Suncor Energy has expanded the hose system blowing air bubbles into Sand Creek attempting to expel cancer-causing benzene spreading from under the company’s oil refinery north of Denver.
Its crews also have been packing a trench with bentonite clay from Wyoming, focused on meeting a deadline today for the completion of a 1,000-foot-long, 30-foot-deep underground wall designed to hold back contaminated groundwater.
It’ll take at least a decade before Cotter Corp.’s contaminated Colorado
uranium mill is cleaned up under a new deal aimed at accelerating work
at the site.
The agreement settles a long-running dispute about the
surety fund – state officials have estimated cleanup would cost as much
as $40 million – and also sets Cotter’s timetable and penalties if
deadlines aren’t met.
A watchdog group criticized the deal, saying plans
were revised with little public input.
Workers at Suncor Energy ‘s oil refinery north of Denver – nearly all 500 – have had their blood tested for benzene as Suncor excavates pipeline to deal with tainted tap water and tries to contain contamination of Sand Creek.
Nobody knows how long drinking water at the Suncor refinery has contained benzene. Results of blood tests were kept confidential.
Cotter Corp. has thrown in the towel on uranium processing at its Colorado uranium mill and moved toward cleanup of pollution at the site near the Arkansas River southeast of Cañon City.
State health regulators on Thursday issued orders formalizing cleanup work already in progress to stanch the the flow of hazardous liquid seeping into Sand Creek and addressing newly identified contamination spreading underground from Suncor Energy’s refinery to an adjacent Metro Wastewater plant.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cleanup coordinators determined that the black goo oozing from the bank of Sand Creek north of downtown Denver is “a gasoline-like material” that contains cancer-causing benzene.
Federal environmental officials have taken charge of a continuing toxic leak into Sand Creek and the South Platte River north of downtown Denver, trying to stop oily black goo from fouling northeastern Colorado’s primary source of water.
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment officials have known about hazardous leakages in the area for at least a month, documents show. And for a week, toxic vapors at the nearby Metro Wastewater Reclamation District facility have forced workers to wear respirators.
FORT LUPTON – Oil and gas drillers have bought at least 500 million gallons of water this year from cities for use in hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” along Colorado’s Front Range . Now they need more.
Nearly three-quarters of a ton of concentrated uranium removed from groundwater to protect metro-area drinking water is piling up at Cotter Corp.’s defunct mine west of Denver.
CAÑON CITY – Cotter Corp. crews jack-hammered concrete foundations and ripped apart contaminated remaining buildings at their uranium mill, pushing to consolidate all waste in a massive impoundment pond by year’s end. Cotter’s dismantling activities are happening at a turning point where licensing requirements may force a decision on the future of the mill.
LONGMONT – Gaps in state rules leave Colorado cities and towns in the lurch as they deal with increased oil and gas drilling within municipal limits.
Environmental and sportsmen’s groups, too, are frustrated, because state rules allow drilling near most mountain streams.
All are urging state regulators to live up to a commitment made in 2009 to launch stakeholder groups to finish rules for in-town and streamside drilling. Two years later, nothing has been done.
A journalist and lawyer, Bruce Finley has investigated local, national and international issues with on-site reporting in more than 40 countries. In his position as a staff writer for the Denver Post, he is focusing on environment-related news including water challenges, the oil and gas boom and wildfire.
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