USS Colorado memorial opens

County celebrates new Veterans Memorial in Riverdale Park

BY BELEN WARD BWARD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

e near life-size replica of the USS Colorado at Riverdale Regional Park opened May 29 with a ribboncutting ceremony and an F-16 yover by the 120th wing from Buckley Space Force base.

County Commission Chair Steve O’Dorisio said the new memorial will honor the men and women that served to protect our nation, according to the news release. It’s a reminder of the extraordinary sacri ces those who serve made in the past and continue to make.

“It ignites a ame of valor and patriotism in the hearts of future generations. And it will be a beacon of hope, reminding us of our responsibility to uphold the principles and freedoms upon which this great nation was built,” O’Dorisio said. “And by incorporating public art elements into the project, we can enrich the experience and pride of our constituents who use these amenities.”

Adams County Commissioners, Congresswoman Yadira Caraveo, U.S. Navy Veteran Ken Jones – who served on the USS Colorado during e USS Colorado was built with marble monuments for each military branch. e entrance to the memorial features plaques of presidential quotes sandblasted into its structure and a story wall built from Adams County residents’ contributions and recollections about a soldier’s life. A concrete map in the entryway lists directions to all veteran’s memorials within Adams County.

World War II – joined active-duty personnel, family and friends of veterans and community members for the ceremony.

“ e veterans memorial stands as a testament to the unwavering commitment of our community, a labor of love that has brought us together,” said County Commissioner Charles “Chaz” Tedesco. “From the initial stages of fundraising to the meticulous planning and construction, our journey has been one of collaboration and dedication. e completion of this memorial is a testament to the resilience and unwavering support of our community.” e USS Colorado sits on the pond at Riverdale Regional Park at 9755 Henderson Road, Brighton. pump jack connected to nearby production equipment and four tanks via a series of underground pipes and owlines.

U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper, an advocate of capping and clearing those abandoned sites, was the guest of honor as county o cials joined with industry experts to demonstrate the steps they must go through to close the county’s abandoned wells once and for all.

“Orphan wells are a constant nagging source of pollution,” Hickenlooper said. “But they are also ticking timebombs especially when they are out in areas that never really became big plays. You have a lot of wells that were built by small operators who didn’t have the resources to properly plug them and make sure they don’t have methane leaking out for the next decade.”

Counting orphans

According to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission’s data, Adams County has 4,617 drilled wells. Of that, 2,895 have been abandoned and plugged.

Commissioner Baca, who is also a member of the state’s Orphan Wells Mitigation Enterprise Board, said orphaned wells that remain unplugged are a di erent kind of problem, and Adams County has more than 300 of them scattered around the county.

Commissioner Baca said the site is a perfect example of an orphaned well. It was rst drilled in 1975 but was abandoned in 2018. at means the owners and operators simply walked away, leaving all the equipment above ground to rust and ow lines underground to leak.

“ e well operator declared bankruptcy and had to walk away and now we are trying to get it cleaned up,” Baca said. “Sites like this can stay toxic for years. e challenge for Adams County is that we are in the Denver Metro area and we are in a federal non-attainment area already. And when we have wells that emit toxic gases incessantly, it a ects our air quality. I know we are standing in a eld in unincorporated Adams County, but orphaned wells are found throughout Adams County, not just the unincorporated areas.” e process involves surveying the site with the latest chemical-seeking equipment, and Green eld’s Chris Rice demonstrated how they zero in on leaks with infrared cameras and a series of sensors that pull in the air and use lasers to determine their chemical makeup. ey can determine where the leak is coming from, what it’s leaking and determine how best to cap it and get the site cleaned up.

Adams County has a partnership with Civitas Resources, Green eld Environmental Solutions and CarbonPath to nd those sites, determine if they are leaking chemicals and where and then get them cleaned up. ose companies are working together to clean up nearly 50 orphaned well sites around northeastern Colorado, including in Adams County.

“We can go use this project as a headline moment, an example for others, on a private-public partnership that we can use to tackle all the orphaned wells across the United States and, of course, across Colorado,” CarbonPath CEO Tyler Crabtree said. “What we do is provide additional a bridge to nd additional private funding to supplement federal dollars. Essentially, for every well that gets plugged up with federal dollars, we want to raise money from private citizens and corporations to do their part to plug another well site.” e state created the Orphan Wells e U.S. Department of the Interior has set aside another $25 million to help Colorado to locate and clean up the wells. Both of Colorado’s Senators, Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet, have been strong advocates for getting the wells closed nationally.

Mitigation Enterprise in 2022, requiring well operators to pay a fee — $225 per well that produces more than 15 barrels of oil or 22 MCF of natural gas per day and $125 that produces less than that. It’s expected to generate $10 million per year to help clean up orphaned wells.

“Getting a program like this was a high priority in the bipartisan infrastructure bill,” Hickenlooper said. “One way to get into that bill was to make sure we look at the entire nation and how much methane and other escaping hydrocarbons are getting into the air from those wells that are not producing anything.”

Weld, Adams and Arapahoe counties are responsible for the vast majority of oil and natural gas pulled from the Colorado ground — with Weld County outproducing everyone. In 2022, wells in Weld County produced 131.8 million barrels of oil and 976.9 million MCF of natural gas — 82% of all oil produced in Colorado that year and 51% of all natural gas. Adams County produced 9.6 million barrels of oil and 37.2 million MCF of natural gas in 2022, a distant second in Colorado oil production behind Weld and sixth place in natural gas behind Weld, Gar eld, La Plata, Rio Blanco and Las Animas counties.