DENVER, CO—An anonymous tip from a Suncor Energy employee alerted state health officials to contamination in tap water on the refinery property near the South Platte River late last week. According to Denver Water authorities the situation appears to be isolated to Suncor’s private system: “Benzene has not been detected in our system. But we are doing additional testing as a precautionary measure.”
The Benzene scare stems from the recent discovery of toxic petroleum dissolved in groundwater beneath Suncor Energy’s facility north of downtown Denver. The leak seeped directly into the bottom of Sand Creek, near the creek’s confluence with the South Platte River. Area flyfisher Trevor Tanner helped break the story last November after discovering an oily residue in the river during a routine fishing trip.
For additional information, read South Platte watchdog Will Rice’s latest front line report “Cause & Fx”, here.
Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.