Alabama oil and gas firms face environmental fines

The Alabama Department of Environmental Management has proposed fines against two oil and gas producers in southwest Alabama.
Under consent orders signed with each company, ADEM would fine Columbia Petroleum $20,000 and would fine Crosbys Creek Oil & Gas $8,000.
The order says that Columbia, of Columbia, Miss., failed to get a proper permit for a facility that it built east of Castleberry in Conecuh County sometime before July 2009. ADEM says that smoke coming from a flare at a Columbia well exceeded the required 20 percent opacity in a July 2010 inspection, because the company was burning oil in addition to natural gas. The company told ADEM it planned to build a pipeline to process natural gas nearby, eliminating the need for a flare.
Crosbys Creek, based in Jackson, Miss., failed to make required monthly tests for poisonous hydrogen sulfide coming from its flare at a facility near Silas in Choctaw County in the last three months of 2010.
Interested persons can comment or request a hearing by writing to Ron Gore, Air Division Chief, P.O. Box 301463, Montgomery, AL 36130-1463.