HomeMy WebLinkAbout20012236.tiff 1 STATE OF COLORADO
2 BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, WELD COUNTY
3 June 25, 2001
4 RE: SHOW CAUSE HEARING - Enviro-Cycle, LLC
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6
7 TRANSCRIPT OF TAPE RECORDED MEETING
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9 M. J. GEILE, Chairman
10 COMMISSIONER MEMBERS PRESENT
11 GLENN VAAD, Pro-Tem
12 WILLIAM H. JERKE
13 ROBERT D. MASDEN
14 DAVID E. LONG
15 ALSO PRESENT
16 LEE MORRISON, Esq. , Assistant County Attorney.
17 JULIE CHESTER, Department of Planning Services .
18 CINDI ETCHEVERRY, Weld County Dept . of Public Health.
19 DON CARROLL, Weld County Public Works Department .
20 SPEAKING TO THE SHOW CAUSE ORDER
21 MELVIN DINNER, Esq. , appearing on behalf of
22 Enviro-Cycle c/o Mike Cervi .
23 RANDE BERNAL, Manager, Enviro-Cycle.
24 JAMES BERNAL, resident of Weld County.
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1 [The tape recorded proceeding as set forth on page one is
2 transcribed as follows : Note: Visitor/complainant microphone not
3 functioning properly.]
4 MR. MORRISON: We have a Show Cause Hearing this morning
5 to determine whether good cause exists for relocation of a site
6 specific development plan use by Special Review Permit 1198 for an
7 oil and gas, for an in-service facility, brine water disposal , in
8 the A-agriculture zoned district, Enviro-Cycle, LLC, care of Mike
9 Cervi, planned this morning. Miss Chester. Good morning, Julie .
10 MS . CHESTER: Good morning. Julie Chester, Department of
11 Planning Services . This is DPH2000-002 . This is a Show Cause
12 Hearing that we have continued this from previous hearings . The
13 last inspection by Planning was on June 1, 2001 .
14 The actual land use application is USR 1198 . The site is
15 located in the North half of the northwest quarter of Section 32 ,
16 Township 4 North, Range 65 west, of the PM, located in Colorado.
17 And if you' re not sure where it is, it' s south of an adjacent Weld
18 County (inaudible) , east of and adjacent to Weld County Road 39 .
19 As far as planning issues, and non-compliance, there are
20 several development standards that are still needing to be
21 addressed. I believe Cindi Etcheverry is going to address most
22 of the compliance issues, but the main issue with Planning, is
23 the hours of operation, and then the rest of the issues seem to
24 be environmentally associated. I' ll let Cindi address most of
25 those issues .
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1 MS . ETCHEVERRY: Cindi Etcheverry, Weld County Department
2 of Public Health and Environment .
3 I've been receiving some correspondence from the
4 complainants . First, I' ll let you know, I did receive a revised
5 waste management plan, which is also called the solids handling
6 plan. I received that on June 22nd, Friday. I haven' t had a chance
7 to review it thoroughly.
8 Some of the past and non-compliances that I had seen
9 was that the underdrain had not been sampled. The underdrain is
10 supposed to be sampled semi-annually, because it' s not supposed
11 to have fluid in it, and it does have fluid.
12 And according to condition number three, in the USR, they
13 need to make sure that everything is environmentally safe.
14 Today, the analyticals were due in June, and I haven' t
15 received those as of yet for that underground sampling.
16 The issue, a manager on site, Julie covered.
17 Waste disposal methods . There was a complaint on May 9 --
18 yeah, May 9th and -- I believe that was the date . I' d have to look
19 in my files . Let' s see. Oh. May 8th complaint .
20 I responded to that complaint a few days later, and
21 upon -- on May 11th, when I inspected that complaint, I saw a large
22 quantity of sludge on the receiving pads . I asked the facility
23 manager what was occurring, and they'd been cleaning out their
24 solid separation tank. When they did that, they opened gates
25 underneath that tank, and let the solids go onto the pad. It was
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1 a significant amount of sludge .
2 I reviewed their past correspondences, and I found that
3 no spillage is to occur while cleaning out the solid separation
4 tank. And Rande Bernal had told me that, you know, this was the
5 first time they' d cleaned it out, and they were trying to figure
6 out how to do it efficiently and safely.
7 I have talked to other injection wells who said that they
8 have zero spillage . In fact, they fully contain their solids when
9 they clean out their solids tanks . I would like to see that occur
10 for the next time they do clean out their solids and their sludge.
11 The complaints that we've received since the probable
12 cause were strong petroleum odors . Those have never been
13 substantiated.
14 However, the complainants have shown concern. And some
15 of the commissioners have also observed strong odors . I don' t know
16 where those are coming from. It may or may not be a problem.
17 The facility does typically have a small amount of
18 petroleum odors, but I didn' t -- I wasn' t there the day that I
19 smelled -- the day that they were occurring.
20 I think the big thing is the waste management stuff .
21 That was the big concern.
22 Noise in the vehicles, I was told by the complainant at
23 the last hearing that they were cleaning frac tanks, again, during
24 the weekends, because county employees don' t work during the
25 weekends . I have not substantiated that . I guess that' s it .
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1 MR. CHAIRMAN: Don, did you have anything you wanted
2 to add?
3 MR. CARROLL: No, not at this time .
4 MR. CHAIRMAN: Are there any questions of the staff?
5 Commissioner Vaad.
6 COMMISSIONER VAAD: So Cindi, when you say the main
7 concern is the waste management, you' re referring back to the fact
8 that you observed sludge on the pad?
9 MS . ETCHEVERRY: Yes .
10 COMMISSIONER VAAD: And that evidenced a lack of
11 management of the waste?
12 MS . ETCHEVERRY: Yes .
13 COMMISSIONER VAAD: And tell me, again, you mentioned the
14 manager on site? The fact is, there isn' t a manager on site at all
15 times, is that the point?
16 MS . ETCHEVERRY: That' s correct .
17 COMMISSIONER VAAn: Thank you.
18 MR. CHAIRMAN: Any other questions? If not, is a
19 represent- -- yes, Commissioner Masden.
20 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: Yes . Cindi, is there, with the
21 spillage, it did contaminate the pad itself, or --
22 MS . ETCHEVERRY: Yes, it did cover a large portion of the
23 receiving pad.
24 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: Okay. How do they clean that up?
25 MS . ETCHEVERRY: They did that, after they figured out
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1 that it was too wet to be able to do anything with, they contracted
2 with CSI , and they also contracted with Todd Amen' s crew to remove
3 the sludge .
4 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: Okay. They steamed that pad up,
5 and suck it up, and then haul it to CSI?
6 MS . ETCHEVERRY: They did a pretty good job at that, yes .
7 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: Did they? Okay. They have their
8 MSDS sheets, all their paperwork on that?
9 MS . ETCHEVERRY: They did submit some paperwork, and it
10 said the analyticals were completed and enclosed. However, these
11 are not analyticals that I have . These are waste profile sheets,
12 and I'm currently trying to contact CSI to see if they did require
13 analyticals . ENP waste is exempt under RECRA however, their permit
14 does request analyticals for disposal of the sludge.
15 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: Okay. So they' re in violation of
16 not having -- having the proper analyticals on that, then?
17 MS . ETCHEVERRY: Yes .
18 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: Okay. All right . Thank you.
19 CHAIRMAN GEILE : Any other questions? Commissioner Long.
20 COMMISSIONER LONG: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You say
21 "considerable amount of sludge. " What' s "considerable?" I now
22 it' s a guesstimate, but --
23 MS . ETCHEVERRY: I was trying to explain that to Julie.
24 It' s really hard to tell, but I would say it would be an area from
25 my seat to that wall, and of probably a slightly larger distance
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1 the other way, length and width. It was a really large quantity.
2 COMMISSIONER LONG: Was it all on the cement, then?
3 MS . ETCHEVERRY: Yes, it was all contained within -- with
4 the receiving pad. They' d berm' d it up on the lower side, to make
5 sure it didn' t go down into their drains and clog their drains .
6 COMMISSIONER LONG: Okay. Thank you.
7 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Any other questions? If not, is there a
8 representative from Enviro-Cycle here this morning that would wish
9 to address the board?
10 MR. DINNER: Yes, Mr. Commissioner.
11 CHAIRMAN GEILE: If so, would you please come forth and
12 give your name and address for the record?
13 MR. DINNER: Good morning, Commissioners . My name is
14 Melvin Dinner. I'm an attorney at law. My offices are located
15 here in Greeley at 540 Bank One Plaza, 822 - 7th Street, Greeley,
16 Colorado 80631 . My telephone number is 970-352-2081 .
17 Two of you may recall , Mr. Geile and Mr. Vaad, I appeared
18 before you in May of 1999 , at the time that you granted the USR
19 1198 to Enviro-Cycle LLC. I'm pleased to appear before you today,
20 to indicate that to the best of our knowledge, we are totally in
21 compliance with the requirements and the development standards .
22 I understand there have been some complaints by a
23 neighbor, which may or may not be heard today, and to that extent,
24 I need to indicate to you that under the Right to Farm Ordinance
25 passed by this county, any of these complaints are totally
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1 meaningless . And I' ll go into that at a later date in the course
2 of this discussion.
3 MR. MORRISON: Mr. Dinner, I've got to ask you about
4 that . I don' t recall that being farming what they' re doing out
5 there . Right to Farm has to do with agriculture . Not --
6 MR. DINNER: This is in an A-agricultural zone .
7 MR. MORRISON: Yeah, but it' s a USR in an A-agricultural
8 zone.
9 MR. DINNER: Yes .
10 MR. MORRISON: It' s not farming.
11 MR. DINNER: The ground is --
12 MR. MORRISON: Under any circumstances, that' s not
13 considered farming.
14 MR. DINNER: Eight acres are taken for the oil and gas
15 support and service facility --
16 MR. MORRISON: Yeah, but --
17 MR. DINNER: -- that you have granted to this limited
18 liability company called Enviro-Cycle .
19 Perhaps it might be helpful if I introduce people who are
20 here from Enviro-Cycle who are capable of answering any questions
21 that you might have, so I would introduce them at this point .
22 Rande Bernal -- you want to stand be me?
23 For your benefit, Rande is a local person. She graduated
24 from Eaton High School . She subsequently went to college for two
25 years in Wyoming. After attending school in Wyoming, she
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1 subsequently went to work with Con-Agra, and was involved with
2 Con-Agra in connection with their industrial engineering program,
3 and their environmental engineering program, and with their safety
4 department .
5 Subsequent to that, she has attended seminars in Denver,
6 and she has also engaged in training the employees who are present,
7 at Enviro-Cycle . At all times, there are manager and assistant
8 manager on site during the period of the operations of the company.
9 To this extent, she also trains the personnel who are
10 there, and she has weekly meetings with these employees so that
11 they have knowledge as to what is occurring and what takes place .
12 For your benefit, I will hand each of you -- you wish to
13 call this Exhibit A, and 1 --
14 MR. MORRISON: Actually, we' re up to "R" .
15 MR. DINNER: Okay. I wasn' t sure how we (inaudible) when
16 we started, and -- So that this will give you some background as to
17 type of training, and work, and experience are given to the
18 employees at Enviro-Cycle .
