This week, British Petroleum Corporation (BP) created an Animas River oil spill. BP has dumped oil and fraking fluids into the Animas River near Durango, Colorado. The company spilled fraking well wastewater into an irrigation ditch that flows directly in the Animas 14 miles south of Durango.
Neighbors complained to the State of Colorado and BP was trying to stop the toxic soup flowing into the river but the smell of oil was heavy in the air and toxins have flowed into the Animas toward Aztec and Farmington.
Fraking fluids contain secret chemicals that the George W. Bush administration allowed the oil industry to classify as proprietary secrets during that presidency. As a consequence we have no idea what is being dumped into the Animas River other than oil.
The San Juan Mountains are one of the most important sources of clean water flowing into the Colorado and Rio Grande Rivers on both sides of the Continental Divide. The Animas River, which flows through Durango, then flows through Aztec and Farmington where it meets the San Juan River on its way to the Colorado. The Animas made international news months ago when a clean-up contractor outside Silverton breached a containment dam and dumped millions of gallons of toxic waste from an abandoned gold mine into the river.
The recent BP spill got attention because it occurred in a residential area. Oil drilling in residential areas and farmlands poses threats to public health including explosions of oil equipment such as happened outside Denver two months ago.
On Tuesday’s ballot Colorado residents had and opportunity to force oil wells in residential areas farther away from houses and schools (from 500 feet to 2500 feet). Voters rejected Proposition 112 after heavy opposition from the oil industry.
Serious explosions and fires related to oil and gas wells have been plaguing the greater Denver area. Today (November 8, 2018) a huge oil fire spewing black smoke is burning at an Noble Energy oil processing facility outside Greely, Colorado. As with other oil industrial fires in the area, local firefighters are called to put out these extremely dangerous blazes where explosions are likely. Other oil fires have killed volunteer firefighters. These oil companies do not provide their own firefighters though the oil fires are happening regularly close to homes. This is another way the oil industry externalizes its costs onto local taxpayers.
The desert southwest depends on our mountain rivers to provide water for people, farms, wildlife and wells. We might want to think seriously if oil production in these critical watersheds is a good idea or if we might hurry to wean ourselves off oil that is destroying our atmosphere (CO2 and methane emissions) and is contaminating our water supplies. While the industry provides transient jobs, the cost it exacts on our region is high.
