Denver-based oil company K.P. Kauffman Company must pay $2.01 million in fines to the state of Colorado after its Oil and Gas Conservation Commission ruled the company engaged in a “pattern of violation” concerning spills, leaks and well site cleanups in Weld County.

The commission announced the ruling late Tuesday. It’s the company’s second $1 million fine by state regulators in less than two years, and the second-largest ever levied by the commission.

The commission applied “an aggravating factor, based on the Pattern of Violation, to increase the penalties,” it said in a release.

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“The decisions made today underscore the main goal for the (commission) as a regulator, which is for operators to be in compliance to ensure protections for public health, safety, welfare, wildlife and environmental resources,” according to the release.

K.P. Kauffman general counsel Ross Watzman has not responded to a Wednesday morning call from the Denver Gazette.

Watzman was quoted in May that the company “has ensured that there are no active releases, and is working diligently to remedy” the commission’s concerns.

A commission order states KPK reported about 85 spills and releases and began about 73 remediation projects between Jan. 1, 2015, and March 30, 2021.

It cited 10 cases where remediation took more than six months and four in which it took more than two years. Homes, schools and groundwater were placed at risk, the Associated Press reported.

As of May, the company had 1,031 producing wells in Colorado. Commissioners said many spills stemmed from failing flowlines, which carry oil, water and gas to a collection point. In those cases, it said, the company would close the flowline and repair it but leave piles of oily waste.

It also said third parties — residents or local officials — reported many of the spills to the state, not the company.

“Across the industry in Colorado, this is very unusual,” the order said. “In (the commission)’s experience, oil and gas operators in the state usually find and report their own spills to (the commission) before surface owners or third parties do.”

In January 2020, K.P. Kauffman agreed to a $1 million civil penalty and “measures to prevent 555 tons of ozone-causing air emissions annually as part of a settlement covering years of alleged state rule violations found as part of a broad state and federal crackdown,” the Denver Business Journal reported.

The company didn’t admit liability in that case, but agreed to split a $1 million civil payment between the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.