South Platte Still Oozing

DENVER—For those who live in northeastern Colorado and/or the Denver area, your taps are most likely linked to the South Platte. Remarkably, almost two months after the Suncor spill first made headlines, toxic benzene from the refinery is still seeping into the river at a rate 48 times above the limit for safe drinking water. According to a recent report, tests continue to show alarming benzene levels at the Suncor site, as well as downstream of the point at which Sand Creek flows into the South Platte.

From the Denver Post: Spilled contaminants from decades of refinery operations at the site have seeped underground, “and it is snaking through. The pressures change. It finds the path of least resistance, and that’s apparently what has happened: It has found the path of least resistance to get into Sand Creek,” Colorado health department environmental-programs director Martha Rudolph said in an interview last week.

For a flyfisher’s take, read Will Rice’s mitigation report, here.

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