Ecological disaster in Colorado

Oil spill dumps over 5k gallons of crude across flood-drenched Colorado

More than 5,250 gallons of crude oil have spilled into a river in Colorado, contaminating much of the same region that was ravaged days earlier by a monumental flood that left no fewer than eight residents dead.

RT,

19 Sepetember, 2013

The Denver Post reported on Wednesday evening that the Colorado Department of Natural Resources was alerted of the spill that afternoon by Anadarko Petroleum, a Texas-based oil and gas exploration company.

"To date, we are aware of two tank batteries that were damaged by flood waters, and have associated light-oil releases,” Anadarko acknowledged in a press release.

The crude reportedly emptied out of damaged tanks south of the town of Milliken where theSt. Vrain and South Platte Rivers meet near Boulder, the county’s most populous city with almost 100,000 residents.

An oil storage tank on a well pad lies toppled by flood waters in Weld County, Colorado September 17, 2013. (Reuters/Rick Wil

Todd Hartman, a spokesperson for the Colorado DNR, told the Post that state authorities are unsure of when the Anadarko spill happened, and stressed that it was only the first incident that was confirmed to his office after reports of widespread damage following last week’s floods.

"You have operations that are entirely underwater," Hartman explained to National Geographic this week.

Days before Anadarko alerted officials of the spill, Hartman’s office issued a statement warning residents that “many contaminants, such as raw sewage, as well as potential releases of chemicals from homes, businesses and industry, may be contained in the floodwaters" that displaced hundreds of people and cost upwards of $2 billion in property damages, according to some early estimates.

Already, though, other companies are confirming that flood waters have damaged their tanks and wells, leaking other contaminants from its containers into the already ravaged region.

Representatives with another large natural resource company, Noble Energy Inc., said late Wednesday that they have also alerted the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission that one of its wells “appears to be releasing a limited amount of natural gas.”

The Post reported that multiple state and federal offices have been alerted of the Anadarko spill, including the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. By Thursday morning, the paper was reporting that industry crews and state officials had already reached the scene near Milliken and had placed absorbent booms in an attempt to begin a clean-up mission.

Practically 1,900 oil and gas wells in the region were already shut down as a precaution due to high waters, and the Colorado Oil and Gas Association said crews totaling roughly 600 industry personnel are inspecting and repairing sites, conducting aerial and ground surveillance and identifying and determining locations of possible impairments.

In all, the region of Colorado impacted by the storm contains around 19,000 active wells, CBS News reported this week.

Anadarko and Noble have each shut-down around 10 percent of their respective operations, and another company — Encana Oil & Gas — shuttered hundreds of its 1,241 area wells when the section of the start started to go under water last week. Andarko has also closed down around 20 miles of pipeline, the Post reported.

"This State of Colorado and the US Environmental Protection Agency must force Anadarko to clean it up -- no matter the cost -- and make reparations to the public, including paying fines and enforcing the Clean Water Act which may include civil and criminal penalties,” Gary Wockner of Clean Water Action said in a statement on Wednesday.

New woes hit Colorado: Contaminated floodwaters, oil spill

LA Times,

19 Sepetember, 2013

WESTMINSTER, Colo. -- The warning from local health officials dealing with the flooding in Colorado is simple: Don't get in the water.

Underscoring that message, state officials have reported a 5,250-gallon oil spill from a flood-damaged tank overtaken by the South Platte River in Weld County, a deluged area northeast of Denver.

The tank's owner, Anadarko Petroleum Corp., responded by placing absorbent oil booms in the water.

But it's not just oil in the floodwaters that is raising concerns.

A Los Angeles Times' dispatch from the town of Evans on Wednesday reported on fears by local residents and officials that a flooded wastewater treatment plant had turned the inundated riverfront of the town into an open sewer. There were concerns about other toxins too.

"There's a lot of stuff in that water. What we’re primarily worried about is the sewage and the [agricultural] runoff -- fertilizer stuff from people’s lawns, to manure from the dairy farms,” said Jennifer Finch, a spokeswoman for Weld County, where Evans is located.

One of the biggest questions for local environmentalists has centered on how the flooding has affected the numerous hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" wells in Weld County, though the state's oil and gas regulator downplayed those concerns.

"The primary pollutant of concern associated with oil and gas locations is crude oil, which is stored in tanks on site," Todd Hartman, a spokesman for the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, said in a statement.

Hartman said the agency had heard the environmentalists' concerns about the floods picking up chemicals from fracking operations, but noted that those chemicals "are only on site during the drilling and fracturing of the well and do not remain on site once the well is in production."

The "vast majority" of wells hit by floodwaters were in the producing stage," Hartman said.

He added that the operators of producing fracking wells affected by the flooding had been aggressive about securing the facilities through a process known as "shutting in," which by remote control halts the production of oil and gas.

The extent to which those efforts were successful is still under evaluation. State inspection teams are in the process of surveying affected industrial sites, where an unknown number of storage tanks have been knocked over or otherwise displaced by the floodwaters.