FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts: Anne Lee Foster: 757-870-5102, anneleefoster@gmail.com
***PRESS RELEASE***
Colorado Rising Response to Elevated Benzene at Bella Romero Academy
GREELEY, COLORADO — Today, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission sent a press release notifying the public that “The state’s air monitoring mobile lab measured a benzene level that is above the health-based screening guideline for short-term health impacts” at Bella Romero Academy in Greeley, Colorado.
The World Health Organization says there is no safe level of benzene exposure.
Anne Lee Foster, Communications Director for Colorado Rising said: “After years of fighting this most outrageous fracking site, the CDPHE and the COGCC have just confirmed our worst fears. This site has been challenged all the way to the Colorado Supreme Court, protested for years, and repeatedly made national headlines because it is so ridiculously offensive. This industrial fracking site just 720 feet from a school playground is the perfect example of the overtly favorable relationship the oil and gas industry has enjoyed with Colorado state regulators for decades.”
“Instead of taking a proactive response to protect the children of Bella Romero Academy from chemical exposures, the COGCC said they will improve their emissions monitoring and notification process. The state’s job is to protect public health and safety. Letting folks know after their children have already been harmed is wholly insufficient.”
“We call on Governor Jared Polis to shut down all sites within 2000ft of homes and schools. The recent CDPHE oil and gas health study, numerous complaints filed with the state, this data, and the heaps of other studies that demonstrate negative health impacts from oil and gas extraction make it necessary for the COGCC to stop operations within 2000ft if they are to fulfill the law under SB-181.”
The attached photo is of Bella Romero Academy’s playground with a spudding rig in the background. Photo by Lisa Gross.
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Colorado Rising is powering the grassroots movement to protect public health & safety from dangerous oil & gas operations.
To learn more, please go to www.corising.org
