Emergency workers stopped a Thursday at a Chevron well pad in Galeton that caused evacuations in the area and closed a local elementary school for a week.
Hundreds of residents showed up for a community meeting at the fire station that evening seeking information about the incident that several said public officials have been slow to release. Many walked away disappointed.
It all started last Sunday evening, when a failure at Chevron鈥檚 Bishop well pad caused a blowout 鈥� what state regulators describe as 鈥渁 loss of control over the pressure of the wellbore, resulting in an uncontrolled flow.鈥�
Nearby residents saw a white plume rising from the site.
鈥淲e saw this huge thing that looked like a geyser. We started calling it the Galeton geyser,鈥� said Cole Ranalli, who watched the scene with his family on the grounds of nearby Galeton Elementary School, where he is in fifth grade.
The Galeton Geyser turned out to be steam mixed with oil, gas and wellbore fluids which spewed into the neighborhood for four days before workers got control of the release.
Several community members at the meeting described seeing oily droplets settling on their homes and property. They didn鈥檛 know what it was, or what to do about it. In this rural town, many had concerns about potential contamination of cropland and animal feed.
And many were frustrated when local officials remained light on details.
Tony Ranalli, Cole鈥檚 father, said he didn't understand why it took emergency workers four days to stop the leak.
鈥淚t's absolutely crazy that they couldn't figure out how to stop it,鈥� the elder Ranalli said. 鈥淭he engineers are smart. They had a plan in place. I don't know why they couldn't follow through on that plan quicker.鈥�
He said the week-long school closure disrupted his family鈥檚 schedule and interfered with planned statewide testing that was scheduled for this week.
Meanwhile, residents within the half-mile evacuation zone had not been back to their properties since Sunday. Many were hoping 鈥� in vain - to learn just what happened at the well pad and when they might return home.
鈥淚t鈥檇 just be nice to have some sort of timeline to plan our lives around,鈥� said evacuated resident Jarrod Fouts. 鈥淚 get it, we don't want to speculate on things and then turn out to be wrong. But it doesn't get people very far, as far as answers, either.鈥�
Fouts鈥� main concern was for the long-term viability of his land 鈥� a horse operation 鈥� and his animals, in the wake of the exposure.
鈥淗opefully it all gets taken care of without any further disturbances or unfortunateness,鈥� he said.
But Galeton, in rural Weld County, is a land of oil and gas wealth. Even in the immediate aftermath of a blowout of this scale, many locals remained loyal to the industry.
鈥淚 have a drilling pad across the road from my house too. It could very easily happen there, same thing,鈥� said Galeton resident Brett Abernathy, with a shrug. 鈥淛ust as long as I know it's being addressed. If there's anything I'm sure of in Colorado, it鈥檚 that the regulations are in order and these companies are prepared to deal with issues quickly.鈥�
Abernathy said that the current leak was unlike anything he鈥檇 ever encountered before, but he still welcomed oil and gas development in his town.
鈥淲hat happened that鈥檚 negative is incredibly small compared to all the positives that come from the industry,鈥� he said.
According to Chevron, which has been monitoring air, water and soil quality around the site, the leak has not caused any public health concern.
In an email, state air regulators said they had set up their own mobile monitoring units about one mile from the site, where they鈥檝e detected 鈥渆levated levels of benzene,鈥� a toxic hydrocarbon associated with oil and gas development. Those levels remain below federal limits for emergency action.
Officials at the meeting said now that the leak has been contained, they can now start investigating the cause of the blowout and begin site cleanup.
