A hazmat crew responded Thursday afternoon to a large-scale gasoline leak atop Farmington Hill south of Durango.
Seven homes were evacuated as a safety precaution in the immediate vicinity of the leak, said Rick Rainey, a spokesman for Enterprise Products, which owns the pipeline. An earlier estimate placed the number at five homes evacuated.
The leak was reported about 4:30 p.m. along County Road 219 near Riverview Ranch Road. County Road 219 is a short spur off U.S. Highway 550 that accesses a small subdivision on the Florida Mesa. No major traffic implications resulted from the leak, said Michael Krupa, deputy fire chief-operations with the Durango Fire Protection District.
It was not immediately known how much liquid gasoline may have escaped the underground pipeline, but it was in excess of 1,000 gallons, Krupa said.
“There is a 100-foot section of ditch line along the road that had in excess of 1,000 gallons that has saturated back into the ground now that the leak has been stopped,” Krupa said at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.
Enterprise Products responded from Farmington to stop the flow of gas. The 10-inch line caries diesel or gasoline from the Gulf Coast in the Houston area to refineries in West Texas, New Mexico and Colorado, Rainey said. The line helps lower the cost of diesel and gasoline in those market areas, he said.
The pipes are generally buried 3 to 4 feet underground, but they can be deeper in some places. Pipeline ruptures are rare, Rainey said, but with 2,500,000 miles of pipeline across the United States, incidents like this can happen, he said.
It was not immediately known what caused Thursday’s leak.
County Road 219 remained closed Thursday night while emergency responders did hazmat work. The gas company was working with federal agencies to provide cleanup. It was not immediately known how long those efforts would take.
Residents were displaced overnight Thursday.
“They’re being put up in lodging by the gas company,” Krupa said.
In addition to DFPD, La Plata County Emergency Management and the Environmental Protection Agency responded to the leak.
shane@durangoherald.com
