Inquiring minds wanted to know the story behind the drilling rig that appeared Wednesday above the Purple Cliffs across the Animas River from Home Depot.

“It could be a number of things,” said Drew Simmons, a planner with La Plata County Planning Department. “We haven’t permitted any new wells in that area, but it could be a workover rig there to clean out pipes going beneath it.”

Maintenance rigs don’t have to be permitted, he said.

“It’s just like changing the oil in your car, it’s just something they have to do,” Simmons said. “It just takes a bigger wrench for them.”

Simmons said he couldn’t identify which natural gas producer’s rig it is.

“Virtually every producer has wells accessed from La Posta Road (County Road 213),” he said, “and some, like those off Rancho Durango Road are not even in our jurisdiction, as they’re on (Southern Ute) tribal lands.”

A phone call to Christi Zeller, executive director of the La Plata County Energy Council, to determine whose rig it might be was not immediately returned Friday.

abutler@durangoherald.com