Colorado’s fracking record

According to an article in The Denver Post on Feb. 12, there was a release of 84,000 gallons of water contaminated with chemicals and petroleum products associated with fracking near the town of Windsor, Colo. This town is about an hour north of Denver. The environment was described as “smelly” and fire departments were sent to monitor the situation for the possibility of an explosion. The Colorado environmental regulators are monitoring the situation.

In the same article it is noted that this is not the first accident of the year. There were two accidents last month, and both contaminated ground water. Since 2008 there have been over 2,000 spills in Colorado with the ground water contaminated in about 17 percent of the accidents.

I am concerned that the government in Raleigh is ignoring these accidents related to fracking as it aggressively pursues the development of this industry in our state. I would like to see The N&O run a series on fracking as it exists in Colorado today so that our voters would have a better understanding of the risks involved.

John Briggs, Sanford