19 Also present today is Mike Cervi, who is the
20 manager/owner of Enviro-Cycle LLC, and Mike is a long time -- his
21 family -- a long time relationship to Weld County, both by way of
22 farming, ranching, oil and gas, et cetera.
23 Mike, as probably many of you know, is the provider of
24 rodeo stock for the National Western Stock Show.
25 Mike' s grandfather, as I understand it, grew up -- and
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1 correct me if this true -- he homesteaded the ranch facility back
2 as early at 1873 ; is that correct? Mike is available here to
3 answer whatever questions that you might have .
4 So that you have a better idea, last Wednesday when we
5 appeared with regards to the matter of setting this for today,
6 Cindi indicated a matter of some revisions to the waste management
7 plan. An original waste management plan was filed in 1999, and the
8 second one was -- that was by Jim Daniels .
9 The second one has been filed, and this is a revised one,
10 in response to what Cindi had discussed on Monday of last week, and
11 we' ll mark this as Exhibit S .
12 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Esther, are you picking up all these
13 conver- -- these comments away from the microphone?
14 (No audible response . )
15 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Okay.
16 MR. DINNER: And I would indicate that if you have any
17 specific question with regards to the revised waste management
18 plan, certainly Mr. Nau will be able to answer any questions that
19 you might have concerning that .
20 With regards to the underdrain that was raised as a
21 question a few moments earlier, it is necessary to say that it is
22 my understanding that the underdrain was sampled in March of 2001,
23 and it has just recently been sampled, and is to be sampled every
24 six months; is that correct, Rande?
25 MS . BERNAL: Yes .
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1 MR. DINNER: And that is the time period for it to be
2 done, and the next sampling would then occur in October of 2001 .
3 MS . BERNAL: I have a sample --
4 CHAIRMAN GEILE: I'm sorry, but if your client -- if they
5 need to say something, counsel, you need to ask them to come and
6 get their name and address, for the record, so we' ll know who' s
7 making the statement .
8 MR. DINNER: If you would step forward here with me, give
9 them your name and your current address, and tell them about the
10 underdrain sampling that occurred.
11 MS . BERNAL: Rande Bernal, 23466 Weld County Road 55,
12 Greeley, Colorado. I do have the results for the water tests that
13 we performed on June 21st .
14 MR. DINNER: I have a copy of those .
15 MS . BERNAL: We just performed one in March, but after
16 Monday, she said she wanted another one ran for June, so we did do
17 another.
18 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Has that been shared with our Health
19 Department .
20 MS . BERNAL: No, I don' t -- I did not tell her.
21 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Okay.
22 MS . BERNAL: So I did tell you that in --
23 MS . ETCHEVERRY: Tell me what? I'm sorry.
24 MS . BERNAL: That I got the water test back yet? I don' t
25 think so.
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1 MS . ETCHEVERRY: No, you did not .
2 MS . BERNAL: I did not . That' s what I --
3 CHAIRMAN GEILE: So for the record, it has not been
4 shared with the Health Department .
5 MS . BERNAL: No.
6 MR. MORRISON: Do you have an extra copy for them?
7 MR. DINNER: I surely do. This will be Exhibit T; is
8 that correct?
9 MR. MORRISON: Yes .
10 MR. DINNER: Rande, if you would come forward and explain
11 about this test result .
12 (Inaudible comment . )
13 MS . BERNAL: There' s certain standards that the county
14 has asked for us to test for, and we take that test in, and they
15 don' t know exactly how to read these. I will honestly tell you
16 that . If there is anything that is wrong with them, then at Weld
17 County Weld Laboratory, they will always let us know. And he
18 explained them to me that last time I did get them done . And I'm
19 not an expert on the (inaudible) --
20 (Off microphone discussions -- inaudible . )
21 MS . BERNAL: I'm sorry. Mike had -- or Dave at the
22 facilities -- at the West Weld Laboratories, had told Mike these
23 were basically drinking water standards .
24 CHAIRMAN GEILE: And may I ask you, when you say who, at
25 the Weld Laboratories? You said --
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1 MS . BERNAL: It was Dave .
2 CHAIRMAN GEILE: And could you give his full name,
3 please.
4 MS . BERNAL: Yeah, if I could read it .
5
CHAIRMAN GEILE: Yeah. A big "B. "
6 MS . BERNAL: Yeah. I don' t know what Dave' s last name .
7 He' s project manager there.
8 CHAIRMAN GEILE: So for the record, we could say it' s the
9 Project Manager for Weld Laboratories, first name being Dave .
10 MS . BERNAL: Yeah.
11 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Thank you.
12 MR. DINNER: I believe it' s Dave Brown, but I'm not sure .
13 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Okay.
14 MR. DINNER: With reference to the Waste Disposal
15 networks that have (inaudible) -- which was inspected by Cindi
16 Etcheverry on May 11th, 2001; is that correct, Cindi?
17 MS . ETCHEVERRY: Yes, sir.
18 MR. DINNER: She indicated that she thought there was a
19 significant amount of sludge . But she also clearly indicated to
20 you that there was no spillage which occurred, the solids were
21 contained, and no problem of any kind occurred. And the concrete
22 pad was properly cleaned.
23 The third item that she raised was strong odors of oil
24 and gas, but she clearly indicated to you that she didn' t know
25 where or what the source was that brought about the odors of oil
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1 and gas . So that it' s quite apparent that there' s certainly no
2 proof that they arose or came from the Enviro-Cycle site.
3 With reference to the next item of noise that was raised
4 as a complaint by someone -- and I don' t know who it was, or the
5 source of the complaint -- it is particularly important that you
6 understand and recognize, under the standards -- (pause. )
7 And I would like to put into the record, even though the
8 problem is a part of the USR 1198 , a copy of Exhibit U, which are
9 the site specific standards that relate to Enviro-Cycle . There are
10 32 of them in number.
11 And I call your specific attention to Item No . 9 . It
12 reads as follows : "The maximum permissible noise level shall not
13 exceed 70 decibels, as measured according to Section 25-12-102
14 CRS . " At no time has there ever been a decibel reading that even
15 closely approximates that noise level . And I am unaware of any
16 so-called complaint that even refers to anything approximating that
17 noise level .
18 There are, for your benefit, tests that were specifically
19 made by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. And they
20 come, and they do make inquiry from time to time, and I would like
21 to give you these reports as well . I have one which is dated June
22 the 6th of 2001, and the second one which is June 11th, 2001, where
23 they were specifically requested to come back and make noise
24 decibel meter readings .
25 First of all, I think it' s important that you also
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1 recognize the examination of this report . It deals with the
2 Enviro-Cycle property; that they show good results with their
3 inspection as to each of the items that are involved in the bottom
4 of the June 6 , 2001, report, it states as follows :
5 "Operator requested state noise meter to monitor the
6 noise level at the tank battery. Will return next week with
7 the meter. "
8 The following week, the party did return on June 11,
9 2001, and stated the following: "That the meter operator could
10 monitor the noise upgrade at the tank battery system. The initial
11 reading by the closest residents was 47 to 50 decibels, " and it
12 passed. And I would like to insert these as exhibits for your
13 records . This would be Exhibit V; is that correct?
14 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Yes . Counsel, at what period of time
15 was this test conducted? It was conducted on June 6th. Can you
16 tell me was that per hour, was that all day, was that --
17 MR. DINNER: Well , I have people who were present at the
18 time the tests were conducted. Mr. Bernal , you were there at the
19 time . Could you step forward and --
20 CHAIRMAN GEILE : Perhaps to add validity to the exhibit,
21 could you -- what was the time that this --
22 MR. DINNER: Would you give them your name and address?
23 MR. BERNAL: My name' s James Bernal . I live at 23466
24 Weld County Road 55, Greeley, Colorado. And as far as the
25 information goes, this was conducted about 11 o' clock (inaudible)
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1 and a person from the Oil and Gas Commission, Lindy Bavonka
2 (phonetic) she was there about an hour and a half . She did several
3 readings ; one on this side of the fence, which would be on the east
4 side of the fence, and the other one, which was conducted on the
5 opposite side of the fence, which was even lower at that time --
6 and the wind was blowing, which also makes a difference on the
7 meter reading.
8 The west side of the fence, I believe it was down in the
9 lower 40' s, and in light of that, we' re also going to extend our
10 fence even further down to block any more noise that could possibly
11 happen (inaudible) . Anything that has noise, we' re surrounding
12 with an additional fence to make it even quieter.
13 The system that we've taken out is extremely noisy. The
14 new system that we put in and implemented, is extremely -- and I
15 emphasize "extremely, " quiet .
16 CHAIRMAN GEILE: When was this test -- which system was
17 this test conducted on?
18 MR. BERNAL: The new system.
19 CHAIRMAN GEILE : The new system. So that would have been
20 an hour and a half, from 11 : 00 to about 1 : 30 or 12 : 30, or something
21 like that .
22 MR. BERNAL: Yeah, about that .
23 CHAIRMAN GEILE: And then on your report, it says, was
24 going to return next week with a meter. Was he going to do another
25 test?
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1 MR. BERNAL: Yes, she did. She brought back a meter for
2 us to actually have on site, because we wanted to test without --
3 throughout several intervals, and Rande is the one who actually
4 took those tests . So I' ll let her tell you about that .
5 MR. DINNER: Rande, let me -- first of all the second
6 report from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, that
7 was conducted June 11th, which would be Exhibit W -- in connection
S with Exhibit W, I call your attention to the fact that it
9 specifically refers to the fact that James Bernal was on location
10 during this inspection.
11 And Rande Bernal, who is with Enviro-Cycle as their on-
12 site facility manager, requested the use of this . It did not come
13 from some outside source, and she would have this information. And
14 as you will notice, on the very bottom of Exhibit, it indicates
15 that initial reading by closest residents, 47 to 50 decibels .
16 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Again, what was the time frame, counsel,
17 that this test was conducted?
18 MR. DINNER: What' s that?
19 CHAIRMAN GEILE : What was the time frame that this test
20 was conducted?
21 MR. DINNER: I' ll have Mr. Bernal give you that
22 information, because he was personally present .
23 MR. BERNAL: The second one was conducted around 2 : 30 in
24 the afternoon. This one was a little bit distorted, because it was
25 kind of rainy that day, so it actually was probably a little higher
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i than it should be. (Inaudible comment . )
2 MR. DINNER: Does that answer your question?
3 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Yes, it does . Thank you, counsel .
4 MR. DINNER: As I indicated, to the best of my knowledge,
5 at no time has there ever been a decibel reading that even closely
6 approximated the 70 decibel standard contained in the development
7 standards .
8 I can assure you that there has been no cleaning of frac
9 tanks since they were discussed with the health department . They
10 have been removed.
11 Initially the personnel at Enviro-Cycle believed that
12 they had the authority and the ability to do such work under their
13 USR. They were advised by the Health Department that they did not
14 have that authority, and so consequently, they discontinued
15 cleaning the frac tanks, and I might indicate further, not only
16 did they discontinue, there are no frac tanks on site . Rande, you
17 want to come up here a moment and tell them when the last frac
18 tanks were removed.
