Tribal leaders in southwest Colorado took to social media to express their frustrations with the "inadequate" response to a December 2024 pipeline leak near their land, CBS News reported.
"We will not stand by while our ground and surface water, Tribal resources, and the health of our Tribal Members are put at risk," Melvin J. Baker, chairman of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, said in a social-media post, per CBS News.
What's happening?
On December 5, 2024, an anonymous person reported a leak in an underground Enterprise Products fuel pipeline near Durango, Colorado. Before the leak could be stopped, an estimated 23,000 gallons of fuel had spilled, making it the sixth-largest spill Colorado state authorities had ever dealt with, per CBS News.
In the aftermath of the spill, levels of toxic chemicals in local groundwater spiked. This made groundwater wells unusable, and tribal members said they now must have water trucked in and stored in Enterprise-Products-provided cisterns, according to CBS News.
Tribal leaders accused Enterprise Products and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment of dragging their feet on cleanup efforts and warned that the lack of urgency risks further catastrophe.
A third-party company monitoring the site has detected hazardous chemicals from the spill in a spring less than a third of a mile from the Animas River.
"If the spill were to reach the nearby Animas River in elevated concentrations, the danger to plant, animal, and human life in the local area and potentially downstream along the river could be widespread," said the tribe, per CBS News.
"Despite this, Enterprise still does not have a site-specific contingency plan in place to protect the Animas River," the tribe continued.
The Southern Utes were not the only people the spill impacted. Authorities evacuated Durango resident Heather Houk and her family after fuel began bubbling up from underground in a ditch near their home, according to the Durango Herald.
"The smell was so overwhelming," Houk told the Herald, adding that the fumes caused dizziness and severe headaches.
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Yes 💯 Several months later, the Houks were yet to return home due to the fumes and ongoing work to replace a stretch of underground pipeline, per the Herald.
Why are pipeline leaks important?
As the situation in southwest Colorado illustrates, leaks and other pipeline incidents have tragic consequences for residents, water supplies, wildlife, and the environment. They are also much more common than many people realize.
According to the Center for Biological Diversity, from 1986 to 2013, there were roughly 8,000 pipeline incidents, almost 300 per year on average, or nearly one per day. Together, these pipeline incidents resulted in more than 500 deaths, more than 2,300 injuries, and almost $7 billion in damage.
The substances leaked during these pipeline incidents included oil, liquefied natural gas, gasoline, and diesel fuel, per the Center for Biological Diversity.
What's being done about pipeline leaks?
To reduce the number of pipeline incidents, we must significantly reduce our reliance on the dirty-burning fuels they transport.
We can all help accomplish this by making changes large and small in our own lives, from taking public transportation more often to installing solar panels on our homes to driving electric vehicles.
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