April 05, 2013 05:19 AM UTC

Enjoying Petro Flavored Water Wine and Peaches

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• by: Konola

Last night there was a meeting in Rifle, where the spill along Parachute creek was discussed. The meeting room at the Rifle Library was filled with media, regulators, and lots of concerned citizens. Presenting updates to the Energy Advisory Board of Garfield County were Matt Lapore, Director of the COGCC (Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission) and the VP and General manager of Piceance Basin for Williams Mid-stream.

The short version is that both soil and water near the site have been contaminated with petro carbons. The source of the seep has not been located. Testing wells have been drilled along the banks of Parachute Creek, and no contamination of the stream has been detected. However in the plume of contamination one well tested as much as 18,000 ppb of benzene, with EPA safe levels pegged at 5 ppb. Benzene is a known carcinogen, which was a fact stated by the Williams VP, much to my surprise.

COGCC listed their priorities as: 1) keep contaminants out of the creek; 2) identify the source of contamination; 3) detail what has been impacted; 4) implement a remediation phase. Trenches have been dug to facilitate removal of 140 bbls of liquid hydrocarbons and 5,000 bbls of water so far. The amount of hydrocarbons being recovered has decreased drastically during the current operation.

There are two pipelines that are being tested and monitored. A 30” pipeline collects product from producing wells and delivers it to a natural gas plant. A 4” pipeline carries natural gas liquids to market from the plant. Both pipelines have been tested at high pressure, and no leaks have been detected. The stream is being sampled every day, and patrolled every 30 minutes looking for the tell-tale sheen of hydrocarbons sitting on water. Since March 19, there have been daily conference calls between COGCC and Williams to discuss current data and developments.

The most contamination has been detected around a valve box. The area around the valve box has been excavated for about 100 feet, with contaminated dirt contained on site. The plume of contamination is parallel to the creek and running in the same direction.

They are beginning to monitor the point in Parachute Creek where the town of Parachute has an intake valve for the city's water. Most residents use irrigation water from the creek on their lawns and gardens, and are concerned that it may become unsafe to do so.

Get out your maps, kids. Parachute Creek flows ultimately into the Colorado River, which is the source of water for millions of people in seven western states and Mexico. Clifton, where I get my water, gets its water from the Colorado River, about 40 miles downstream from the town of Parachute. Between here and there is some of Colorado's finest wine country where wineries are producing award winning wines from grapes irrigated with water from the Colorado River. Colorado's famous peaches come from this river valley also.

This is a very troubling seep, and neither the regulators nor the industry seems to know what they are dealing with. I have very little confidence that this plume of contamination will not eventually make its way into the drinking water of Palisade and Clifton, and ultimately flavor the wines and peaches of western Colorado.