19 MS . BERNAL: Those were actually all moved before I even
20 started working there . There is no frac tanking going on. There
21 was a frac tank on our premises last week when we cleaned our oil
22 tanks . Then that -- that stuff who had -- we sucked that out, and
23 that was taken to CSI .
24 There was a frac tank there for about twelve hours . And
25 we put all of our oil into it, and then all of our oil (inaudible)
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1 got cleaned out, and (inaudible) -- So there is no frac tanking
2 going on.
3 MR. DINNER: For your benefit -- stay here, Rande --
4 Rande came to work for Enviro-Cycle approximately four months ago,
5 in February of 2001 . And she has been there continuously since
6 that time . Is that correct?
7 MS . BERNAL: Yes .
8 MR. DINNER: To the best of my knowledge, you may inquire
9 from Rande or from Mr. Cervi, any amounts of sludge are arranged
10 for removal with CSI . They contracted them, and they are an
11 accredited remover of solids both by the federal government and
12 the state of Colorado; is that correct?
13 MS . BERNAL: Yes .
14 MR. DINNER: Some time back, there was a problem with
15 some noise . It did not reach the decibel reading, which exceeded
16 the 70 decibels . But this was the old heater-treater unit that was
17 located on the premises, and was and did cause a certain amount of
18 noise level .
19 And there was also a certain amount of vibration that
20 occurred. As a result of that, the company, being Enviro-Cycle,
21 purchased a new heater-treater unit, which has been installed,
22 which has drastically reduced the noise level from the old unit,
23 as compared to the new unit .
24 In connection with that, I will give you a copy, which
25 will be Exhibit X, which was the letter by Rande Bernal which
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1 confirmed this arrangement and the change with the heater-treater
2 unit, in order to reduce the noise level from the old unit, to the
3 new unit .
4 CHAIRMAN GEILE : If I might ask staff, did you receive
5 this letter, ' cause it' s addressed to the Planning Department?
6 MS . CHESTER: Is the letter dated May 7th?
7 CHAIRMAN GEILE : Yes .
8 MS . CHESTER: Yes, we have, and staff determined at that
9 time that was not a substantial change, that this is a switch of
10 equipment .
11 CHAIRMAN GEILE : Okay. Thank you. Go ahead, counsel .
12 MR. DINNER: Weekly test results are recorded, and I hand
13 you now what would be Exhibit --
14 MR. MORRISON: "Y. "
15 MR. DINNER: Exhibit Y. These test results -- first
16 of all, testing is done on a weekly basis, is recorded, and is
17 provided by the facility. And this indicates a period of March,
18 forward through June 11th.
19 I think I've answered all the questions that were raised
20 by Cindi Etcheverry from the Health Department . I would like to
21 move forward with giving you some more information with regards to
22 the location and the status of the Enviro-Cycle site.
23 This is the exhibit of a warranty deed that covers the
24 transfer by MP Investments, LLC, a Colorado limited liability
25 company as grantor, to Enviro-Cycle, LLC, a Colorado limited
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1 liability company, on May 10th, 1999, in what is described in Weld
2 County, Colorado, as Lot B of recorded exemption No. 1055-31 to
3 RE-2367 , recorded May 7th, 1999 , as reception number 2692540, and
4 acquired the north half of the northwest quarter of Section 32 ,
5 Township 4 North, Range 65 West of the 6th PM, Weld County,
6 Colorado . And we' ll introduce this as Exhibit --
7 MR. MORRISON: "Z" .
8 MR. DINNER: -- Z . In conjunction with understanding
9 what Lot B looks like, I need to indicate to you that Lot B is
10 something in excess of 67 acres . Lot A, of that recorded exemption,
11 is about 2 .4 acres . And I will introduce an exhibit so that you
12 have the exact information with regards to Lot A and Lot B, and
13 this will be Exhibit AA.
14 In order to further orient your understanding of this
15 property, I've taken this copy of the plat map so that you may
16 see information that deals with Section 32 , and all of this is
17 well in advance of the ownership by what was described as MP
18 Investments, LLC, grantor. This will give you information
19 concerning Weld County Road 39 and Weld County Road 40 . I
20 would introduce this as Exhibit BB.
21 I also call your attention to the fact that the portion
22 of (inaudible) the north half of the northwest quarter is colored
23 or highlighted in yellow, so that it' s more easily identifiable by
24 you as to its location.
25 On the right side of the map, I have also indicated Weld
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1 County Road 40, and at the bottom of the map, you' re able to
2 discern Weld County Road 39 .
3 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: These test results, what were
4 they for?
5 MR. DINNER: What?
6 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: What were these for?
7 MR. DINNER: Those are testing results that are requested
8 by the Health Department.
9 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: For what well?
10 MR. MORRISON: Can we get this on the record, please?
11 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Yeah. We need to --
12 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: Okay. I'm sorry.
13 CHAIRMAN GEILE: I wonder -- we' ll wait for those
14 questions, commissioner --
15 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: Okay.
16 CHAIRMAN GEILE: -- if we could, and when he gets done,
17 we' ll make sure we have clarification on all these exhibits .
18 MR. DINNER: Next, I would like to introduce a copy of
19 the deed of the neighbors who live in Lot A. Now, it' s important
20 that you understand that this is where some of the complaints have
21 come from, and they are based upon acquisition and purchase by
22 Brian MacDonald and Elisa Santagata, by virtue of a warranty deed
23 dated June the 30th, 2000, and recorded July the 5th, 2000, under
24 reception number 2778582 of the Weld County records .
25 You need to recognize that this is well over two years
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1 later than the acquisition and construction of the Enviro-Cycle
2 Brine Wastewater Facility Plant .
3 I hand you now what was marked for purposes of
4 identification, as Exhibit CC. In conjunction with the Exhibit
5 CC, it is necessary to call to your attention what is referred
6 to as Weld County' s Right to Farm Ordinance . And I would
7 introduce that as Exhibit DD.
g I would also like to submit as an exhibit, correspondence
9 which was dated June 15, 2001, to the Weld County Board of County
10 Commissioners, specifically addressed to Lee B. Morrison, Assistant
11 County Attorney, from Michael P. LeSage, an attorney with offices
12 in Casa Robles, California, a gentleman who has dealt with you in
13 the past, in connection with the application for the USR. And this
14 was a letter that was received, or I assume was received, by the
15 Weld County Board of County Commissioners . And I'd introduce this
16 exhibit as --
17 MR. MORRISON: EE .
18 MR. DINNER: -- Exhibit double-E . The purpose of Mr.
19 LeSage' s correspondence, was to clearly identify the issues of
20 jurisdiction, and the jurisdictional level , of the Colorado Oil
21 and Gas Conservation Commission. And that is outlined in his
22 correspondence to the Board of County Commissioners .
23 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Is the insinuation in this letter that
24 this board does not have jurisdiction in hearing a Show Cause
25 Hearing, or approving a USR.
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1 MR. DINNER: What he is saying is, you have zoning and
2 planning issues jurisdictions . That the overall jurisdiction is
3 with the -- if you' ll recall , the matter being in the Certificate
4 of Designation that was clearly with the Colorado Oil and Gas
5 Conservation Commission, and not with the county level .
6 CHAIRMAN GEILE: I just wanted to make sure we were
7 clear, counsel . Thank you.
8 MR. DINNER: Yes . I think it was quite apparent in
9 the documentation which I have presented, and from the comments
10 that were made both by Ms . Chester and by Ms . Etcheverry that
11 Enviro-Cycle is now in compliance, and has always attempted to
12 constantly and consistently remain in compliance with these
13 development standards .
14 If there was, at any time, something which was other than
15 that, they have attempted, totally, to correct the situation and to
16 operate within the confines of those relative standards .
17 At this point I assume it would be proper to simply say
18 if you have questions of either Mr. Cervi, or if you have questions
19 of Ms . Bernal , or if you have questions that I can answer for you,
20 I would be happy to do so in connection with the matters that deal
21 with this Show Cause Hearing.
22 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Okay. Are there any questions
23 of counsel? Commissioner Masden.
24 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: Yes . One of the questions I have
25 is about the after-hours usage .
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1 MR. DINNER: I' d be happy to address the question. The
2 development standards refer to 7 o' clock a.m. , to 7 o' clock p .m.
3 Those are the hours for accepting brine wastewater for purposes of
4 treatment at the facility. To the best of my knowledge, they have
5 never been violated.
6 Certainly there are people on the site who are there
7 before 7 o' clock, or people on site after 7 o' clock. Let me just
8 sort of give you an idea what we' re talking about.
9 There is a great deal of maintenance, Mr. Masden, that
10 has to be done at the facility. And those matters are done and
11 frequently will occur either before 7 o' clock in the morning or
12 after 7 o' clock in the evening. And those are the hours in which
13 they occur.
14 An example of what we' re talking about, if you went to a
15 grocery store, and you saw -- it stated on the front door of the
16 grocery store the hours of 7 o' clock, and 7 o' clock p.m. , that' s
17 the public hours in which you and I would go to the grocery store
18 to buy what we need.
19 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: Let me stop you there . Not the --
20 I understand that part of it, but actual operation -- hours of
21 operation from 7 : 00 a.m. , to 7 : 00 p.m. And what you' re stating is
22 that to the best of your knowledge, there' s never been any business
23 transacted after 7 : 00 p.m?
24 MR. DINNER: Not brine wastewater treatment . And I can
25 address the issue with both Brande, for the past four months -- you
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1 want to come forward, Brande, so you can speak with regards, at the
2 microphone .
3 MS . BERNAL: At 7 : 00 p .m. , our gates are shut, and we do
4 not lock them for safety reasons . But if there is a truck in there
5 at 6 : 45, maybe that truck will unload, and he may leave at 7 : 05 or
6 7 : 06 . And if the truck had been there before 7 : 00 p .m. , we will
7 unload him. But the gates are still shut at 7 : 00 p.m. , and they' re
8 opened back up at the gate -- or for the truck to leave .
9 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: Thank you. Another question for
10 counsel .
11 MR. DINNER: Yes .
12 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: You handed this letter out from
13 Michael LeSage from California, and by the USR and the times that
14 we have set from 7 : 00 in the morning till 7 : 00 at night . Basically
15 what he' s telling us, and you probably agree, that we have no -- no
16 bearing on that . Weld County has no --
17 MR. DINNER: What I'm getting at is the basic
18 jurisdiction lies with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation
19 Commission. But we have no problem with your working within the
20 realm of the development standards that you have set here at 7 : 00
21 a.m. to 7 : 00 p.m.
22 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: Mm-hmm. Okay. And the waste
23 management, the hauling of that by or to CSI, the disposal of that,
24 is done every six months?
25 MR. DINNER: Oh, no. They come more frequently. Rande,
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1 once again, would you explain the process that is used for removal
2 of solids with CSI, and how that' s handled on a daily, weekly,
3 monthly basis?
4 MS . BERNAL: Well, in the waste management plan, we
5 (inaudible) once every six months .
6 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: Mm-hmm.
7 MS . BERNAL: And that was, you know, hoping that that
8 would work out . We have been very busy, and we may need to do it
9 once every three months .
10 But as needed, we will make sure of removal, because
11 that -- when that stuff does run through your system, it doesn' t
12 make it very much fun. So we will get that stuff out of there, you
13 know, once every three months, once every six months, and make the
14 call to CSI .
