EnCana gas flaring lights up the sky

People living in Rifle and Silt saw a spectacular light show Monday. Problems at a natural gas processing plant west of Rifle caused EnCana to shut down its compressors and flare or burn about 10 million cubic feet of gas.

“EnCana’s West Rifle refrigeration plant experienced a freeze-up due to water in the … units on Sunday evening,” said EnCana spokeswoman Wendy Wiedenback.

Jim Golden watched the flaring from his home in south Rifle.

“It was quite the spectacle,” he said. “I could hear it roaring inside the house.”

He said the flame, which was as high as the 125-foot stack that flared the gas, was visible from Monday afternoon, off and on, until 11:30 that night.

“I estimate it burned from 1 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.,” Golden said. “The flame was over 100 feet high.”

EnCana produces about 400 million cubic feet of gas daily, said gathering service operations manager Brad Ankrum. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the average American household uses 90,000 cubic feet of gas annually.

The loss was significant. “Yes it was a financial blow. Our business is to produce gas not to flare it,” he said.

Ankrum explained that water got into the lines that bring the gas from producing wells to the central processing plant. There the gas is cooled to remove heavier hydrocarbons before the gas goes into the transmission pipelines that carry it to markets across the country.

“The flaring was intermittent while we were trying to get the freeze out of the unit,” he said.

The cooling units froze when “a big surge of water” came with the gas flowing into the plant from the wells.

Golden said he was concerned about the potential environmental hazards created by the burn.

“What it does to our atmosphere is not good,” he said. “I can’t say they were negligent but they should be more diligent” in identifying potential problems earlier.

Although the amount of gas burned was significant, it did not pose a health or environmental threat, said Garfield County Environmental Health Manager Jim Rada.

Wiedenback said EnCana flared off “clean-burning methane gas” from which the more volatile and toxic hydrocarbons were removed.

“When they flare off gas they essentially are incinerating the volatile organic compounds” that can pose a health threat, Rada said. “There are no visible emissions other than flame. If it’s pure methane and being incinerated at high temperatures, there’s not anything to be overly concerned about.”

EnCana did not violate state air quality regulations, said Garfield County oil and gas liaison and assistant county manager Jesse Smith. “In an emergency situation all the rules go out the door,” he said. “You do what is prudent for public safety. It was probably the safest thing they could do.”

Rifle Fire Marshall Kevin Whelan said the fire did not pose a threat to the community.

“It was a controlled release of gas that was burned off,” he said. “We weren’t worried about it.”

But it was something to see.

“I drove home by it. It was impressive. It lit up the whole area,” Whelan said.

Source: www.glenwoodindependent.com