Colorado : Flooding Triggers More Oil and Gas Spills

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Colorado : Flooding Triggers More Oil and Gas Spills

Earth Watch Report - Flooding

...

TreeHugger .com

Colorado floods hit one of most drilled counties in US

Chris Tackett

September 23, 2013

© Marc Piscotty/Getty Images
While the immense amount of rain and devastating floods that hit Colorado nearly two weeks ago were already tragic, they have also exposed a larger issue of concern regarding the lax environmental regulations that allow the oil and gas industry to drill in flood zones.
According to The Gazette in Colorado Springs, Weld County, which saw severe flooding happens to be one of the most drilled counties in the nation.

Hard-hit Weld County has the highest number of active oil and gas wells in the state at 20,554 - more than a third of the statewide total of 51,228. Yuma County to the east has the third highest number of active wells at 3,343.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Last week, Lawrence O’Donnell interviewed David Sirota, a Colorado resident and columnist at Salon, about how the oil and gas industry has been allowed to transform the landscape in the Western United States in such a drastic way

Read More and Watch Video Here

*********************************************************************

Colorado Flooding Triggers More Oil and Gas Spills

September 22, 2013

Cliff Willmeng

The crisis for the Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA) that last week’s floods created is now, thanks to community members and their cameras, set firmly onto the world stage. For the last seven days international media attention saw the immensity of the Weld County disaster, and those terrifying images of flood water colliding with oil and gas infrastructure are now the property of history.

Photo credit: Cliff Willmeng

The industry and state government will now engage in damage control, and attempt to reassure the public and investors that it is in command, and every effort is being made to assess, contain and mitigate the catastrophic damage. COGA spokeswoman, Tisha Schulller, is making daily statements to this effect, and Colorado’s Gov. Hickenlooper spent at least part of his day Saturday tweeting about the cantaloupe he was eating, confident that, “… the several small spills that we’ve had have been very small, relative to the huge flow of water.”
Anadarko, a multinational petroleum corporation with annual revenue of more than $14 billion and the owner of some of the first major official spills into the South Platte River, volunteered $300,000 toward flood relief efforts. In the meantime, chemicals from leaking oil and gas wells continue to contaminate the environment of Weld County and beyond. Prior to even minimal environmental assessment, Canadian energy producer Encana Corp said Wednesday that 150 flooded wells due to flooding in Colorado had been returned to service, 245 remain shutdown.

Photo credit: Cliff Willmeng

After assessing roughly 30 percent of the impacted area, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) said in a statement, that 24 oil and gas storage tanks toppled in the flood bringing the total to more than 22,000 gallons of oil contaminating Colorado’s South Platte River valley.
According to the statement:

COGCC is tracking five notable releases, with volume amounts confirmed for four of those. Those include releases of 323 barrels and 125 barrels from Anadarko locations. Two additional releases of 56 barrels at an Anadarko location and 21 barrels at a Bayswater Exploration and Production location have also been confirmed. Both of the latter two locations are along the South Platte River near Evans.

Those four releases represent about 22,000 gallons of oil. An additional release has been reported by Anadarko, but the volume is unknown at this time.

The COGCC’s aerial survey Thursday revealed as many as two dozen tanks overturned. Releases from these tanks have not been confirmed but are certainly a possibility. In addition we are tracking 11 locations with visible evidence of a release, such as a sheen. No estimates of product losses are available for those sites.