After the Floods, Coloradoans Worry about Leaking Oil
Posted on Sep 30, 2013 1:15pm PDT
It is not surprising that inspectors hunting for oil pipelines and oil
drums damaged in Colorado's epic floods are being "completely
overwhelmed" by the sheer scale of destruction. Jared Polis, the
State's Democratic representative said the state's regulatory
agency was struggling to reach flooded areas and arrive at a full accounting
of the damage and potential leaks to its 50,000 oil wells. Inspectors
have so far reached about a third of the flooded oil fields. Last week,
aerial surveys of the flooded area showed dozens of overturned storage
tanks. "Inspectors are completely overwhelmed. There are only a couple
of dozen in the state and some areas remain inaccessible even today,"
Polis had told the Guardian. "The number of inspectors is insufficient
to reach all the sites." On Monday, Joe Biden spent the day in Colorado,
touring the devastated areas. The body of a 79-year-old woman was found
beside the Big Thompson River, authorities said, bringing to eight the
death toll from the massive flooding.
The state has 17 full-time oil and gas inspectors, although reinforcements
have arrived in the wake of the floods. As of Monday afternoon, the state's
oil and gas regulator reported eight "notable" spills over the
vast oil and gas area, which it said amounted to a release of some 27,000
gallons of oil. A statement from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation
Commission said: "Wet, muddy and high-water conditions continue to
make access slow and difficult in many areas." In addition to the
eight known leaks, crews were monitoring about 10 other sites with evidence
of sheen, the state regulatory agency said. But it said there were at
least 33 other locations with damaged equipment. The agency added: "No
estimates of product losses are available for those sites." The industry
said it was monitoring the wells by air and from boats, as well as relying
on pressure sensors to monitor conditions inside the wells. Rushing floodwaters
clogged with debris damaged oil gas pipelines and tanks in a number of
locations. But the oil industry said 1,500 oil wells in the worst affected
area were sealed off before the floods hit. Jonathan Singer, a member
of the state legislature from the flood-hit area who has opposed fracking,
said his biggest concern was simply getting inspectors to all the well
sites. "We just don't have the resources to get out to every
well as quickly as we should be," he said. "This was a huge
flood and unfortunately it went through the county where we have the highest
proportion of oil [and gas] wells in Colorado."