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Tag: Colorado Floods 2013

  • Colorado Floods: Latest Reports Show Toxic Spillage

    The latest reports from Colorado on the flooding damage are indicative that we have gone from the “worst flood in a century” stage to the “environmental catastrophe” stage. The Colorado Springs Gazette reported yesterday that state regulators are working with gas and oil industry workers to assess exactly how many of Weld County wells are leaking toxic sludge. Locals are pessimistic because there are 20,554 active oil and gas wells in Weld County, representing over a third of all wells in Colorado.

    ThinkProgress is reporting that the floods have completely overwhelmed the oil and gas infrastructure. Apparently, fracking fluids and gasoline can join the list of toxic chemicals released by the floods, right next to pesticides and human wastewater.

    Mark Salley, a spokesman for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said 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… People are encouraged to stay out of the water as much as possible, and wash frequently with warm water and soap if they do come in contact with contaminated water.”

    Although industry workers are working on unspecified remedies, that didn’t stop environmental watchdog groups that were locally monitoring fracking practices from saturating the social media world with images featuring flooded wells, busted chemical holding tanks and wastewater escaping into the surrounding area.

    Cliff Willmeng, the spokesman for East Boulder County United, a local environmental group, said on Monday that “hundreds, if not thousands of wells [are] underwater right now and we have no idea what those wells are leaking… it’s very clear they are leaking into the floodwaters though.”

    The executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, Mike King, told the Denver Post that the scale is unprecedented… we will have to deal with environmental contamination from whatever source.” King added that the possible contaminants would be a stew of oil field pollution, agricultural pesticide, sewage and gasoline. No mention from him of fracking fluids, but they’re certain to be included in the floodwater stew.

    Water and debris from the floods has already damaged the above-ground fracking instruments that hold the chemical fluids used in natural gas drilling, called condensate tanks. Willmeng, speaking about the damage, said “Because the condensate tanks are either halfway empty or halfway full, they’re the pieces of infrastructure that are being torn off their anchors… So you’re seeing these things that are strewn about the flood areas and some are filled up, some are knocked over, and some are completely washed away.”

    If you want to see some of the photos, East Boulder County United’s Facebook page has some good ones.

    [Image via the East Boulder County United Facebook page]

  • Colorado Floods: Over 1200 Are Still Missing

    Colorado has been hit with some disastrous flooding that devastated several areas including Boulder. The Denver Post reported this morning that the historic floods have killed at least six people, but the truly terrifying figure is the state’s 1,253 missing persons who are unaccounted for, many of whom are presumed dead.

    FEMA deployed two Incident Management Assistance Teams with accompanying staff to assist Colorado emergency centers, and three federal search-and-rescue teams are reported to already searching for those missing with an additional two search teams expected to join them later today.

    The worst of the flooding started last Wednesday along the South Platte River and moved downstream to the northeastern part of Colorado. FEMA has reported 17,494 homes damaged by flooding with 1,502 houses destroyed and 11,700 evacuees from the disaster zone. The disaster relief organization also provided 22,000 meals and over 65,000 liters of drinking water.

    A White House statement released yesterday said President Obama has officially declared the area a disaster zone, and talked to Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper for updates on the situation. During the conversation, Obama reiterated his desire to provide whatever aid necessary to ameliorate the disaster.

    Meanwhile, LiveScience reported that the University of Colorado’s Natural Hazards Center had listed a Boulder flash flood as one of several “disasters waiting to happen” on a report in 2004, and the U.S. Geological Survey has mapped the ancient remains of flash floods that occurred thousands of years ago along the Colorado Front Range.

    After the 1976 Big Thompson Canyon flood that drowned 145 people, Colorado officials bought undeveloped land along the flood zones to prevent development, and the city’s bike paths also served as floodwater channels with breakaway fences that prevented debris from clogging a flood’s path.

    Matt Klesch, a hydrometeorologist for the University Corporation for Academic Research based in Boulder, said that “We knew this kind of rain was possible [and] Big Thompson Canyon was a wake-up moment. Prior to that, we weren’t really prepared.”

    Referring to the 2013 flooding, Klesch said that the relief effort was “pretty well prepared for it, but it doesn’t mean all the residents were well prepared for it… Part of emergency management preparations is knowing a certain percentage of people are going to make bad decisions.”

    The Denver Post collected a series of stories about the flood, both sad and heroic, that you can read here at the end of their article.

    [Image via this AP YouTube video of footage and images from the flooding]