15 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: Okay. And you put that waste, what
16 is it, frac sand, BSNW, you put it in containers or barrels, or
17 something?
18 MS . BERNAL: No, what it is, we have what' s -- an open
19 mud tank, okay? So that truck can actually just go right over with
20 his hose and suck off all the sludge . So the sludge never goes
21 straight from there into the mud tank.
22 The day that Cindi was talking about, we cleaned out
23 all of the dirt . All of the sludge was taken out with a vac
24 truck, okay? The dirt, the solids, the frac sands you get, were
25 pushed out .
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1 Basically, we have a letter from (inaudible) that
2 said that, you know, our solids could be left on the pad, so we,
3 maybe, misinterpreted (sic) it wrong, but it said all solid removal
4 and handling processes conducted at the facility shall be
5 conducted on the concrete receiving pad.
6 I have an example of what the difference is between
7 sludge and solids . I mean, there' s a huge difference . Sludge you
8 cannot scoop up with a scoop shovel . Okay? Solids, you can.
9 You know, we' re going to try different measures this time
10 to try to prevent that . Cindi suggested that we use plastic wire,
11 and that' s what we' re going to try and do this time, when we push
12 those -- push our solids down through the hatches .
13 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: Okay. All right .
14 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Any other questions?
15 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: Yes . Are you guys cleaning any
16 water tanks, or -- I mean, not water tanks, but like the trucks?
17 Are you washing the trucks out there, or anything?
18 MS . BERNAL: No, we are not cleaning frac trucks at all .
19 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: No. Trucks .
20 MS . BERNAL: No . We don' t clean the trucks .
21 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: All right .
22 CHAIRMAN GEILE : Commissioner, did you have a question on
23 those water tests?
24 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: Yes, I did. The one letter you
25 passed to us --
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1 CHAIRMAN GEILE : On the test results .
2 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: On the test results . What do these
3 standards -- what do these standards mean? Are these in compliance
4 or, is there -- it says something about the Clean Drinking Water
5 Act, or are they in compliance with that?
6 MR. DINNER: To the best of my knowledge, they meet all
7 the requirements that are needed.
g COMMISSIONER MASDEN: Okay.
9 MR. DINNER: And you might just check with Cindi
10 or Julie .
11 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: All right . These weekly test
12 results -- test well results here that you passed out -- this
13 started on March 11th. It has well number one and well number
14 two. Are those monitoring wells around the facility? Is that
15 what --
16 MS . BERNAL: Yes, those are the two monitoring wells that
17 we have .
18 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: Okay. All right . And then in the
19 development standards, it says that you need to keep your log on
20 the underdrain.
21 MS . BERNAL: That is -- that is the underdrain.
22 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: Oh, that is for the underdrain?
23 MS . BERNAL: Yes .
24 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: Okay. That is what --
25 MS . BERNAL: That monitoring of the underdrain, yes .
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y .
30
1 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: Okay. That' s what I was wanting to
2 know. Then they' re dry, or there' s not enough fluid in there?
3 MS . BERNAL: Well, the one -- the one has always been
4 dry. Okay?
5 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: Uh-huh.
6 MS . BERNAL: The other one has been varying from one to
7 three inches . And I can' t get the one-inch pumped out with my
8 pump. So if there' s more than two inches in there, then we pump
9 it out .
10 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: All right . Okay. ' Cause I know on
11 the development standards, it says here, in the event those are
12 detected in the underdrain, facilities shall cease operations and
13 notify Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
14 MS . BERNAL: (Inaudible)
15 MR. CERVI : I'm Mike Cervi, Box 169, Sterling, Colorado.
16 I'm the owner of the Enviro-Cycle. To answer your question on the
17 underdrains, there was fluids found in the underdrains about a year
18 and a half ago. They were immediately tested, and operations were
19 ceased, for about a four-day period, dating from -- Well Raft came
20 out and had a little machine that can pull the water out . Tested
21 it, in fact, and it was completely clear. The other one has
22 continuously been dry.
23 The availability of water in these monitoring drains
24 depends a lot on the drains -- several things . There' s times when
25 it' s dried up. We see it drying up now, because it hasn' t rained.
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1 (Inaudible) water hasn' t increased in inches in -- what? Last
2 three or four months?
3 But anytime water was detected, we did shut down. And
4 the leak was to be corrected. Well, we found out it wasn' t a leak
5 from any of the part of the water we had. It was all underground
6 water. (Inaudible) find out there, you might go to any given place
7 and get underground water. And a year later, you may not,
8 according to the irrigation that' s (inaudible) .
9 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Does that answer your question?
10 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: Yes, thank you.
11 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Are there any other questions of
12 counsel? Commissioner Vaad?
13 COMMISSIONER VAAD: Mr. Dinner, early on, Commissioner
14 Jerke asked about, - I guess, your assertion that the Weld County
15 Right to Farm Law somehow covers this . Is that what you were
16 saying? And can you explain that?
17 MR. DINNER: Yes . It is my position that the Weld County
18 Right to Farm Ordinance applies to 80-acre agricultural zoning.
19 This is within the agricultural zoning.
20 COMMISSIONER VAAD: The law that' s standard here in our _
21 Index 22-E, and it states to Colorado Revised Statute, 35-325-201
22 provides that an agricultural operation shall not be found -- it
23 doesn' t apply to --
24 MR. DINNER: Well, I think it does, Mr. Vaad, because you
25 have granted USR 1198, as you have granted other special permits .
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1 And they are within the A-agricultural zoning. And the people who
2 come in -- move into the agricultural zones, are subject to that
3 Right to Farm Ordinance .
4 COMMISSIONER VAAD: Okay. Thank you.
5 CHAIRMAN GEILE: We' ll get to the determination of that
6 later, counsel . I just have two clarifications, counsel --
7 MR. DINNER: Certainly.
8 CHAIRMAN GEILE : -- if I could. I'm looking at two of
9 your earlier exhibits, which are faxes from -- one is on June 20th,
10 which is a summary qualification for manager training with Enviro-
11 Cycle. And that' s from the John Ewing Company.
12 MR. DINNER: No, no, no. The fax -- let me explain.
13 The fax unit at Enviro-Cycle was broken down. So Rande has to go
14' somewhere else to fax that material to me. She went over to the
15 John Ewing Company, and faxed it from their fax facility to my
16 office .
17 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Okay.
18 MR. DINNER: And that' s the reason you see their name on
19 the documents .
20 CHAIRMAN GEILE : Okay. A couple questions I had about
21 the handbook for you or Mrs . Bernal, whoever would want to deal
22 with it, but how long has the employee handbook been in place?
23 (Off microphone discussion. )
24 MS . BERNAL: That handbook was written by Jim Daniels
25 in 1999 .
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1 CHAIRMAN GEILE: 1999?
2 MS . BERNAL: Mm-hmm.
3 CHAIRMAN GEILE: When you make the statement, " . . .are
4 required to understand and enforce the following. . . " " . . .are
5 required to understand. . . " how do you determine that they do
6 understand? Do they take a test for something?
7 MS . BERNAL: Yeah. We do the tests, we review them every
8 week. You know, because safety is a big issue out there, because we
9 want to make sure that all the employees understand --
10 CHAIRMAN GEILE : Do you have those tests on file?
11 MS . BERNAL: Yes .
12 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Okay. Then the other question on the
13 other exhibit, Revised Waste Management Plan for Enviro-Cycle, that
14 was prepared by you on June 20th?
15 MS . BERNAL: Yes .
16 CHAIRMAN GEILE: And who was that prepared -- was that
17 prepared by you?
18 MS . BERNAL: Yes, sir.
19 CHAIRMAN GEILE : Okay. That answers my questions .
20 MR. DINNER: Thank you, Mr. Commissioner.
21 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Okay. Counsel, the way I'm going to
22 conduct these proceedings today, there are people in the audience
23 that wishes to speak to these proceedings . When they are -- when
24 that is completed, I will close that segment .
25 You can then present any closing statements that you
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34
1 might like, but at that time, I will close it to any further
2 rebuttal, and we' ll make a determination on where we' re gonna go
3 this morning. So just so that we have the process .
4 MR. DINNER: I understand your parameters .
5 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Thank you, sir. This is a public
6 hearing. Is there anybody in the audience that wishes to speak to
7 this issue this morning? If so, would you please come forth and
8 give your name and address for the record.
9 MR. MacDONALD: Good morning. My name' s Brian MacDonald.
10 I own the property at 1886 Weld County Road 39 , west of Enviro-
11 Cycle .
12 Need to talk about this agricultural zoning, and we' re
13 ag up here in this area, when I moved out to this area. But this
14 isn' t ag, not at all . And I don' t see where they fall under that
•
15 guideline even if it is, you know, legally possible .
16 The monitoring wells, if they had fluid in them, that
17 they were talking about at any time -- you know, it sounds like
18 there was several times that they didn' t shut down.
19 It seems to me that we've had a situation going where
20 we've had them fire up that heater treater at certain times, and
21 then shut it back down before you can really get anybody involved
22 in it . I don' t know what that' s all about .
23 This situation of the heater treater itself, if they
24 replaced it, I remember sitting in these hearings several months
25 ago, and they were claiming that there was no problem whatsoever
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1 with their heater treater; that it wasn' t making those loud booming
2 noises, and it wasn' t a problem. Why would they replace it if it
3 was no problem at that time? Doesn' t make sense.
4 This guy' s got 67 acres they' re assuming on this site. I
5 can' t understand why this place would be put right on my back door.
6 Why couldn' t they have put it on the other side of that site?
7 All' s we've been asking for is that they comply with the
8 7 : 00 to 7 : 00 rule, and they haven' t done it to this point . I think
9 from this point on, they need to shut it down. That' s about all I
10 have .
11 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Are there any questions of Mr.
12 MacDonald. Commissioner Masden.
13 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: I know previously, Mr. MacDonald,
14 you had expressed that there was a lot of noise, loud noise, and
15 stuff . Is that continuing, or has that ceased?
16 MR. MacDONALD: Well, . like I said, they've come up with
17 this -- I don' t know what' s going on. It seems like that heater-
18 treater will fire up for just a little while, and then shuts back
19 down, and I don' t know what they' re doing there.
20 It' ll be in the middle of the night, 11 o' clock, you
21 know. Just about the time you' re trying to get to sleep. So I
22 don' t know what that' s all about .
23 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: Is it -- is it of the nature -- the
24 same nature as it was previously, though? Or better, or worse?
25 MR. MacDONALD: Well, essentially, I mean, maybe not
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1
36
1 quite as loud, given that, but, I mean, nevertheless .
2 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: Okay. All right . Thank you.
3 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Commissioner Jerke .
4 COMMISSIONER JERKE: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Can you
5 tell me about odors? I haven' t really heard much in testimony
6 about the --
7 MR. MacDONALD: Yeah. There' s strong odors --
8 COMMISSIONER JERKE : -- one evening I was out there, I
9 smelled quite a bit --
10 MR. MacDONALD: -- strong odors from time to time . It' s
11 a pesticide type odor is what I' d classify it as . And it' s fairly
12 strong from time to time . There' s no time set when you' re going to
13 smell it and when you' re not .
14 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Stronger in the summer?
