In the promotional materials and during the Spilling the Truth campaign launch webinar, we advertised and delivered on what we believe to be never-before-seen data about the record number of oil spills that have been reported in Weld County. We’ve been asked to clarify, so here’s the first of several examples from the webinar materials that shows how difficult it is to access this data (if it’s possible at all without downloading multiple data sets and performing extensive analysis). See if you can follow the steps below, and tell us at the bottom of the page if you agree that this is never-before-seen data.
A record 229 oil spills were reported in Weld County for April 2025
What would it take for a regular person to find these data on the ECMC website using their existing tools? Here are the steps:
- Navigate to the ECMC home page at https://ecmc.colorado.gov/
- Click on the Daily Activity Dashboard link. You’ll end up on a page describing the Daily Activity Dashboard.
- Click on the Daily Activity Dashboard link. You’ll end up on a Microsoft Power BI app with 9 different screens with different statistics/data.
- At the bottom of the screen, click the > icon 7 times to get to screen 8 of 9, which lists Spills.
- By default, the data only shows the calendar year 2024. To see the data for all years, click “2024” to remove the “year” filter.
- From the list of Colorado counties at the top left, choose Weld.
- Use the horizontal scroll bar underneath the bar chart (or the scroll wheel on your mouse) to scroll to the right until you see the data for April 2025 in the context of all the previous 4 years’ monthly spill data. Your screen should look like the image below, and you now have a visual representation of the data shown in the light green line in the chart above.
- In order to get the total number of spills for any month, you’ll need to hover over the green and yellow column segments to see the popup, and then sum the two “Active” and “Closed” spill counts.
- Now let’s get the data for all other Colorado counties; return to the list of Colorado Counties at top left, check all the other Colorado counties, and uncheck Weld County. Your screen should look like the image below, and you now have a visual representation of the data shown in the dark green line in the chart at top.
- Repeat Step 8 to get the total spills for the other Colorado counties by month.
Our Rating
For the jaw-dropping record number of spills and the 10 steps required to assemble this information from the ECMC Daily Activity Dashboard, we’re giving this one 3 out of of 3 minds blown.
What do you think?
Take the poll below and let us know! With your help, we’ll continue to push for transparency and better tools at the ECMC to keep the public informed of the impacts of oil & gas extraction in our communitiies.
