencies:
- EPA in Wyoming
- Wyoming & amp; Fish Department
- Wyoming Natural Resources Conservation Service, US Department of Agriculture
- US. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management - Wyoming
State institutions:
- State of Wyoming Ministry of Agriculture - Natural Resources & amp; Policy
- Land and Land Investment Offices, minerals, oil and gas
- Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission
- Geological Survey of Wyoming State
- Wyoming Water Development Commission
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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