Water Quality

GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis will continue to pound on Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter’s more environmentally stringent oil-and-gas drilling regulations despite the fact that Ritter has pulled out of the race, according to McInnis spokesman Sean Duffy.

“Whichever Democrat is chosen [to run for governor]-– whether he’s chosen by the Democratic Party or the White House — [he or she will] have to defend the Democratic record on jobs or discuss how they believe the Democrats have been wrong,” Duffy told the Colorado Independent Monday. “So that’s a conversation they can have amongst themselves.”

Garfield County public health officials believe a relatively untested type of health impact study could be a valuable tool in assessing the risks of natural gas drilling in the heart of the Battlement Mesa retirement community on Colorado’s Western Slope.

Three oil and gas companies have been fined nearly $700,000 for allowing loose dirt from a pipeline project and access road to wash over a cliff into Garden Gulch and then on into Parachute Creek above the Western Slope town of Parachute.
According to a press release from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment [...]

Perhaps when mayors of small mountain towns on Colorado’s Western Slope express concerns about the environmental impacts of natural gas drilling it doesn’t cause too many ripples nationally, but when it becomes a campaign issue in the Big Apple, people tend to notice.
Last year, the mayors of Colorado towns like New Castle and Rifle complained [...]

From Boulder to Grand Junction, the debate over natural gas versus coal, looming federal regulation of both power sources and what it all means for energy sector jobs across Colorado is heating up.
In Grand Junction on Thursday, an energy researcher told an audience attending the Mesa State College Energy Management Symposium that longer permit periods [...]

Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Wednesday questioned the accuracy and methodology of a New York Times series on Clean Water Act violations after the Colorado Independent and Colorado Ethics Watch on Tuesday questioned the state’s lack of responsiveness in the Times report.

Some of the startling numbers in a New York Times series on water pollution that kicked off Saturday raise the question of why Colorado lawmakers are even bothering to bring certain aspects of natural-gas drilling under the federal regulation of the Safe Drinking Water Act.
According to the Times series, “Toxic Waters: A series about the [...]

The Clear Creek Watershed Foundation based in Idaho Springs is in line for a $544,000 grant from the federal Environmental Protection Agency to protect water quality for the system on which about 300,000 denver metro area residents rely.

Clear Creek was once the location of much of Colorado’s metal mining industry. The water is still [...]

The Environmental Protection Agency has issued some new regulations designed to make it easier for citizens and volunteers — called Good Samaritans — to clean up abandoned mining sites and improve water quality.

There are 22,000 abandoned mines sites in Colorado contributing in varying degrees to pollution of the state’s streams and lakes. In many cases, [...]

Colorado Confidential perused recent newspaper headlines across the Western Slope to give you a glimpse of current issues. Water, air quality, growth impacts…it’s definitely a land of transition and loss.