On Saturday, March 21st, activists, friends, and representatives from local environmental organizations joined Colorado Rising, Fort Collins Sustainability Group, and others at the Kodak Trailhead in Windsor for an educational ride along the Cache la Poudre River Trail toward Greeley. The goal was straightforward: to see the river corridor firsthand and reckon with what’s happening (and proposed) along its banks.
During the ride, we saw a thriving riparian corridor. We spotted bald eagles nesting in the cottonwood trees along the riverbank, the snapping turtles were out, and the river’s wildlife felt abundant, a testament to what a functioning river ecosystem looks like.
The ride also made the scale of industrial development concrete in a way that data alone cannot. Within one mile of the banks of the Cache la Poudre river as it flows east towards the Platte River are hundreds of active wells, of which almost 50 are classified as low-producing. In the last 10 years, 184 spills have been documented, as shown in the interactive map above.
Our first significant stop along the route was to ride through the parcel where GlobalAI is proposing to build Weld County’s first data center. Adjacent to two existing 30-well oil & gas pads and the Halliburton sand terminal, this proposed facility will another potential industrial demand on a corridor already under significant pressure.
Another striking stop along the route was at the Orr State #40-36 pad operated by PDC Energy. The pad holds 23 producing wells. Fracking those wells in 2016 and 2017 consumed 186 million gallons of water and 92,000 tons of fracking sand, also known as proppant.
The ride ended with a community gathering at WeldWerks Brewing Co. in Greeley. We’re so grateful for the sponsoring organizations and attendees that made this event possible.
If you’d like us to do a river ride in your neighborhood, let us know!
