Open Exposure: Colorado Chevron Well Suffers Blowout, Community Left in Dark
When holes are drilled into the ground to frack and extract fossil fuels, no one and nothing is safe. There is no such thing as a “clean” or “carbon neutral” oil and gas operator. From the very beginning, drilling for oil and gas creates a “forever problem” that puts communities and ecosystems in danger.
The residents of Galeton, a rural town in Weld County, Colorado, became intimately acquainted with the risks of the fossil fuel industry when, on April 6th, Chevron’s “Bishop” Well suffered a catastrophic blowout. A blowout is an uncontrolled geyser that releases waste water, chemicals, crude oil, and other byproducts of fracking into the air and environment. In this case, millions of gallons of this toxic combination spewed unabated for almost five days before finally being contained.
So severe was this blowout that harmful greenhouse gases such as methane, and cancer-causing toxics like benzene, were detected up to two miles away from the wellhead, according to researchers from the Colorado State University. Benzene was found in concentrations 10 times the federal chronic exposure level. Methane was found at 20 parts per million. The federal exposure level acceptable for human health for ill effects not to occur? 9ppm. Dozens of other chemicals were also detected, including “trade secret” fluids, some of which are known to contain another harmful toxic, formaldehyde.
These are just the airborne impacts documented. The droplets from the geyser themselves also wrought havoc.
The damage is unprecedented, and cannot be overstated:
One person was severely injured as a direct result of the geyser.
Over a dozen households were contaminated and multiple families evacuated.
The local elementary school closed for weeks, impacting its 100+ student body.
It will take an estimated five years, if not longer, to completely clean up.
While the full extent of the harm is still unknown, and clean up numbers are still being tallied, one thing is abundantly clear: this was the worst oil and gas incident in Colorado in recent history. The other top 4? All since 2020. Colorado Public Radio reports that:
In 2020, the largest oil spill in the database occurred when a fire burned several storage tanks in Lincoln County, incinerating 1,200 barrels of oil.
Also in 2020, the largest oil spill by barrels of oil recovered, when an “unauthorized person” opened a valve in Washington County & the operator recovered 340 barrels.
In 2022, the largest incident by barrels of produced (or contaminated) water recovered – 8,000 barrels.
In 2023, the largest produced water spill in state history, when 13,000 barrels of produced water spread across the ground in Las Animas County as a result of equipment failure.
What’s scarier is that Colorado actually has some of the strongest rules in the country to protect health, communities and the environment from harms of the oil and gas industry. Despite these good-on-paper regulations, a major failure still happened.
If it can happen in a state with what should be some of the toughest protections, if it can happen there, it can happen anywhere. When holes are drilled into the ground to frack and extract fossil fuels, no one and nothing is safe. Oil and gas infrastructure near communities is always a recipe for potential harm and disaster.
Be sure to check back with us for regular updates on this story. While national news outlets are still not covering it, we will continue to provide the public with more information as it becomes available.
Watch an update from our on-the-ground Colorado Field Advocate, Andrew Klooster:
