PARACHUTE —Two ranchers who live and work downstream from a natural gas liquids spill near Parachute Creek said on Wednesday that they remain concerned, but not alarmed, about the cleanliness of the water that flows past their ranches.
The ranch owners, Sidney Lindauer and Howard Orona, live along Parachute Creek about three miles north of the Town of Parachute, on opposite sides of the creek. Both have previously voiced concerns about the cleanup of a large spill of natural-gas liquids about one mile upstream from their properties.
The two have said they worried about the potential contamination of their domestic and irrigation water supplies from the spill, which according to state and industry officials has dumped tens of thousands of gallons of potentially toxic chemicals into the soils and groundwater near a natural gas processing plant owned by the Williams Midstream company.
Among the contaminants in the ground and in the stream itself is benzene, a known carcinogen, that was detected in the groundwater at levels up to 18,000 parts per billion. That is thousands of times greater than the allowable concentration in drinking water, 5 ppb, according to state and federal standards. But because Parachute Creek is not classified as a source of drinking water, the standard is much higher, at 5,300 ppb.
Both Williams and state officials have maintained that the creek is not badly contaminated with benzene, noting that benzene levels found in the creek have been dropping steadily for weeks and that below a certain point on the stream no contamination has been detected.