15 MR. MacDONALD: Seems like right now. But I mean, we' re
16 outside more right now, too.
17 COMMISSIONER JERKE: Okay.
18 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Any other questions for Mr. MacDonald?
19 Thank you very much, sir.
20 MR. MacDONALD: Thank you.
21 CHAIRMAN GEILE : Is there anybody else in the audience
22 that wishes to speak to this issue this morning? Would you please
23 come forward and give your name and address for the record, please .
24 There' s two of you walking up. So I didn' t want you to collide up
25 here, so --
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1 MS . SANTAGATA: He' s bigger, but I'm better. My name is
2 Marilee Santagata. I live with Brian and Lisa at 18860 County Road
3 39 . I would like to say that I believe there' s a lot more frac
4 tanking going on, on the weekends, than you know about .
5 The county sleeps on the weekend. And there' s a lot of
6 activity going on over there, and it looks like frac tank running
7 to me . But I'm not an oil person. I don' t know for sure .
8 There' s also alarms going off at all times . They testify
9 to the cops that there are no alarms there . Either that, or
10 they've got a K-Mart special going on, because there' s a red light
11 going, and the thing is going beep-beep-beep-beep-beep in the
12 middle of the night .
13 We called 911 . There' s an alarm going off and nobody' s
14 there . They went there, they went through it, and finally somebody
15 came out . By the time they got there -- the police were on the
16 other side of Greeley -- by the time they got there, the alarms had
17 quit going.
18 They called -- they phoned from your company. I don' t
19 know who they got ahold of, and they told them there was no such
20 thing as an alarm there, which tells me how much validity they
21 have, because I wouldn' t have called them, if there hadn' t been an
22 alarm, and a red light going off on top of that building. And it
23 was going around and around.
24 One day they were out there, and all white -- dressed up
25 in whites with ventilators . I live 100 feet away. What were they
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1 doing? Why didn' t I get one? I don' t know what they' re doing out
2 there; I don' t even care, except if it' s affecting us . I don' t --
3 does anybody understand what those white suits are all about, and
4 the respirators? I'm scared. I live there.
5 My granddaughters live with me 24 hours a day during the
6 summer. She' s had many nose bleeds . My other granddaughter had
7 multiple nose bleeds . She' s been sick to her stomach; she' s on
8 medicine .
9 I'm taking her down for testing. She has an appointment
10 this week sometime . They went in, and they took preliminary
ii testing.
12 I pray. I pray people are all right, and that there' s
13 nothing going on, and that there' s nothing but prairie dust .
14 But she' s sick to her stomach. She'-s never sick. This
15 little girl is healthy as the day is long.
16 So we' re -- I just wanted you to hear what' s going on at
17 our end, and I hope I didn' t forget anything.
18 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Okay.
19 MS . SANTAGATA: Thank you for your time .
20 CHAIRMAN GEILE : Just a minute . Are there any questions
21 by anybody? Thank you very much. Is there anyone else in the
22 audience that would like to comment concerning this matter?
23 MR. CROSBY: My name' s Lee Crosby. I live at 4836 West
24 8th Street in Greeley.
25 MR. DINNER: I didn' t get the name .
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1 MR. CROSBY: Lee Crosby. I guess I would like to address
2 the commissioners as kind of an interested third party who has not
3 spoken before but has listened to both sides . I own the property
4 at 18862 Weld County Road. I don' t even know if you guys were
5 aware there' s two houses out there. I own the other one . I
6 originally purchased 18860 out in (inaudible) .
7 When I purchased the property, it' s not supposed to
8 (inaudible) business put up. About a week after I'd been there,
9 the well was being drilled, and then I found out .
10 I have a couple questions for Mr. Dinner. They said
11 they' d taken a reading at the nearest residential structure. Since
12 the residence at 18860 and 18862 were not included or even
13 addressed when they applied for the USR, I'm wondering if they' re
14 taking readings at those residences, or the ones that they said was
15 closest in the application?
16 As for the agriculture use, and -- it would occur to
17 me that granting the USR definition changes the use from
18 agriculture to a special use, so that the property will not be
19 entitled to be shown as agricultural, and no one could come and
20 complain about it .
21 Everything I've heard today from Mr. Dinner, I have not
22 heard anything or seen any crews or given any comfort level that
23 they have changed anything substantially at the facility. They' re
24 all here telling you, Hey, everything' s fine and good. But I have
25 not seen anything that proves that .
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1 And if they were trying to comply -- and they've had how
2 many hearings here -- that they would have complied last year.
3 Cindi' s been out there quite a few times inspecting them and found
4 them not in compliance . Okay?
5 I understand Cindi has other duties, besides keeping
6 track of Enviro-Cycle, but obviously there' s a problem with this
7 facility. Because I've personally been here three times . And I
8 don' t think that an operation' s been going for two years needs to
9 have the county chasing them every day of every year, to make sure
10 they' re in compliance .
11 I guess I'm concerned that the commissioners can' t get
12 the full picture . Okay? Someone had told me, and I don' t know if
13 this is true, Mr. Jerke, if you could tell me -- you had gone out
14 there yourself to the facility?
15 COMMISSIONER JERKE: Yes, I've been out there a number
16 of times .
17 MR. CROSBY: And when you were out there, tell me what
18 did you find?
19 COMMISSIONER JERKE: I don' t know if this is proper or
20 not for me to be testifying in this situation.
21 CHAIRMAN GEILE: I would say that once we' re through with
22 the testimony, I think Commissioner Jerke has said yes he has . As
23 far as what he found, that will probably be discussed at a later
24 time, if Commissioner Jerke chooses to do that .
25 MR. CROSBY: Has any of the other commissioners visited
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1 the site, besides Mr. Jerke?
2 COMMISSIONER JERKE: I'm sorry?
3 MR. CROSBY: Have any of the other commissioners visited
4 the site?
5 COMMISSIONER JERKE: I don' t know.
6 MR. CROSBY: Well, I'm asking. Have any of the other
7 commissioners visited the site?
8 COMMISSIONERS : No. No.
9 MR. CROSBY: Just Mr. Jerke? So you' re making your
10 determination just on what you've heard here today?
11 MR. MORRISON: Well , you make a determination based on
12 what' s in the record. It' s not -- I mean, there' s a -- I think I
13 probably will encourage Commissioner Jerke to discuss what he has
14 observed, personally, so that it can be included in the record.
15 But -- I mean, that' s how you make a decision. The judge
16 isn' t part of the proceedings . He has to do it on the record.
17 MS . ETCHEVERRY: Excuse me. Cindi Etcheverry. He
18 did come to me concerning this complaint, and he did let me know
19 what was going on, and I did summarize what he had told me in
20 correspondence dated May 16, 2001, concerning that claim --
21 MR. MORRISON: Commissioner --
22 MS . ETCHEVERRY: -- so it is in the record.
23 MR. MORRISON: Commissioner Jerke' s comments are in your
24 letter? Right?
25 MS . ETCHEVERRY: Yes . Mm-hmm.
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1 MR. MORRISON: I understand that . I'm just saying, in
2 response to Mr. Crosby.
3 I mean, the board could choose to go out there and take a
4 look before you make a final decision, individually or as a group .
5 There' s nothing wrong with that . It' s just that the fact that they
6 haven' t visited the site, doesn' t make the decisions invalid.
7 MR. CROSBY: I understand that . I was just curious as to
8 how many had -- I guess in closing I' ll say that I've not heard
9 anything here today from Enviro-Cycle and Mr. Dinner that would
10 encourage me that their ways have changed. I would expect to be
11 here, again, in a month or 60 days or 90 days talking about the
12 compliance issue .
13 I don' t know how many times the commissioners are going
14 to let them continue to get out of compliance, and let them
15 continue to operate.
16 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Are there any questions for Mr. Crosby?
17 If not, thank you very much. Is there anyone else in the audience
18 wishing to speak to this matter? If not, I' ll close the public
19 testimony part of this, and do you have any closing statements
20 you'd like to make, Mr. Dinner?
21 MR. DINNER: Yes . I would first of all call upon Ms .
22 Bernal to respond to the statements made by the three public --
23 (inaudible) to appear. And then I would comment .
24 MS . BERNAL: Okay. First of all, the heater-treater
25 being fired up in the middle of the night . That heater-treater is
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1 totally disconnected, and has been disconnected for about two and a
2 half to three months. Okay? That is disconnected. Anybody can
3 walk out there and you can see it . There is no propane running to
4 that heater-treater. And we have not been using it .
5 In regards to being on the back doors, we have gone the
6 extra mile to try to make it a more comfortable place for him to
7 live . They did not like the heater-treater. I was not there
8 whenever it was (inaudible) . I did not hear it for very long.
9 We have changed all that . I took a meter with me Friday
10 morning at the edge of my fence. I did not go over to the other
11 side, which would have been another 30 or 40 foot further away from
12 it . It came up to 47 . 6 . That was with the triplex running and the
13 heater-treater running. Okay? So we' re not anywhere close to
14 being in violation as far as sound goes .
15 The odors, I don' t know what he' s smelling. Cindi' s been
16 out there, Linda, from the Colorado Oil and Gas Commission' s been
17 out there . HS' s engineers have been out there -- out there, from
18 COGA, we got a perfect score on our inspection.
19 Cindi has come out twice, and we've gotten good reviews
20 on the last two inspections. Okay?
21 HS was out there . We also got a good review with them.
22 We are not cleaning frac tanks on the weekends . We have been busy
23 on weekends, from what we were in the past . (Inaudible) has been
24 down, so we are going to have more trucks, you know, during the day
25 on Saturdays and Sundays .
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1 We are not cleaning frac tanks . There is nothing illegal
2 or crazy going on out there . We are simply running a water
3 disposal .
4 The alarms going off? I received that phone call at 1 : 30
5 in the morning. I did have personnel there . He said the alarm did
6 not go off . We do have alarms set up.
7 We have alarms set up this week, okay? We have three
8 different reasons they will go off . They will go off on the alarm
9 during the day, and only a light during the evening, after 7 : 00
10 p.m. But they' re set up on a timer. There won' t be any alarms
it going off .
12 The reason that she said she saw people running around in
13 ventilators and white suits, when we were cleaning out the mud
14 tanks, (inaudible) -- this crew is certified to do this . They were
15 inside a contained area. By law, they have to wear ventilators .
16 We were outside of the contained area. We were outside,
17 and we didn' t have to wear ventilators . We wear the white suits to
18 protect our clothes . That' s, you know, that was it . So our
19 clothes didn' t get stained.
20 I mean, we passed inspections . We are doing everything
21 USR asks of us .
22 CHAIRMAN GEILE : Commissioner Vaad.
23 COMMISSIONER VAAD: Ms . Bernal , I'm trying to track. You
24 said the heater-treater has been disconnected for two and a half to
25 three months?
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1 MS . BERNAL: Yes . Well, it has not been disconnected.
2 It' s been disconnected for about --
3 MR. BERNAL: Let me -- she' s talking about two different
4 items here . She' s got a heater-treater, and she' s got a line
5 heater. The heater-treater is the new system that was just in.
6 She' s getting the two just mixed up there . But the line heater is
7 the one that made the noise. The heater-treater is the new system
8 that' s just (inaudible) .
