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Site Number: |
Z4XA |
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Contract Number: |
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D.O. Number: |
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Action Memo Date: |
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Response Authority: |
OPA |
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Response Type: |
Time-Critical |
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Response Lead: |
EPA |
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Incident Category: |
Removal Action |
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NPL Status: |
Non NPL |
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Operable Unit: |
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Mobilization Date: |
11/15/2013 |
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Start Date: |
11/16/2013 |
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Demob Date: |
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Completion Date: |
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CERCLIS ID: |
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RCRIS ID: |
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ERNS No.: |
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State Notification: |
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FPN#: |
E14409 |
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Reimbursable Account #: |
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1.1.1 Incident Category
This is an OPA Work Plan requesting additional funding/ceiling increase to the FPN to complete the project. WRS Inc. filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 25th, 2014 essentially freezing existing funding.
The approved document can be viewed in the documents section of this website.
1.1.2 Site Description
The Fred Boling Oil Well Lease consists of twenty-three (23) abandoned oil wells sitting on an 81 acre tract of farm land along Bates Hollow Road near Weberstown, Hancock County, Kentucky. The farm owner has been complaining of crude oil discharging into several tributaries on her land and affecting drinking water for her livestock and farmland downstream. Recently, she has made several complaints to Kentucky Oil and Gas officials (KOG) as well as Kentucky Department Environmental Protection and other state officials. KOG’s Greg Welsh referred the property owner to EPA Region 4 ERRB’s Chuck Eger for follow up action under the Oil Pollution Act.
The 23 identified oil wells were drilled in the 1940s through 1960’s and continuously produced crude oil until the late 1990’s. Visual inspection by KOG’s Welsh, the EPA OSC and USCG Strike Team members found numerous wells leaking at land surface and impacting tributaries to Sugarcamp Creek, a contributing stream to Panther Creek in Hancock County. Panther Creek is a tributary to the Green River, which is over three hundred miles in length in Kentucky. The Green River, which empties into the Ohio River, serves as an important transportation artery for the coal industry. The Ohio River flows westerly into the Mississippi River. The farm land upon which the Fred Boling Oil Well Lease occupies is rural and hilly, with numerous tributaries to the Sugarcamp Branch of Panther Creek.
II. Assessment Findings:
On Tuesday, November 5th, EPA OSC Perry Gaughan met KOG’s Greg Welsh and two USCG Strike Team members to inspect the 81 acre farm. Several of the abandoned well locations were leaking crude oil to land surface and impacting adjacent creeks. (see supporting photographs) Approximately one third of a mile west of the residence, a large twenty-five foot long sludge pit downgradient of a tank battery was filled with crude oil and sludge to a depth exceeding four feet. EPA estimates that it could be holding as much as 14,000 gallons of crude oil and it is also impacting a neighboring stream.
III. Access and Owner Concerns:
The OSC had a lengthy conversation with the property owner on signing an access agreement to perform the well plugging operations. Her initial concern was that she was reluctant to grant access to EPA subcontractors because she didn’t want her farmland “torn up with random access roads to well locations”. She simply wanted the contractors to treat the land as “if it were their own backyard”. The OSC and Kentucky Oil and Gas' Greg Welsh stated that only previously used access roads would be used and graded as necessary and that all land would be brought back to its original state to the best of our ability.
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