Log In


Reset Password
News Education Local News Nation & World New Mexico

Dead zone appears on Florida Mesa

Property owner questions if gas well poisoned spring

A Florida Mesa property owner is probing into whether recently installed gas wells have contaminated a nearby spring, creating a 2-acre dead zone of vegetation that is expanding 10 to 15 feet each year.

Jennifer Thurston, 55, and her family have owned property south of Durango, near U.S. Highway 550 and County Road 302, on what is known as Weasel Skin Farm, since 1978.

She remembers as a youth hiking the high-desert rim, spending long days and nights among the hundreds-year-old juniper trees and hardy piñons. She also vividly recalls a small but clear spring on the mesa’s steep slope toward the Animas River.

Amid the natural gas boom almost two decades ago, an adjacent property owner leased land to the Southern Ute Indian Tribe’s natural gas and oil company, Red Willow Production, which drilled three wells: one in 1989, 2001 and again in 2007.

The wells bore down 2,500 below the top of the mesa and are located about 800 feet away from where the spring tended to surface on and off over the years. But after the 2007 well was drilled, Thurston said that’s when the real trouble began.

Now, she said, there are at least three places where the spring comes to the surface emitting putrid discolored water. Surrounding the spring are 2 acres of dead junipers and piñons appearing to petrify at what Thurston calls an alarming rate. A non-native species of grass has taken over most of the land, and rocks appear stained from an unknown substance. She said the dead zone is inching its way south and down the slope, toward the Animas River and homes along Rainbow Road.

“It first caught our eye five or six years ago, but what’s caught our eye more so is how rapidly it continues to grow,” she said. “Since 2007, there’s been a marked difference. Water comes to the surface and kills all the vegetation and trees. It’s been a very rapid death.”

Emails exchanged in June between Thurston and Red Willow show the company denied any responsibility.

“I think tree death in these locations is not due to oil and gas contamination,” Red Willow’s hired geologist wrote. “The damage seems more likely due to some other cause such as changes in spring discharge (amount and location) over time.”

Thurston in September called the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, the state agency responsible for complaints about gas well contamination. On Friday, a field agent, along with an official from Red Willow, visited the mesa and took water samplings.

Both agencies tested for minerals in the spring, some of which could be responsible for the dead zone at high levels. However, neither the oil and gas commission nor Red Willow tested for the presence of methane – the most likely contaminate.

Bob Zahradnik, operating director of Southern Ute Growth Fund, said the company found nothing broken in Red Willow’s wells, and a pressure test showed no leaks. He maintained that the increase of flow in the spring, and subsequent die-off, is more likely due to some natural change on the mesa.

“It’s hard to see what could be causing that (dead zone),” Zahradnik told The Durango Herald. “(Methane) is hard to test for, but that’ll be the next thing if these tests aren’t conclusive.”

Zahradnik added test results should be available later in the week.

Thurston said she will file a formal complaint with the oil and gas commission if the state’s representative determines the situation is worth investigating. Multiple attempts to reach the commission were unsuccessful.

Gas abundant in Fruitland

Thurston’s property sits on what is known as the Fruitland Formation, a geological formation containing one of the most productive areas for coal-bed methane in the United States.

The formation naturally emits methane, but as drilling operations peaked over the past two decades, and environmental issues have arisen, a new question has emerged.

“There has always been a certain amount of methane seepage, but there’s definitely been an increase with drilling into the Fruitland,” said Bruce Baizel, energy program director for Earthworks, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the environment and communities from the adverse effects of oil and gas production.

“The question now is always drawing a straight line of cause and effect,” he said. “Has drilling caused this to happen more, even if it did happen before?”

This is not the first instance of drilling operations causing a vegetation die-off. In the early 1990s, homeowners along the Pine River north of Bayfield started to notice previously clean wells spewing methane after Amoco (now BP) drilled new wells.

“Residents in the Pine River Ranches subdivision noticed the river started bubbling,” said Josh Joswick, a former La Plata County commissioner. “Then there was the beginning and creation of a dead zone. Because so much methane was coming up, it killed vegetation, very old trees, oak brush, grass. It killed everything.”

The COGCC ordered Amoco to shut down the wells, but it took years of legal battles. Residents were forced to leave their homes permanently because of unsafe levels of methane, and vegetation to this day has not grown back.

“It blew up in Amoco’s face that this was a traditional seep,” Joswick said. “While there may have been natural seepage, it was never at that level. People were living up there since the ’70s, and there never had been a dead zone before those wells were put in.”

‘We’re just asking questions’

At this point, it’s too early to tell whether Red Willow’s operation is responsible for the growing dead zone on Thurston’s property.

“We don’t know,” Thurston said. “We’re just asking questions.”

Still, it’s hard to ignore the fact the spring turned sour only a few years after the 2007 well was installed.

“The timing’s about right,” Baizel said. “And we do know oil and gas operations cause increased methane seeps. But really, they just need to sample the water for methane, and if it’s there, fingerprint the gas.”

If the COGCC links the spring’s contamination to Red Willow, the company would have to come up with a plan for cleaning up the site, which could result in shutting down the well. If no connection is found, the agency could investigate other possible causes.

“The bottom line is, something has changed,” Baizel said. “That’s a big area to have a dead zone.”

Zahradnik said Red Willow has a long history of being good stewards of the land, and the company is committed to determining the cause of the spring’s sudden change.

“We’ll do everything we can to help her find what the problem is,” he said.

For Thurston, she hopes to get the problem fixed quickly to avoid as much vegetation kill as possible. The land has a special significance to her, and she wants it to be used as an educational and environmental sanctuary for generations to come.

“This is a very unique, low-impact area,” she said. “No one would have known this was happening. (Red Willow) said it’s a natural process. It may be a natural process, but it’s not normal for this area.”

jromeo@durangoherald.com



Reader Comments