What The Frack? 30-Hour Fracking Fluid Leak Southeast Of Fort Collins

If you even mention the term 'fracking' to most people in Colorado, your bound to stir up some controversy. (That or you might start a Battlestar Galactica conversation.)

So, I'm sure this little event is going to freak some people out...a leak at a fracking operation near Fort Collins was spewing green liquid for nearly 30 hours before crews finally got things under control this afternoon.The leaking well was southeast of Harmony and I-25, near the intersection of County Roads 74 and 15.

According to the Coloradoan,

A hydraulic failure around 9:30 a.m. Monday caused a piece of equipment to fall onto a valve and break it at the drilling site four miles east of Fort Collins. A horizontal stream of green-tinted fluid flowed from the valve for nearly a day and half before crews gained control of it.

There were no injuries and a spokesman for the drilling company said that the leaking green water would create no environmental problems.

This has got to be a fracking public relations nightmare.I'm on par with most of the general public in my knowlege of gas and oil drilling, but I don't know jack about what goes into the fracking process. Strange colored liquids spewing out of holes we've dug thousands of feet into the earth sounds like a pretty big deal to me.

And here is what the Weld County Emergency Management Director said about the spill:

I don’t think it’s a high-hazard threat to residents or businesses because there’s a far enough distance away from where this (well is) set.

I don't think it's a hazard? It's probably far enough away to not be a problem? Those are no comforting words to me.

I'm not against fracking, we need the fuel and we need the jobs. I just wish we knew a little more about what the long term effects are going to be. And little scenarios like this certainly don't lend themselves to creating a feeling of comfort for anyone who can see a fracking tower out their back window.

(PS - "Fracking" is what most of us call "Hydraulic Fracturing.")

[Coloradoan]

Picture by Mike Towber, Flickr.