Colorado absorbs 179 oil and gas spills as Parachute cleanup continues
At least 1,500 cubic yards of petroleum-contaminated soil will be hauled from the oil and gas spill along Parachute Creek to Utah for final disposal.
West Fork fire complex in Colorado feeding on beetle-ravaged forests
SOUTH FORK — Wildfires spread to an estimated 66,200 acres Saturday in spruce-beetle-ravaged forests, continuing to imperil tourist towns on the west edge of Colorado’s San Luis Valley.
Nature Conservancy offers alternative to aggressive fire suppression
JAMESTOWN — A team combining ecological know-how with hotshot firefighting is being deployed in Front Range forests to try to address Colorado’s wildfire predicament: needing the purge of fire but not wanting it.
Moose on move, multiplying in Colorado as herds decline elsewhere
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK — A dozen moose transplanted in 1978 found an ideal safe harbor in Colorado’s high country, multiplying rapidly and migrating across mountains into South Park and the foothills west of Denver.
Study: Number of frogs, toads declining at alarming rate
Frogs, toads and other amphibians are vanishing so fast nationwide that if the decline continues at the same rate, they’ll be gone from half their current habitats in 20 years, a federal study has found.
Suncor’s benzene spill still taints South Platte
After 18 months of cleanup around Suncor’s oil refinery, contamination of the South Platte River is diminishing, but concentrations of cancer-causing benzene in the water remain six times higher than the national safety standard.
After Fern Lake fire in Rocky Mountain National Park, new life forms
An unprecedented post-Thanksgiving wildfire that burned through snow, frustrating firefighters as ponds froze and ice coated helicopters, has revitalized forests and meadows in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Drilling in gung-ho Greeley, hits opposition near west-side homes
GREELEY — For the first time in decades, residents of industry-friendly Greeley are fighting to keep oil and gas wells away from their homes.
Oil, gas companies urged to clean, reuse muck, but process expensive
While Colorado’s drilling boom produces record amounts of gas and oil, the multiplying wells also are bringing up far greater quantities of a salty, toxic liquid waste — 15 billion gallons a year.
If cleaned properly, all that liquid could become safe water to restore rivers, irrigate food crops and sustain communities in an era of drought and declining water supplies. Or at least it could be reused by oil and gas companies to reduce their draw of fresh water from farmers and cities.
Cotter to brew uranium cocktail to clean tainted mine west of Denver
Cotter Corp. is preparing to brew a multimillion-gallon uranium cocktail in a mine shaft west of Denver — an innovation aimed at ending a threat to city water supplies.
If all goes well, mixing molasses and alcohol into a stream of filtered water pumped from the mine and discharged down Ralston Creek, and then re-injecting that mix into Cotter’s 2,000-foot-deep Schwartzwalder mine, will immobilize uranium tainting the creek.
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.
