New alert system brings oil and gas spill data directly to Colorado residents
Click play to listen to this article.
Over the past 12 months, 884 oil and gas spills were reported near homes in Greeley, Fort Lupton, Kersey, La Salle and Platteville, according to Spilling the Truth, a new public alert system launched by Colorado Rising for Communities.
Christiaan van Woudenberg, principal data analyst with EcoCarto, said the goal is to make it easier for residents to know about the risks to agricultural land, livestock, water resources and community health. In April alone, 229 spills were reported in Weld County, more than six per day.
"The number of spills that we're seeing have just grown so dramatically," he said. "Really in the last months, we've seen, again and again, a record number of oil spills reported in Weld County."
Spilling the Truth taps data compiled by the state's Energy and Carbon Management Commission, and is summarized by neighborhood in both English and Spanish. Postcards are sent out once a month, and alerts can also be found online at 'corfc.org/spills.' The Colorado Oil and Gas Association and Weld County did not respond to requests for comments before deadline.
Alerts will also be shared across social media platforms in an effort to increase awareness and industry accountability. Woudenberg says currently, oil and gas operators are focused more on mitigation, not prevention. At the most, they have to file a spill report, do lab analysis and haul away some contaminated soil to the local landfill.
"So what we'd really like to see happen is that the operators themselves are more focused on preventing these spills," he continued," he continued. "And that the regulatory agencies put in place rulemakings and practices that really direct these oil companies to do that."
Because many well sites are only inspected once every few years, Woudenberg said it is hard to estimate the number of spills that go undetected. He noted that there are some 11,000 producing wells in Weld County alone, not counting shut-in wells and temporarily plugged and abandoned wells.
"Every oil well ever drilled in Colorado will eventually leak," he said. "This is a forever problem. The more wells you drill, the greater this problem is going to be for future generations."
