‘Blatant violations.’ Kentucky oil company fined $100,000 for dumping polluted water
A Kentucky oil company has been fined $100,000 for illegally discharging polluted water.
Logsdon Valley Oil Inc., also known as Hart Petroleum, also was placed on probation for three years, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The case started in 2019 when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency received information that Logsdon Valley was improperly disposing of brine water from a well in Hart County, according to the court record.
The water is a waste byproduct of pumping oil out of the ground. It is known to contain chemicals including benzene, a cancer-causing substance, according to the court record.
Oil producers are supposed to inject it into an approved underground storage well, below the drinking water table, or pay someone to haul it to a disposal facility.
However, Logsdon Valley ran pipes from oil storage tanks to dump the wastewater into sinkholes, padding its bottom line at the expense of the environment, prosecutors charged.
The owner, Charles Stinson, instructed one employee to drain the brine water “somewhere where it wasn’t obvious,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Judd said in a sentencing memorandum.
Stinson died while the case was pending.
Prosecutors had a hydrologist from Western Kentucky University analyze the flow of contaminated water from one of Logsdon Valley’s leases.
The analysis showed the discharge would go to a spring that emptied into the Green River, according to the prosecution memo.
The discharge contained chemicals that presented potential threats to aquatic species and the water supply, the memo said.
Logsdon Valley, under Stinson’s leadership, committed “blatant and willful violations” of the federal drinking water law, the prosecutor said.
“The motive is simple. It is greed,” Judd wrote.
The attorney for Logsdon Valley, Brian Butler, sought a fine of $5,000 for the company, saying that Stinson’s widow had no involvement in running it when the violations occurred but worked to bring it into compliance with an EPA order after Stinson died.
“Logsdon Valley is in compliance and will remain in compliance,” Butler said in advocating against a large fine.
The prosecutor pushed for the $100,000 fine, however, noting that Stinson and his company continued to break the law despite pleading guilty in 2013 to similar violations and being fined $45,000.
U.S. District Judge Greg N. Stivers sentenced Logsdon Valley Aug. 15 in federal court in Bowling Green.
