The Environmental Protection Agency is asking for more information from Encana Oil and Gas before signing off on the company’s request for an aquifer exemption. Encana wants to pump waste water into the Madison Aquifer from their oil and gas field in the Moneta Divide. The Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has already approved the request, but the EPA says the modeling of the plume that Encana did is too broad and the agency wants more information about why, according to Encana, the relatively clean water can’t be used for other purposes .
Encana’s Paul Ulrich says they’d like to address EPA’s concerns quickly.
“We’re hopeful we can start using the injection well later this spring.” Says Ulrich. “Based on how this issue is addressed by EPA and obviously the Oil and Gas Commission will determine when that happens. From our perspective, we’d like to start using this well sooner than later.”
The Madison formation is used as a source of drinking water in other parts of Wyoming as well as in other states. The EPA is the last agency that needs to approve the project before Encana can use the well.