Kansas wildlife officers made a gruesome discovery last year when they found a pile of feathers, bones and beaks crammed inside a cylinder-shaped oil-field tank called a heater treater.
As federal wildlife agents began checking inside heater treaters across the country, they found hundreds of carcasses – owls, meadowlarks, starlings and other birds.
The birds flew in but never flew out.
“It told us we had a national problem on our hands,” said James Hampton, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service special agent based in Denver. “We knew we had to act.”
The Fish and Wildlife Service has now investigated dozens of sites in three states, including Colorado.
FWS agents say they’ve found hundreds of gassed birds, including many that are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
The heater treaters – 20-foot- tall tanks used to separate oil, gas and salt water – are found anywhere there are active oil and gas wells.
Agents say sometimes it’s difficult to see inside the heater treaters’ exhaust vents; that’s why they’re just now learning of the problem.
No one, they say, knows just how many birds have been killed over the years.
“The biologists don’t know why they’re attracted to heater treaters, where they end up dying because of the noxious gases,” Hampton said.
Birdwatchers around the country also are just now learning about the avian fatalities caused by the heater treaters.
“That’s pretty disturbing news,” said Ken Strom, director of bird conservation and public policy for Audubon Colorado. “It sounds like a problem that needs to be fixed.”
The Fish and Wildlife Service – which enforces laws protecting migratory birds – has launched a national effort to prevent birds from being asphyxiated in the heater treaters.
By March, Colorado oil- and-gas companies must find a way to cover heater-treater openings to keep the birds out or risk running afoul of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
Kansas and North Dakota operations also have early 2007 deadlines. Inspections are planned for Nebraska and Wyoming.
Violators will be subject to criminal prosecution, which might include up to six months in prison.
In Kansas, where more than 400 bird remains were found at 150 heater treaters, energy producers estimated that it would cost between $500 and $700 to add heat-resistant wire screen to each piece of equipment.
Jon Callen, president of the Kansas Independent Oil and Gas Association, said that “after some initial grumbling,” operators are retrofitting heater treaters, which he estimated to number about 5,000 to 6,000 in the state.
In Colorado, wildlife officers already have found dozens of dead birds in the Wattenberg field north of Denver.
Wattenberg oil and gas producers have only recently learned about the agency’s enforcement plans.
“It doesn’t sound like a huge issue,” said Ken Wonstolen, attorney for the Colorado Oil and Gas Association.
Hampton said he believes that the oil-and-gas industry ultimately will comply with the agency’s request. He points to industry efforts a decade ago to cover evaporation pits, which contain brine.
“Ten years ago, those pits were a tremendous problem,” Hampton said. “They were real bird killers too.”