9 MS . BERNAL: Sorry.
10 CHAIRMAN GEILE : That answer your question, Commissioner?
11 COMMISSIONER VAAD: Mm-hmm.
12 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Commissioner Jerke?
13 COMMISSIONER JERKE: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Rande,
14 just a few questions right out of the special review permit
15 development standards . Number four, manager knowledgeable in
16 operating injection well shall be on site when the facility is
17 receiving waste . I understand that it' s impossible to guaranty
18 that they' ll be there 12 hours a day, 7 days a week.
19 MS . BERNAL: Right .
20 COMMISSIONER JERKE : Who is the person that you've
21 trained now who would be your backup manager to be able to do this?
22 MS . BERNAL: Daniel Perrera has been working there for
23 about seven or eight months now. He' s very knowledgeable, and he
24 has come back to full time days . So he is working from 9 : 00 to
25 7 : 00 and I work 7 : 00 to 5 : 00, so that we always have the -- one
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1 person designated to be the manager.
2 He knows where -- and when the Planning Board, and Cindi,
3 came out last time, when I was not there, they had asked for the
4 test well log. Well, it was in my computer, so of course,
5 (inaudible) who was there last time did not know what they were
6 talking about . So we do have that actually posted on the board.
7 But Daniel is the assistant manager, and he is extremely
8 capable of knowing everything there.
9 COMMISSIONER VAAD: So Cindi would be aware now of
10 Daniel' s name and --
11 MS . ETCHEVERRY: I am now.
12 MS . BERNAL: I think Cindi' s met Daniel in the past at
13 one of the inspections, when you came out.
14 MS . ETCHEVERRY: During past inspections when I've been
15 there, we asked who the facility manager is, and Rande Bernal was
16 gone, and the employees there shrugged their shoulders and say they
17 don' t know who the other manager would be. And so hopefully this
18 Daniel Perrera has acknowledged his designated position now.
19 MS . BERNAL: Yes, he has .
20 COMMISSIONER VAAD: And another question regarding your
21 development standards . Number 10 deals with fugitive dust control
22 on the site .
23 MS . BERNAL: Mm-hmm.
24 COMMISSIONER VAAD : Just curious, what kind of a fugitive
25 dust plan do you have there?
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1 MS . BERNAL: We use a chemical . I couldn' t tell you
2 exactly what the chemical is, but like the Enviro-Tech does it .
3 COMMISSIONER VAN): Typically a magnesium chloride, or
4 something like that .
5 MS . BERNAL: Yeah. We've done that all the way through
6 from the highway, Road 39, all the way up to -- even past
7 (inaudible) path, all the way leading up to the path.
8 COMMISSIONER VAAD: When I was out there, I did not
9 notice that in the daytime .
10 MS . BERNAL: It was done in the spring.
11 COMMISSIONER VAAD: Okay. I was out, about May 10th or
12 13th or someway in through there?
13 MS . BERNAL: Right . It would have been done just shortly
14 after that . •
15 COMMISSIONER VAAD: Okay.
16 MS . BERNAL: Cindi, it (inaudible) been after the last
17 time you were out .
18 COMMISSIONER VAAD: Another question.
19 MS . ETCHEVERRY: I did notice some dust, but I don' t know
20 my dates .
21 COMMISSIONER VAAD: Another question, number 17 deals
22 with the concrete receiving pad, shall be cleaned at a frequency.
23 At a minimum, the pad shall be washed daily with a jet hose to
24 remove any waste build up.
25 I guess my question relates to the fact I was out one
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1 evening, and happened to notice, I guess, the cleaning of the tank
2 that became the mud/slush on the big pad, and quite a -- quite a
3 lagoon of it, if you will . And then we were out, Cindi and I
4 several days later, and it had not been cleaned yet . How were you
5 coping, then, with the idea of trying to build up -- or trying to
6 clean up something on a daily basis when that obviously stayed
7 there for several days?
8 MS . BERNAL: Well, that' s with the solids . You notice we
9 have it contained where there are not going to be trucks driving
10 anywhere . Trucks were not going to be carrying any of that -- any
11 of those solids off onto the dirt, okay?
12 The pad is washed down, usually twice per day. Usually
13 wash it down first thing in the morning, and then after we close,
14 we also wash it down, ' cause it makes it a lot easier. There' s no
15 trucks coming in and out of there.
16 So, you know, that was -- the solids you guys did see on
17 the pads did come from that tank. We' re going to use the liners
18 this time, and we' re also going to just go ahead and scoop it up
19 when we' re done, immediately, and take it off, because it will pass
20 the (inaudible) filter test, which is what we were unsure of at
21 that time.
22 COMMISSIONER VAAD: Okay. Number 20 relates to a biocide
23 shall be injected into fluids received at the facility. What
24 biocide do you use, and what is a biocide?
25 MS . BERNAL: It kills the bacteria coming in from the
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i brine water and the flow back. And it is injected directly right
2 there behind the mud tank. So after it goes -- the water goes from
3 the mud tank into the first shotgun, it' s injected right there .
4 COMMISSIONER VAAD: What chemical do you use?
5 MS . BERNAL: We just changed it, and I believe it is 132 .
6 COMMISSIONER VAAD: A number, not a name, huh?
7 MS . BERNAL: Yeah. It' s like PC-132 . We just changed it
8 on Friday.
9 COMMISSIONER VAAD: That' s politically correct . Number
10 32 , speaking of 32 , that' s my next question, and I guess this would
11 relate as much to Mr. Cervi and his counsel .
12 It states here "The property owner/operator shall be
13 responsible for complying with all of the foregoing development
14 standards, all 31 of them. Non-compliance with any of the
15 foregoing development standards, may be reason for revocation of
16 the permit by the Board of County Commissioners . "
17 This is something that Mr. Cervi agreed to. And with all
18 due respect to counsel, and the oil and gas commission, I still
19 think we have authority here . It' s not a question. That was a
20 statement .
21 CHAIRMAN GEILE : Okay. Commissioner Long?
22 COMMISSIONER LONG: I had a question for -- she might
23 be able to answer it better, I'm sure . In regards to the site
24 specific development standard No. 9 , in regards to the noise, I
25 was just curious about the state statute that identifies that .
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1 And does this say that it can' t exceed 70 db anywhere?
2 Is there a distance level? I'm wondering what the db level is at
3 the site. I mean, at the site proper.
4 MS . BERNAL: Sitting right at the site, (inaudible)
5 taking a reading at the site?
6 COMMISSIONER LONG: I'm curious what the state statute
7 says, as far as distance away from it, or --
8 MR. BERNAL: Linda Bavonka told us that the proper
9 place to take the readings would be on the edge of the property
10 designated for Enviro-Cycle, which would mean the property
11 bordering on. So the decibel at the property, or at the neighbors,
12 which is on the other side of our tall fence, is a proper place to
13 take the readings .
14 COMMISSIONER LONG: Okay. Thank you.
15 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Counsel, did you have closing -- some
16 closing comments?
17 MR. DINNER: Commissioners, as I indicated earlier, I
18 welcome the opportunity to be here and to present this material on
19 behalf of Enviro-Cycle LLC. I think it' s quite apparent from the
20 information and the exhibits that have been presented that Enviro-
21 Cycle is in compliance, and continuously and consistently attempts
22 to remain in compliance with these development standards, and that
23 there is no basis for the revocation of their USR No. 1198 .
24 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Thank you, counsel . Are there any
25 questions for counsel . If not, that will conclude -- and I' ll
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1 bring it back to the Board of County Commissioners .
2 I would, first of all, like to ask staff if you have
3 anything to -- any comments you would like to make, based upon what
4 you've heard this morning?
5 MS . CHESTER: Yes . Julie Chester, Department of
6 Planning. We have several comments . I' ll start and then Cindi
7 also has some additional comments .
8 My first comment is that we would request copies of the
9 exhibits that were passed out today, as many of those we have not
10 seen.
11 Some of the things that Mr. Dinner did pass out, as far
12 as the deed for the property, was in the (inaudible) comment,
13 although we did not have a recorded copy of the deed. That was not
14 provided.
15 We had a lease agreement at the time that he was
16 (inaudible) the Board of County Commissioners, and we did get a
17 copy of that same deed, that he passed out . It was not a recorded
18 copy. So we would request copies of the exhibits that were passed
19 out, so we have our complete files, also.
20 I think that our -- the Department of Planning Services,
21 and I believe that the Department of Public Health and Environment
22 agrees with this statement, but we did want to put into the record
23 that this facility has had numerous complaints since the time they
24 were approved by the Board of County Commissioners in May of 1999 .
25 We did provide them an early use of building permit, but
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1 not an early operations permit, and the facility did operate
2 without the plat being recorded for a very long time.
3 The complaints that were made since May of 1999, I think,
4 all did -- if not all, most have been verified by the Department of
5 Planning Services, as well as the Department of Public Health and
6 the Environment . So there have been numerous complaints since the
7 approval of this permit .
8 The applicant has addressed many of the concerns, as they
9 have said today, although as one concern gets addressed, then
10 there' s another concern. So we did still feel that there have been
11 many complaints that have been verified.
12 The facility has been notified each time that there has
13 been a problem, or we've gone out there and seen some concerns .
14 But basically, they have been in non-compliance since approval .
15 The other concern that we do have, and have had since
16 the facility has been in operation, and we still do believe is a
17 concern, that the manager that is on duty is not knowledgeable
18 about the facility. And I think in our opinion that has been
19 demonstrated even today.
20 So that will be my final comment . And I' ll be happy to
21 answer any questions . Cindi does have some additional comments,
22 also.
23 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Cindi .
24 MS . ETCHEVERRY: Cindi Etcheverry, Weld County
25 Environmental Health.
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1 One of the concerns I still have is the underdrain
2 analysis . There are supposed to provide analysis for BTEX, that is
3 benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene, chlorides and sodium.
4 To this date, they still have not come into compliance and tested
5 for all of those constituents . We' re missing a sodium -- on the
6 page they gave us today, the analysis, we' re missing the sodium,
7 and that was specified in earlier correspondence .
8 Also, there' s a question as to protocol . For volatile
9 organic compounds, you do have specific holding times, specific
10 sample bottles, and there is a specific sampling protocol that
11 needs to be followed in order for the sample to be valid. And I
12 have not seen that that has occurred.
13 Every time I've asked to come out there during a sampling
14 event, to see that these things are done correctly, they've skipped
15 me . And so I've never seen that they' re sampling these
16 appropriately, and they' re very well aware that I would like to
17 see how these - - this is being sampled. So if it' s non-detect, I
18 don' t know if this is non-detect because of sampling error, or if
19 it really is non-detect .
20 The second problem I have is with the -- again, with the
21 waste management procedures . In correspondences in the past during
22 the applications, it does say no spillage shall occur on the pad.
23 In the waste management plan I saw -- that I received Friday; I
24 haven' t reviewed this whole thing -- but it does not specify the
25 procedures that Rande Bernal just described a little while ago, so
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1 that' s still a concern with that .
2 I am concerned because I have held this facility' s hand
3 ever since I started this position. This is the only facility I've
4 had that' s been in non-compliance on virtually every inspection,
5 and it has taken a minimum of three to four or five inspections to
6 try to get it into compliance, and still there are non-compliance
7 issues .
