Mesa County's five-page report about evaporation ponds focuses on assessing traffic impacts, protecting the environment, ensuring public health and cleaning up the waste ponds if they leak or are no longer used. "Evaporation Pond Facilities Draft Policies" is being written as a component of the county's developing Energy Master Plan. County officials are looking for more control over these waste facilities as they go through the conditional-use-permit process. In order to operate an evaporation pond, which is used by the oil and gas industry to dispose of tainted water used in the extraction of oil and gas, a conditional-use permit from the county must be obtained. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which issues permits for the facilities, is working on its own rewrite of evaporative pond regulations. The state's regulations will focus more on the science behind the pits, while the county's regulations focus more on land use, said Charles Johnson, solid waste unit leader for the state agency. The state's revisions won't be rolled out to the public until sometime next year. The county's draft policy also might not be completed until sometime in 2008.
Some of the county's draft policy highlights:
- A one-year study will be conducted to examine groundwater, prevailing winds, rainstorm flows, soils and vegetation.
- New evaporation facilities will be a minimum of a one-half mile from an existing dwelling and at least one mile from a municipal boundary or rural community.
- Ponds, located no closer than 500 feet to property lines, will be constructed with two synthetic liners and checked weekly for leaks.
- Ponds will have warning signs posted and have immersed ladders and ropes for escape in case someone falls in.
- Regulators will explore "engineering solutions" to minimize pond odors.
- A transportation-impact study will be performed.
- The facility will post a bond "to insure the reclamation plan, remediation plan" until post-closure water monitoring can be completed, according to the draft policy. The bond amounts are to be recalculated every five years, and they will be sufficient to cover road maintenance and remediation of spills.
- The ponds will be monitored with weekly reports submitted to the county and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
- The facility must produce an approved emergency-management plan to follow in the event of a spill. Documentation verifying the spill has been cleaned must be submitted to and approved by the state and the county before the evaporation facility reopens.
- Evaporation ponds must submit a "closure plan" before closing. "Pits shall be properly closed within six months after cessation of use," according to the draft policy.