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EPA Orders Canan Operating, Inc. to Stop Discharging

Release Date: 05/26/2009
Contact Information: Dave Bary or Anthony Suttice at 214-665-2200 or [email protected]

(Dallas, Texas - May 26, 2009) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a cease and desist administrative order to Canan Operating, Inc. of Wichita Falls, Texas, for violations of the federal Clean Water Act.

On May 13, 2009, an EPA inspection of the company’s oil field production facility in Wilbarger County, Texas, found an unauthorized discharge of oil field brine generated by production activities into a tributary of Beaver Creek. The inspection also revealed that water located at the discharge point of entry into the tributary was contaminated from brine discharges and salts.

Based on these findings, Canan Operating, Inc. has been ordered to cease all discharges of pollutants from the facility, remove all brine and contaminated soils from the flow path located between the facility and the tributary of Beaver Creek, remove all brine from the tributary of Beaver Creek, and within 30 days provide written certification to EPA that all these activities have been completed.

More about activities in EPA Region 6: https://www.epa.gov/region6

EPA audio file is available at https://www.epa.gov/region6/6xa/podcast/may2009.html