8 I've been inspecting solid waste facilities for two
9 years, and this facility has been in non-compliance for that full
10 time . Not with just the issues today, that brought past issues
11 that you can see in the record.
12 I do have many other facilities, but this facility does
13 take up a large portion of time and resources . So that probably
14 should be considered. •
15 I can' t think right offhand of other problems, but -- so
16 that' ll be it for my concerns .
17 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Don, is there any from the
18 Transportation?
19 (No audible response. )
20 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Yes, did you have a question,
21 Commissioner?
22 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: No. For Lee later on.
23 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Okay. Good.
24 MR. CARROLL: I'm Don Carroll, Weld County Public Works .
25 Just for the benefit of the new commissioners, we did enter into a
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1 road maintenance and improvements agreement with Enviro-Cycle for
2 the upgrade paving of Weld County Road 40 from the entrance -- from
3 the T intersection of 39, back to the east, approximately 500 feet .
4 And they did go ahead and upgrade, widen and pave the section for
5 us . It' s 24 feet wide, 4 inches of asphalt, with 6 inches of
6 aggregate based course, once again, with four foot shelter. So
7 they have completed that for us . It' s just additional information.
8 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Okay. Commissioner Jerke.
9 COMMISSIONER JERKE: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I had a
10 question for Lee, whether or not it was appropriate for me to go
11 ahead and relate directly, into the record, at this point or at any
12 point, my on-scene experiences .
13 MR. MORRISON: I think it is . The only thing I would
14 suggest to the chairman, if there' s information that' s not
15 previously been exposed in this process, that the operator wishes
16 to address as new evidence, then I think that would be appropriate .
17 If it' s already in the record, if it' s not new to them, then I
18 don' t know that that' s necessary.
19 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Do I need to ask the applicant?
20 MR. MORRISON: Well, I think we need to hear what
21 Commissioner Jerke has to say before anyone can judge --
22 CHAIRMAN GEILE: I mean the respondent . Commissioner
23 Jerke .
24 COMMISSIONER JERKE : Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On
25 Wednesday night, May 9th of this year, I received a telephone call
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1 at approximately 9 : 30 p.m. , from the MacDonalds concerning
2 activities going on at the facility.
3 I drove out there, got in about 9 :40 . Was able to drive
4 right into the facility. The door, or the gate, was not closed at
5 that point, and I would not have entered, if it had been closed,
6 but it was wide open.
7 So I entered the facility and drove in. Of course, it
8 was completely dark at 9 :40 p.m.
9 And I stopped for just a half a minute and read the sign,
10 driving up, so that I could kind of see what the warning sign said,
11 before I entered further, just in case there' d be any situation, or
12 danger situation, that I would not want to enter into.
13 After reading it, I did enter further, and then got up to
14 where, I guess, the pad location would be considered. There was a
15 large truck backed up to the facility there, and there were night
16 lights . One could see pretty well in the area.
17 And there were six to eight individuals working there, in
18 and around the truck area. And six, I would say, more or less of
19 those individuals, were dressed in white. Very technical looking
20 uniforms on. It was quite a surprising scene to me to see that
21 type of a situation there at 9 :40 p.m. , on Wednesday night, ' cause
22 I was well aware of the 7 : 00 to 7 : 00 curfew situation.
23 I simply did a slow turn and drove on out of the
24 facility, and went back home. I did contact Cindi Etcheverry and
25 talked with her the next day. We arranged an appointment to go out
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1 then on Friday afternoon, May 11th, at 1 :30 p.m. , and she and I met
2 and went out, and took a look at the facility then in the daytime .
3 The residue of what, apparently, they were doing that
4 night, was still left with the sludge/mud, whatever it might
5 have been, from my perspective, on the pad area. And we met with
6 Rande, and toured a little bit, and talked about the mud situation.
7 How they were going to go ahead and take care of that, and get rid
8 of it . And we left, I suppose, in about a half an hour or so.
9 Sunday night, May 13th, Mother' s Day Night, at 9 :20 p.m. ,
10 I received another phone call from the MacDonald family indicating
11 that there was further activity going on at Enviro-Cycle. I drove
12 out, and took a look, and because I wanted to be able to listen.
13 The gate was closed this time, so I could not enter. And
14 I put both windows down in my pickup, and I was able to hear a
15 great deal of activity, noisewise, going on inside.
16 What also struck me at that point was the very strong
17 petroleum odors . And they were quite strong. It was very
18 reminiscent of driving in the Conoco Refinery area of North Denver.
19 And a person who drives in that area, you are very aware of the
20 strong petro smells in that area.
21 And I did drive east of the facility, park and observe a
22 large truck doing some type of activity in the facility. Again,
23 it' s at night, I could see its lights on, noise from the truck.
24 It was clearly operating in some manner at 9 : 20 p.m. , on Sunday
25 the 13th.
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1 I drove home, reported this to Cindi, and that' s
2 basically the end of my story. Although I have received other
3 phone calls since that time, I simply wasn' t available to go out
4 and look at anything else that may or may not have been going on.
5 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Thank you. Are there any other
6 questions of the couns- -- or the commissioners with what
7 Commissioner Jerke just related?
8 Just as a matter of procedure, counsel, would you please
9 come back to the microphone, please? Counsel, would you please
10 come -- come back.
11 Counsel -- Mr. Dinner. Did you hear the statements of
12 Commissioner Jerke?
13 MR. DINNER: Yes, I heard the statements .
14 CHAIRMAN GEILE : Were you aware of those?
15 MR. DINNER: Yes . And I think they have --
16 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Okay.
17 MR. DINNER: -- been addressed. And I' ll --
18 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Okay. But the fact --
19 MR. DINNER: -- have Ms . Bernal explain once again --
20 CHAIRMAN GEILE : -- is, you --
21 MR. DINNER: -- six people dressed in white Tidex
22 clothing --
23 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Yeah. The question I had, counsel , is
24 that you were aware of what Commissioner Jerke just related?
25 MR. DINNER: Yes .
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1 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Okay. Thank you.
2 MR. DINNER: I think those issues have been addressed,
3 and I' d be glad to have --
4 CHAIRMAN GEILE: No, I don' t think we need to go through
5 them, again, but I just needed to make sure for the record that you
6 were aware of what Commissioner Jerke just related.
7 MR. DINNER: Yes .
8 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Okay. Thank you. Are there any other
9 questions? Counsel, I would like to -- and I don' t know, maybe
10 it' s -- maybe it' s not important but it just -- I was talking to
11 our counsel . Excuse me, Mel . This counsel over here .
12 MR. MORRISON: We have to get different names .
13 CHAIRMAN GEILE : Has to do with the Right to Farm?
14 MR. MORRISON: Well, Mr. Chairman, let me read you the
15 part -- the only part where there' s a direct reference in a
16 comprehensive plan is under Goal A-7, which is Able Seven, followed
17 by a pause . The goal is to protect agriculture land from
18 encroachment by those urban uses which hinder the operational
19 efficiency and productivity of the agricultural uses .
20 And then under that, the policy is, the county recognizes
21 the Right to Farm. In order to validate this recognition, the
22 county has established an example covenant which should be
23 incorporated in all pertinent land use plats . A copy of this
24 covenant is located in the appendix.
25 I think that the Board can -- can and should, because you
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1 interpret your own policy documents -- but there' s not a reference
2 to agricultural zoning that talks about agricultural land, that
3 talks about agricultural uses . So I think that' s important in your
4 consideration of issues .
5 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Yes . One other question: in reference
6 to the letter from Michael LeSage, can you give us your
7 interpretation of that letter, which is dated June 15th, as it
8 relates to the proceedings that we' re in the process of .
9 MR. MORRISON: Yeah, I -- this is a little bit
10 complicated by the fact that we -- I discussed with Mr. LeSage in
11 the past that if they wanted to ask to amend their permit, and
12 then debate each issue so that there' s only things in the permit
13 they agreed are within their jurisdiction, that that would clean
14 things up.
15 I mean he hasn' t -- the issue of whether it requires
16 a Certificate of Designation, we agree that the state health
17 department has no jurisdiction, and our health department is
18 functioning as a local department in this case, serving you and
19 assisting the planning department . But they' re not deriving their
20 powers from the Solid Waste Act .
21 Essentially, the interpretation of the Solid Waste Act is
22 jurisdiction over the well itself, and those materials with the Oil
23 and Gas Commission. And those two state agencies are in agreement .
24 I guess the bottom line is, you've got to take your
25 permit as you have it in front of you. If there should be
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1 revocation and need for court action, I think those issues Mr.
2 LeSage intended to preserve.
3 And there' s nothing that' s been discussed today that' s
4 clearly outside your jurisdiction. You haven' t talked about what --
5 what -- how the well' s drilled, or how the fluids are actually
6 injected, or any of those things .
7 You've dealt with hours of operation, manager access,
8 the pads, things like that, that at least are arguably within
9 county land use authority. So I don' t think anything that' s been
10 discussed today clearly crosses that line into an area that is
11 outside your jurisdiction.
12 CHAIRMAN GEILE: One last thing, if I could, counsel .
13 Could you kind of go through the process as we begin to end it
14 today? What our various options are according to our statutes,
15 rules and regulations, and in your opinion --
16 MR. MORRISON: Certainly.
17 CHAIRMAN GEILE : -- legal?
18 MR. MORRISON: Certainly. Now this situation, since
19 it' s a revocation, the burden is on the staff to show that by a
20 preponderance of the evidence, the terms and conditions of this
21 special use permit have been violated, and that justifies,
22 further -- that that justifies revocation of the permit . That' s
23 if you take that ultimate step.
24 You could dismiss the case, find that there was no
25 evidence. You could conclude that further supervision on your part
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1 is necessary. And you could also find that although there may be
2 technical violations that have been proven, that they are not --
3 they don' t substantially affect the operation, and therefore are
4 not sufficient to cause revocation.
5 There was one comment, I want to make clear. I don' t
6 quite agree with Cindi Etcheverry. The issue of compliance of the
7 permit, the fact that it takes extra staff time, really should not
8 be part of your consideration. It really is -- it really goes back
9 to a health safety issue, and the reasons for having the permit to
10 protect the residents of the community and the county. And
11 although it may take more to take care of a complex permit, that
12 isn' t reason not to have one .
13 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Okay. Any questions of counsel? That' ll
14 bring it back to the board -- excuse me . Commissioner Vaad? '
15 COMMISSIONER VAAD: Yeah, I -- first just a technical or
16 programmatic . So if there is a resolution that calls for the
17 revocation of the permit, then what -- and if that' s sustained by
18 subsequent actions, what then does the operator do to get back - -
19 he has to start all over, again?
20 MR. MORRISON: He would -- assuming any appeals are not
21 in favor of your decision --
22 COMMISSIONER VAAD: Right .
23 MR. MORRISON: -- they can re-apply under that
24 substantial change provision within five years for a new permit .
25 But they would have to meet the substantial change requirement . So
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1 they can' t just reapply for the same thing they have now, for a
2 period of five years .
3 COMMISSIONER VAAD: And so what would be some examples of
4 substantial change, I mean, " . . .that we' ll now comply. " That' s not
5 a substantial change .
