A gasoline spill in La Plata County, one that threatens the nearby Animas River, was at least four times larger than originally reported, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe.
After the state and tribe questioned the accuracy of the original estimate, Enterprise Products LLC, which owns and operates the pipeline, found that the underground pipeline leaked 97,000 gallons of refined gasoline into the ground on Florida Mesa, just southeast of Durango. The company’s original estimate was 23,000 gallons.
“The updated estimate underscores the seriousness of the incident, which is now estimated to be the largest refined gasoline pipeline spill in Colorado since CDPHE began tracking such releases in 2016,” the health department and the Southern Ute Tribe said in a joint press release Tuesday.
Community members reported gasoline on the ground’s surface Dec. 5, prompting a hazmat crew to respond and residents to evacuate homes. Houses in a small subdivision within the boundaries of both La Plata County and the Southern Ute Reservation near the spill received water filters and cisterns. Some residents had to stay temporarily in hotels or leave the area entirely.
The pipeline’s leak detection systems didn’t notify Enterprise of the spill, according to news reports. Residents questioned the original estimate, saying that it could have been leaking for a long time before it was reported or that it’d have to be larger to soak the ground’s surface.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” said Patrick Goddard, who owns Rainbow Springs Trout Farm and lives downhill from the spill site. He’d heard estimates from 500 gallons to 120,000 gallons. “It keeps seeming to go up.”
The pipeline is part of Enterprise’s Mid-America Pipeline System, which extends through Texas, New Mexico, Wyoming and other states. In La Plata County, the Four Corners Lateral Loop passes through farmland and backyards on Florida Mesa before running down the mesa’s slope and under the Animas River.
The Enterprise pipeline spill leaked benzene and other contaminants into the mesa. Benzene is a component of crude oil products and is a caustic short-term threat for headaches and nausea, and a longer-term exposure threat for leukemia and other conditions, according to CDPHE.
The cause of the spill was “material failure of the pipeline or welding,” according to the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
Enterprise Products’ July report did not elaborate on the investigation into the cause. No new information had been reported to CDPHE indicating the cause has changed or that the investigation is ongoing, the agency said Aug. 11.
“It’s kind of concerning that they can’t tell how much gas has spilled,” Goddard said, wondering if Enterprise was hiding it or just ignorant of the full amount. “I hope there is more monitoring in the future so they catch something like this sooner.”
Enterprise has reported recovering more than 20,000 gallons of gasoline from underground. The Southern Ute Indian Tribe called on the company to work with “urgency and accountability” in fully remediating the spill.
“The Tribe expects timely action and robust safeguards to protect the Animas River and our Tribal Membership,” Southern Ute Indian Tribe Chairman Melvin Baker of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe said in the news release. “Anything less would be a failure to uphold the standards our community and environment deserve.”
The state, working with the Tribe, is requiring Enterprise to follow a corrective action plan to ensure a comprehensive cleanup. As part of that plan, Enterprise will continue its remediation work until monitoring data confirms that all regulatory standards have been met and contamination no longer poses a risk to human health or the environment, according to the news statement.
“We share their commitment to protecting community health and safeguarding the environment, and will continue to support strong measures to ensure Enterprise meets its obligations,” CDPHE said in the news release.
The underground mass of contaminants, called a plume, was mainly moving south on top of the mesa, not southwest toward the Animas River located a half-mile away, according to experts and a July 30 report.
The Animas isn’t fully out of the risk zone. As the plume spreads underground, there is a chance some contaminants could be released from seeps and springs that flow toward the river, according to experts, like Lesley Sebol, manager of the Groundwater Resources Mission Area for the Colorado Geological Survey who is not involved in the spill response.
By and large, officials say the Animas River is not at risk, but they’re monitoring it closely. As of mid-August, the data continued to indicate that the Animas River remains protected and will not be impacted, according to CDPHE.
Life for nearby residents has changed significantly since December. The once-quiet neighborhoods off County Road 219 and Bardin Drive have featured heavy machinery, large trucks, new wells and workers. Many local residents remain frustrated by a lack of transparency and worried about the spill’s long-term impacts on property values, their quality of life and their health.
“Residents here really appreciate the diligence and persistence of the Southern Utes in getting all the facts about the spill, and insisting on appropriate remedies,” said Mark Pearson, executive director of the San Juan Citizens Alliance, an environmental advocacy group. “This spill highlights the murky regulatory process around these pipelines that run under and through our communities, where folks only find out about their existence when major problems like this arise.”
