Colorado regulators Thursday launched an enforcement action against oil giant Chevron for an April well “blowout” that caused evacuations and closures in a community in eastern Weld County.

Officials with the Energy and Carbon Management Commission said Thursday that some residents remain displaced from their homes in tiny Galeton, an unincorporated town of 250 people located about 10 miles northeast of Greeley, nearly three months after the incident at Chevron’s Bishop well pad.

The well failure caused a high-pressure flow of oil, gas and water to spew from the site for five days before emergency crews were able to bring it under control. With millions of gallons of fluid released, it’s believed to be one of the largest oil and gas spills in state history, and the resulting plume spread dangerous levels of toxic chemicals as far as two miles away, according to data from Colorado State University researchers.

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“I can say with certainty that this is significant and unprecedented during my tenure, not just in terms of volumes released … but in terms of complexity, in terms of scale of impact to environmental services, as well as residents,” said Jeff Robbins, who has served as chair of the five-member ECMC board of commissioners since 2020.

A so-called notice of alleged violation issued by ECMC staff to Chevron subsidiary Noble Energy lists six different breaches of the agency’s rules, initiating what is likely to be a lengthy regulatory enforcement action. The notice accuses Chevron of violating water quality standards, breaking employee safety rules, “fail(ing) to engineer and operate all equipment within the manufacturer’s recommended specifications,” and more.

An initial analysis completed by Chevron earlier this month identified the root cause of the incident as “improper assembly” of on-site equipment by a contractor. A total of 16 oil and gas wells were planned to be drilled on the Bishop site as part of a development plan approved by the ECMC in September 2022.

As part of the enforcement process, ECMC staff will calculate penalties against Chevron that will then be adjudicated by commissioners. Greg Duranleau, the ECMC’s deputy director of operations, said the penalties were “one piece of the financial impacts this incident may have on Chevron.”

“There may be civil settlements for damage, there’s a possibility for other agencies to enforce their regulations, and of course, there’s the cost of the response and cleanup,” Duranleau told commissioners during a special public hearing on Thursday.

Four of 14 families that were evacuated from the Galeton area after the blowout remain displaced from their homes, according to Chevron.

“We continue to actively work with the remaining residents on the next steps, including getting access to their properties to conduct assessments and cleaning,” the company’s website says.

An extensive cleanup and remediation effort is underway, a process that Chevron estimates could take up to five years. Thousands of environmental samples have been taken across a 7-square-mile “assessment area” centered on the well site, staff told commissioners.

“I am optimistic that Chevron will work with us through the enforcement process to bring a timely resolution,” ECMC Director Julie Murphy said in a statement. “And I am grateful to the many folks at Chevron who are working diligently to remediate the significant impacts of this incident.”