An energy company just did a bit of dining and dashing — except that in addition to leaving an unpaid bill, it left a wake of hazardous waste and environmental degradation.

The Rocky Mountain News reports that Texas-based natural gas producer Presco Inc. recently sold its southwestern Colorado drilling operation, on the same day the company received notices of at least eight environmental violations. Now the new owners may be stuck paying the fines and cleaning up the mess.

The news came as a shock to Noble Energy Productions Inc., which bought the operation near the Rulison nuclear blast site outside Rifle, Colo. (for more about the Rulison Project’s drilling history, see our story “Drilling could wake a sleeping giant).

Noble says it was not aware of Presco’s violation notices when it closed the acquisition May 8. For now, Noble is correcting the problems at its own cost. But the company said it has not determined whether it will pay any fines or penalties associated with those violations.

This isn’t the first time Presco, Inc. has had run-ins with environmental laws. Last year the company was fined $1,000 for releasing drilling mud into a waterway serving as a public water supply.

And that’s minor compared to the company’s most recent violations. The Rocky explains:

Storm water and snowmelt this spring filled up several pits at the company’s drilling sites, overflowing into well pads and surrounding areas.

“Sacks of chemicals and drums were floating in the pit,” one violation notice stated. “Puddles of condensate and unidentified chemical residue were observed on the pad.”

Presco so far has no plans for cleaning up their dirty leftovers, according to the Rocky.

It raises the question, if all an energy company has to do to avoid paying the bill is dupe someone else into buying their operation, who is really responsible for cleaning up the environmental mess left behind?