It will be sometime Saturday before a crew of specialists from Houston can get a gas well blowout "shut in" after a mishap Thursday west of Peetz began spewing natural gas into the air. The blowout is in the East Cheyenne Gas Storage facility.
East Cheyenne spokesman Paul Raab issued a prepared statement from the company Friday afternoon. He said contractors were working on the site Thursday afternoon when a safety device failed.
"(A)s a result, natural gas from the single affected well is escaping into the atmosphere," the statement said.
A well-control team arrived on site Thursday night and by Friday was preparing the site to shut down the leak.
"The team continues to assess the situation and has begun preparing the site for well-control operations, including improving access to the site and de-powering the well pad," Raab said. "Cranes, water tanks, trucks and other equipment have been staged nearby. The team expects to work through the afternoon and into (Saturday), and will monitor well conditions and perimeter barriers 24 hours a day until the well is shut in."
Ty Elliott, assistant fire chief in Peetz, said his department put out an evacuation notice via a reverse 911 call shortly before 7:30 p.m. Thursday to households within a two-mile radius of the blowout. That site is near the intersection of County Roads 74 and 37. Elliott said 26 households were notified and he knew of six or eight families that had actually left their homes.
Raab said East Cheyenne Gas Storage will reimburse evacuated homeowners for their expenses.
The Brad Schumacher family was one of those households. Schumacher, who works at Peetz Farmers Co-Op, said Friday his wife and children are staying with family members until they get word they can return home. He said he was in Colorado Springs attending class when the incident occurred, and his wife was in Sidney.
Residents in Peetz said there was no explosion but that the roar of the escaping gas could be heard from nearby homes.
Roadblocks were in place Friday at all intersections within two miles of the site. The plume of gas could be clearly seen and the roar of the blowout could be faintly heard from the intersection of County Roads 74 and 41.
Raab said the leak is from only one well in the 16-well gas storage field.
The release said local, state and federal authorities had been notified, including Logan County, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, the Colorado Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, and the U.S. National Response Center.
East Cheyenne Gas Storage is an underground natural gas storage facility, in service since late 2011 and owned by Houston-based Midstream Energy Holdings LLC.
Jeff Rice: 970-526-9283, ricej@journal-advocate.com
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