Energy and Carbon Management Commission issues seven Notices of Alleged Violation; Operators required to complete corrective actions and remediate sites impacted by falsified data
July 23, 2025 — Today at a public hearing the Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC) announced the issuance of a Notice of Alleged Violation (NOAV) to seven operators regarding submission of falsified remediation data. ECMC issues NOAVs when there is reasonable cause to believe that a violation of any Commission rule, order, or permit has occurred. The issuance of a NOAV is a legal enforcement action.
ECMC is the state agency with statutory regulatory authority over oil and gas operations. In November 2024, ECMC announced that two environmental consultants — Eagle Environmental Consulting, Inc. and Tasman Geosciences — hired by oil and gas operators submitted falsified laboratory data reports to ECMC between 2021 and 2024. During its ongoing investigation, ECMC determined that the data manipulation affected soil, groundwater, and inorganic and organic contaminant data for 404 oil and gas locations in Weld County. All falsified data was submitted through the Form 27 (called the Site Investigation and Remediation Workplan).
Operators are required to complete a Form 27 for several reasons, including the closure of oil and gas facilities or the remediation of spills. For context, a standard Form 27 includes hundreds of data points, and ECMC receives more than 15,000 Form 27s annually. Operators often hire contractors to complete Form 27s. The closure phase of an oil and gas operation begins when production (i.e. extraction) ends: an oil and gas location cannot be not considered closed until ECMC has received documentation from the operator that the site meets the state's cleanup standards. During the closure phase, ECMC requires a thorough investigation of the entire facility and its infrastructure to determine if a spill occurred within the lifespan of the site; in turn, ECMC holds operators accountable to the remediation of that spill. A spill is when an unintended release of exploration and production waste occurs. ECMC environmental remediation standards are among the most protective in the country and are described in the 900 Rule Series. In particular, Table 915-1 outlines contaminants of concern and acceptable levels of those contaminants.
ECMC’s four-member Environmental Data Unit led the investigation into the alleged falsification of remediation data. The extensive and time-consuming investigation included the assessment of the operators’ reported data as well as a rigorous independent analysis that compared original data from lab reports to Form 27 documentation. To date, ECMC has identified 3,275 instances of falsified data points on 683 lab reports spanning 404 locations.
The degree to which data was falsified ranges widely. In some cases, sample collection dates and the name of laboratory staff personnel were modified. In other cases, hydrocarbon levels were modified such that the submitted data fell below ECMC’s thresholds. In egregious cases, contaminant levels were altered by as many as three orders of magnitude. In numerous cases, the altered data were used to support requests for no further action--or closure--at the remediation project site. Said plainly, the consultants allegedly falsified data in a manner that led state regulators to approve Form 27s, which led to the closure of oil and gas locations that otherwise would have not been approved for closure.
“Our team is dedicated to the protection of public health, safety, and welfare and the environment and wildlife resources and I commend our Environmental Data team for the laborious investigation they undertook to determine the breadth of the situation. At this stage of the situation, there are now two equally significant components to ECMC’s role as the regulatory authority. We have to oversee the operators’ remediation of the impacted locations, which continues to occupy significant time, effort and resources. And we have to take enforcement action to hold the operators accountable for these alleged violations,” said Julie Murphy, ECMC Director. “I’ve said it before and I will reiterate now: this is an aberrant and disappointing situation. Maintaining the integrity of the data upon which ECMC — or any regulatory body — bases decisions is essential. Our permitting, compliance, and enforcement procedures — including the submission of reports, data, and samples by operators — are grounded in an expectation that all parties abide by the law and follow a basic professional, ethical code of conduct. At this point we believe that the issue is isolated to individual actors who have betrayed our trust and their profession."
Regarding remediation, ECMC issued corrective actions that the operators must take at each of the 404 locations to mitigate the falsified data’s impacts to the environment, namely to soil and in limited cases to shallow groundwater. All impacted sites that were previously approved for closure have been reopened and ECMC contacted surface owners in December 2024. All sites affected by the falsified data must be resampled, investigated, and remediated to ECMC’s stringent clean up standards. The list and map of 404 remediation project sites is available online in addition to a plain language explanation of those properties.
Regarding enforcement, the seven NOAVs are posted publicly on ECMC’s website under 'special projects --> data integrity investigation'. ECMC alleges that the operators violated two Rules and the citations are described in the NOAVs:
- Rule 207 (Accurate and complete reports)
- Rule 602 (Training and supervision of contractors)
The NOAV process is described in Rule 523 to 525. Upon receipt of an NOAV, an operator has 28 days to file an Answer in response to the NOAV. Thereafter, the ECMC Enforcement Unit and the Attorney General’s Office commences an enforcement action by filing an application for a hearing with the ECMC Hearings Unit. ECMC expects that these NOAVs will take time to resolve and there is no estimated timeline for when the Enforcement Hearings will be scheduled. Because an NOAV is a legal matter, no other information can be shared during the enforcement process outside of what is posted to the publicly available eFiling System or what is discussed at public hearings.
ECMC’s jurisdiction is limited to its regulatory authority; the investigation and NOAVs are in accordance with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Act. ECMC’s investigation did not and does not include determining why the data falsification occurred, as that would fall outside the scope of ECMC’s jurisdiction. ECMC referred this matter to criminal prosecutors for further review, assessment, and investigation. Given the degree of alleged fraud, ECMC will cooperate with appropriate law enforcement regarding criminal and civil penalties as requested.
In December 2024, ECMC put in place additional safeguards to prevent falsified data from being submitted in the future, such as requiring additional documentation from operators in newly submitted forms and examining metadata. In April 2025, ECMC formalized requirements for submittal of secured lab reports on all projects, including requiring updates to Forms 27 still in our review queue. Further, ECMC procured a forensic investigation firm to determine methods to electronically review analytical data previously submitted to increase confidence that previously submitted data from other operators outside the scope of this situation were not falsified. This investigation is ongoing.
About the ECMC
The mission of the Colorado Energy & Carbon Management Commission (ECMC) is to regulate the development and production of the natural resources of oil and gas, deep geothermal resources, the capture and sequestration of carbon, and the underground storage of natural gas in a manner that protects public health, safety, welfare, the environment and wildlife resources. Visit the ECMC website for more information.