6 MR. MORRISON: Well, the design would need to change, or
7 the neighborhood would have to change, or the law applicable . For
8 example, if you were to no longer require special use permits, but
9 had a short- -- shortened version of the permit, if your own rules
10 change, that change the process for obtaining approval .
11 But the thing they have the most control over is
12 redesigning the facility.
13 COMMISSIONER JERKE: Let me ask a question on that .
14 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Commissioner Jerke.
15 COMMISSIONER JERKE: I guess I hate to pre-dispose of
16 something. Would a change in operators, would that be considered
17 to be a substantial change?
18 MR. MORRISON: That is not one of the items listed. The
19 three items are basically change in the law, change in the design,
20 change in the permit, and change in the neighborhood. So I guess --
21 well, change in operator might change -- result in a change in the
22 design, but that is, by itself, is not grounds to allow them to
23 reapply.
24 CHAIRMAN GEILE : Are there other questions? Okay.
25 If not, I' ll bring it back to the board for discussion.
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1 Commissioner Vaad.
2 COMMISSIONER VAAD: Mr. Chairman, I am prepared to make a
3 motion, but I would, if you' ll allow it, like to make a couple of
4 comments about how I got to the motion that I would like to
5 propose . So if that' s appropriate.
6 CHAIRMAN GEILE : Please .
7 COMMISSIONER VAAD: First of all, these facilities are
8 an integral part of, and in fact, to my way of thinking and my
9 limited understanding, vital to the oil and gas industry, that
10 the citizens, all citizens of Weld County benefit from. And so
11 I've been thinking about that very carefully.
12 In looking over, also very carefully, what we call Weld
13 County' s Right to Farm covenant, as some have called it, there
14 is one section that is almost isolated -- well, it- probably is
15 isolated, where it says in the last paragraph, " . . . children are
16 exposed to different hazards . " And then it goes through and
17 lists several of those . One of them being oil field equipment .
18 And so, even though that' s clearly not an agricultural
19 operation, commissioners before us, and in the comprehensive plan,
20 and maybe to a lesser extent in the charter, realize what I just
21 said; that the oil industry is vital to the benefit of all citizens
22 of Weld County.
23 Now having said that, the most condemning assertion, and
24 probably it' s a fact, is that this facility has not been in
25 compliance since the beginning of its operations . I think that
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1 clearly establishes a pattern. And we've heard from the citizens
2 nearby, via their complaints that have been verified, as we've been
3 told by staff, that this is the case . And I think that establishes
4 a pattern of non-compliance.
5 Therefore, I feel compelled to move that the operator
6 be found in non-compliance, and would move that their permit be
7 revoked.
8 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Is that a motion, Commissioner?
9 COMMISSIONER VAAD: It is .
10 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Okay. Is there a second to that motion.
11 COMMISSIONER JERKE: Second.
12 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Motion' s been made by Commissioner Vaad,
13 seconded by Jerke to -- as a result of the Show Cause Hearing, and
14 based upon the conclusions presented, to revoke USR 1198 . Motion' s
15 been made by Commissioner Vaad, seconded by Jerke . Is there any
16 further discussion?
17 MR. MORRISON: Mr. Chairman, if I can ask --
18 CHAIRMAN GEILE : I'm just going back into the things we
19 discussed last Monday, when we read into the record what the
20 hear-ing would involve. Counsel, did you have anything you wanted
21 to add to that?
22 MR. MORRISON: I think the important part is -- I think
23 there should be some further discussion. Certain issues were
24 certified with respect to the two Show Cause proceedings . And I
25 think some reference might be helpful to those items that the board
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1 finds they have, by preponderance of the evidence, not met .
2 CHAIRMAN GEILE : Commissioner Vaad.
3 COMMISSIONER VAAn: (Inaudible - overspeak) County, I
4 haven' t had that in front of me. Now, was that besides the Site
5 Specific Development Plan? Was there another item that you
6 discussed last Mon- -- because I was not in attendance last Monday?
7 CHAIRMAN GEILE: There --
8 MR. MORRISON: There were a list of issues .
9 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Yeah. Let' s go ahead and get up -- get
10 that up . Why don' t you bring up your list, Glenn.
11 COMMISSIONER VAAD: That' s in this document?
12 CHAIRMAN GEILE: No. Why don' t you go back to the
13 original . Just go ahead and get off that exhibit, and go back to
14 the original . And then bring up list . And then Staff' s Comments .
15 That' s not it, either. Here .
16 [Off microphone discussion. Inaudible . ]
17 COMMISSIONER VAAD: If I -- I' ll follow your direction,
18 Lee, but if I cite findings, my first finding would be that I find
19 that standard number four, that' s Development Standard No. 4 ,
20 specifically, " . . .a manager knowledgeable in the operation of an
21 injection well shall be on site when the facility is receiving
22 waste . . . " was not met . And we heard evidence that the people on
23 the site said they didn' t know who that person was when they were
24 queried by staff .
25 I would also find that Standard Item No. 32 , which was
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1 the last standard item, says that the property owner or operator
2 shall be responsible for complying with all of the foregoing
3 standards . And since that one was not met, in my opinion, I find
4 that they have not complied, and that all standards were met, and
5 so that would be my second finding. I believe those are the two
6 that I can point to specifically. Thank you.
7 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Commissioner Jerke, did you have any --
8 Commissioner Jerke, did you have anything you wanted to add to
9 that?
10 COMMISSIONER JERKE: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. While it
11 may not be a finding, it' s certainly a lack of confidence, with
12 respect to Development Standard No. 3 , "The facility shall be
13 constructed and operated to insure that contamination of soil and
14 ground water does not occur. "
15 It just occurs to me, I guess that I don' t have great
16 confidence that it' s impossible for that contamination to not
17 occur.
18 Number nine, we've heard past testimony at times, as
19 well, concerning excessive noise problems as well .
20 Design Standard No. 10, fugitive dust, if it' s being
21 controlled, is being controlled very recently. I was unaware of
22 dust control when I personally inspected the facility in May.
23 Number 17 , obviously, your testimony, we've heard, the
24 pad has not always been washed daily, because we've seen large
25 accumulations of sludge materials waiting there for multiple days .
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1 I guess that would conclude the items that I know of
2 offhand, relating to Development Standard violations .
3 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Commissioner, are you going to modify
4 your motion to include those findings?
5 COMMISSIONER VAAD: Well, certainly, the findings that I
6 stated, I will . I don' t know if it' s prudent for me to certify
7 what Commissioner Jerke -- I accept his observations, but I --
8 CHAIRMAN GEILE: I think why don' t we go ahead and use
9 that as a basis with the second, and then in our comments, we' ll
10 go ahead and further elaborate on our vote . So if we could,
11 Commissioner Jerke, just elaborated upon your vote, and you've
12 substantiated your findings, Commissioner.
13 Commissioner Masden, do you have anything you wanted
14 to add?
15 COMMISSIONER MASDEN: I would say Development Standard
16 No. 19, also.
17 CHAIRMAN GEILE : Okay. Commissioner Long?
18 COMMISSIONER LONG: Not any additional ones, no.
19 CHAIRMAN GEILE: Yeah. I would perhaps like to concur
20 with what' s been discussed here. The issues I have would be the
21 samples, which are not in compliance with the regulations whereby
22 we operate the protocols, missed health department not being -- and
23 protocols are very, very important, in any kind of an operation,
24 especially when you' re dealing with waste such as this .
25 Waste management procedures also have had some real
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i questions to them, and I think probably waste management procedures
2 are not adequate for this type of facility. And I would also like
3 to say that the real concern I have is in the area of waste
4 management procedures . And I guess, as I go back into it, I would
5 concur that number four, which is the knowledgeable manager; number
6 seven, which is always generate sewage disposal in accordance with
7 the Colorado Solid Waste Act, I've heard a lot that more or less
8 tells me that there are sample issues, there are waste management
9 procedures which aren' t being followed.
10 We've talked about the decibel . That' s not an issue with
11 me. It sounds like that' s been resolved.
12 But number 14, an analysis of waste, will be forwarded
13 to the Weld County Department of Health and Environment . It
14 looks like we've had some problems there, especially in relation
15 to the protocols .
16 Number 16 , any petroleum contaminated soils on the
17 facility shall be removed and disposed of, in accordance with the
18 applicable rules and regulations . Again, I have a lot of questions
19 in my mind. And I think staff has -- has presented some points
20 there that I think are very important, which have not been solved
21 or satisfied in my mind by the respondent .
22 The concrete receiving pad, which has been discussed.
23 The underdrain, which has been discussed. And then the finding,
24 which I would also relate to, as Commissioner Vaad has, No . 32 ,
25 which says non-compliance with any of the foregoing development
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1 standards may be reason for revocation. So I will be supporting
2 the motion. Is there any further discussion? If not, Esther,
3 would you -- would you do the roll call , please?
4 MS . GESICK: Robert Masden - aye; David Long - aye;
5 Bill Jerke - aye; Glenn Vaad - aye; Mike Geile - aye .
6 CHAIRMAN GEILE: let the record show that the motion --
7 or that we concurred unanimously to rescind Enviro-Cycle LLC, USR
8 1198 . That these proceedings are ended. We will adjourn. Thank
9 you .
10 [Tape recorder turned off . Tape recorder turned back
ii on. ]
12 CHAIRMAN GEILE : Will you please repeat that, again?
13 Please, counsel?
14 MR. DINNER: I will be more than happy to. Mr. Chairman,
15 I was inquiring as to the effectiveness as to what date, this
16 (inaudible) and what time?
17 MR. MORRISON: The effective date, under current case law
18 applicable in the county is the day that the document is signed
19 that memorializes its decision.
20 CHAIRMAN GEILE: I'm sorry, counsel . Would you repeat
21 that?
22 MR. MORRISON: Date of signature of the resolution,
23 giving the -- giving the decision. So there are a few days
24 remaining before that becomes final .
25 CHAIRMAN GEILE: With that, staff, I'd like to thank you
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1 for all your help and patience, and also everybody who was here
2 today, the respondent, as well as the people who showed up to
3 present testimony. Thank you very much for all your help, support
4 and patience .
5 [Weld County Board of County Commissioners, meeting of
6 June 25, 2001, Enviro-Cycle, LLC, Permit UST 1198 , Show Cause,
7 concluded. ]
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L-MAC A & T (303)798-0380 BOCC-Weld-Bnviro-Cycle/Mike Caryl
CERTIFICATE
STATE OF COLORADO )
ss
COUNTY OF ARAPAHOE )
I , Laura M. Machen, an independent transcriber and
notary public within and for the State of Colorado, certify
the foregoing transcript of the tape recorded proceedings,
Weld County Board of County Commissioners, June 25, 2001, 10:00
a.m. , meeting - In re: Hearing to Show Cause for Revocation of
Special Review Permit #1198, issued to Enviro-Cycle, LLC/Mike
Cervi, and as further set forth on page one, is reduced to
printed form by computer transcription, and dependent upon
recording clarity, is true and accurate, with special exceptions
of precise identification of any or all speakers and/or correct
spelling of any given or spoken proper name .
Dated this 3rd day of July, 2001 .
My commission expires May 23 , 2004 .
ORIGINAL
[ ] CERTIFIED COPY OF ORIGINAL
L-MAC R & T (303) 798-0380
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