In drilling boom, Greeley safety infrastructure lags, stoking citizen concerns
Residents in the heart of this oil-and-gas boomtown for years have watched drilling operations advance toward their homes, moving in from the high-plains grasslands, then farm fields, then strip-mall suburbs. At public commission meetings and town-hall gatherings residents have raised concerns about air quality, water contamination, noise and traffic. In recent weeks, city authorities have given them something else to worry about: toxic explosions and spills local safety officials admit they are unprepared to handle.
Under questioning at a city planning commission meeting on Monday, Fire Marshall Dale Lyman conceded that the city had none of the fire-fighting foam equipment emergency teams use to combat oil-and-gas blazes. “This is an area where we need help,” Lyman said. “We keep five-gallon buckets of the foam in garages around the city. We bring it to mix with water at the site, or we call in air support.”
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Local media have reported a series of recent Weld County oil-tank fires. Two weeks ago, a billowing-black-smoke fire made television news in Frederick. It burned for an hour before a foam-equipped crew extinguished it and while students and staff at a nearby school “sheltered in place.” In March, a tank at a site just north of Greeley exploded around midnight, rocking Greeley residents in their beds. It took 18 firefighters from Windsor and Greeley three hours to douse the blaze and clear the scene. Officials suspect static electricity sparked the explosion. In December, a tank fire at a Platteville site burned for 10 hours.
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http://www.coloradoindependent.com/147227/in-drilling-boom-greeley-safety-infrastructure-lags-stoking-citizen-concerns
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