The 80-year-old Paonia resident finds her focus increasingly turning to Garfield County's energy industry. That industry first caused her to take a mid-life detour toward her current career, and these days it concerns her because of the potential impacts of natural gas development on local water and air...
Colborn voiced concerns with the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management about the potential health dangers of substances injected underground to fracture wells and boost gas flow. That led to her being contacted by Laura Amos, who lived in the Silt area at the time and was diagnosed with a rare adrenal tumor she believed was caused by a solvent in natural gas that had gotten into her drinking water. Outright links between substances and people's specific health problems can be hard to prove. But Colborn began hearing from others with concerns about health issues they feared were related to drilling. So she and an assistant began creating a spreadsheet of chemicals used in drilling and the patterns of their potential ill effects, which can include cancer, respiratory problems, and skin and sensory organ irritation. "That began the trouble that we're in today," joked Colborn, who heads The Endocrine Disruption Exchange, a Paonia nonprofit.
Colborn has faced some criticism from the energy industry for her work, but for her, criticism is nothing new. In the past, she has been accused of using junk science in her "Our Stolen Future" book, and been assailed by the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals for advocating chemical testing on animals. Gunnison Energy representative Kathy Welt, who recently attended a public presentation by Colborn, said Colborn is an expert in areas such as toxicology, but doesn't understand drilling. "I was just pretty upset with the whole tone of her presentation, that being to demonize the industry," she said. Welt said drilling fluids are used in deeper geological formations and don't mix with domestic well water. She said some people are extra-sensitive to changes in environment, such as gas development. But many chemicals similar to those used in drilling are contained in soaps, cleaning compounds, petroleum-based substances and other products found in homes, where people are more exposed to them, Welt said. "She's painting us like we're using some odd, mystery chemicals that nobody else uses," Welt said.
