Impacts of Colorado oil and gas leak could take 5 years to clean up, Chevron officials say

CBS News

22-05-2025

Colorado oil and gas leak could take 5 years to clean up
Colorado oil and gas leak could take 5 years to clean up
Colorado oil and gas leak could take 5 years to clean up
Chevron said it could take five years to clean up the impacts of an oil and gas leak in Colorado.
Last month, the Bishop Well in Galeton experienced a containment failure, causing the evacuation of some homes in the area and the temporary closure of Galeton Elementary School.
The Bishop well near Galeton in Northern Colorado.
CBS
In a filing with state regulators, Chevron said they have recovered more than 91,000 barrels of the liquid waste that is a byproduct of oil and gas extraction. That's about 3.8 million gallons.
The blowout on April 6 led to both crude oil and natural gas spewing into the air. A report from the state's energy and carbon management commission said the barriers failed, leading to a loss of pressure control.
Residents within half a mile of the site were asked to evacuate. Several of those residents are still not able to return to their homes.
Chevron spokesperson Patty Errico sent the following statement:
Our priority remains getting those residents who have relocated back into their homes.
We continue to make good progress in conducting assessments of both homes and properties and have multiple home cleanings in progress. Out of the 14 relocated residents within a half mile of the incident, we had four final walk throughs this week, and 10 are awaiting completion of the cleaning process.
We submitted form 27 to ECMC and will continue to comply with all regulatory reporting requirements. This reported volume consists of liquids recovered from the well site. This includes liquid from equipment decontamination and stormwater collection. The volume of liquid recovered is not equivalent to the liquid volume that was released from the well. The details of the well release are still under investigation.
Regarding timeline of remediation efforts, as part of the ECMC remediation and reclamation process, Chevron is required to provide an estimated date of completion. We provided a conservative estimate given that the sampling and plan development is still ongoing. The exact timeline of the remediation, monitoring, and reclamation steps for each site will be updated as we get additional data and finalize plans.