Colarado's Oil and Gas Infrastructure Drowning in Climate-Driven Floodwaters

[xchrom]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/09/17


A gas drilling facility underwater in Colorado. (Photo: East Boulder County United)

According to reports, massive flooding across Colorado over the last week is wreaking havoc with the state's oil and gas infrastructure as cresting rivers and heavy rainfall submerged drilling and storage facilities, allowing the release of fuel and toxic chemicals.

The human toll of the floods— including widespread damage to roads, bridges, and communities—has dominated headlines, but as Grist's John Upton has documented, the impact on the state's fracking and oil infrastructure has gone widely ignored by media outlets.

As Upton reports:

Fracking infrastructure has been inundated and its toxic contents have spilled out. Pipelines that transport fossil fuels are sagging and snapping under pressure. Tanks that store chemicals and polluted water are being overwhelmed and toppling over. Oil and gas wells are flooding.

[safeinOhio]

1. Unintended consequences.

Seems no one ever thought about massive floods. You know, those once in 5 hundred year events that seem to come along every other year now.

[djean111]

2. My grandson moved from here in Florida to Colorado, this summer.

I am thinking a twisted governor is safer than fracking poisons.

[Champion Jack]

3. Fracking in a floodplain...? Who would of thought.......

[Champion Jack]

4. and this

http://admin.alternet.org/environment/5-things-you-should-know-about-colorados-1000-year-flood-jaw-dropping-photos

[hatrack]

5. Wow, no one could possibly have predicted this . . .