Colorado state energy officials Thursday night said a hydrocarbon spill in the Parachute Creek area of the Western Slope was essentially under control and there was no apparent impact on the creek, Todd Hartman, a Colorado Oil Gas Conservation Commission (OGCC) spokesman told NGI.

“There’s been no impact to the creek or to anyone’s local water supply,” Hartman said.

The incident in the area of Williams midstream operations came to light March 15. A total of 139 bbl of oil had been recovered by last Wednesday, according to OGCC. There were also 2,059 barrels of water collected to help ensure that if some contaminated water was part of the leak it would be kept out of Parachute Creek.

“Very little free oil/hydrocarbon liquid was observed in the impact area [Thursday], and today’s recovery total continues a downward trend with only trace amounts recovered,” Hartman said.

A Williams spokesperson confirmed the OGCC assessment, telling NGI Friday there has been no contamination. The company is testing local water on the half-hour and the level of contaminant measurement is below measurable levels, the spokesperson said.

The company, which operates a major gas and liquids processing facility in the area, will continue to investigate the source of the leak, which was still undetermined as of Friday. One stakeholder speculated that the reason it has not been easy to pinpoint a source is the large number of hydrocarbon pipelines in the area, all feeding into the Williams processing plant, which can process 1.2 Bcf/d of gas and another 6,000 b/d of natural gas liquids.

©Copyright 2013Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.