{"id":23738,"date":"2025-02-03T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/23000-gallons-of-gasoline-spilled-into-their-yard-now-this-durango-couple-cant-go-home\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:41:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:41:54","slug":"23000-gallons-of-gasoline-spilled-into-their-yard-now-this-durango-couple-cant-go-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/23000-gallons-of-gasoline-spilled-into-their-yard-now-this-durango-couple-cant-go-home\/","title":{"rendered":"23,000 gallons of gasoline spilled into their yard; now, this Durango couple can\u2019t go home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Heather
Heather and Wayne Houk stand in front of their home south of Durango on Thursday. They haven\u2019t been able to return to the home after a 23,000-gallon gasoline spill made the house uninhabitable and contaminated their well. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Heather Houk was at work one December afternoon when her husband called to say they had to evacuate their house. By the time she returned to their 3-acre property on the Florida Mesa around 5 p.m., firefighters had arrived.<\/p>\n

In the ditch abutting her neighbor\u2019s driveway off County Road 219, a pool of liquid had accumulated and was bubbling up from the ground\u2019s surface like an artesian well. The liquid ran south, parallel to County Road 219 in an apron across Riverview Ranch Road toward Houk\u2019s property.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe smell like almost takes you off your feet because it\u2019s just that refined gasoline,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

An underground pipeline owned by Enterprise Products Partners carrying car fuel from Texas up through New Mexico, into Colorado and on to Wyoming had burst, just 250 feet from the well the Houks use to drink.<\/p>\n

The Dec. 5 spill was first reported in a rough estimate by first responders simply to be over 1,000 gallons of gasoline. Over time that estimate grew to 371 barrels (15,600 gallons), then to 544 barrels (22,900 gallons) \u2013 enough to fill the Durango Community Recreation Center\u2019s 23-person hot tub nearly six times over.<\/p>\n

Houk ran into the house before they, and several of their neighbors, evacuated to a hotel that night.<\/p>\n

\"GHD
GHD Drilling installs a test well on the property of Heather and Wayne Houk south of Durango on Jan. 24 after a pipeline burst and spilled 23,000 gallons of gasoline near their property. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cThe smell was so overwhelming,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was like just covering our faces, holding our breath, and grabbing a handful of clothes and toiletries and stuff, and throwing everything in a bag for my husband, my son and I, and just getting the hell out of there.\u201d<\/p>\n

After three or four nights in a hotel, the neighbors had returned home and the Houks decided to try moving back into theirs. But by the middle of the next day, Houk was dizzy and had severe headaches. It felt like a severe hangover.<\/p>\n

Enterprise had trucks and excavation equipment running at all hours of the day outside the house as they quickly tried to remove the contaminated soil and replace a 100-foot section of the buried pipe.<\/p>\n

A few miles down the road from the Houks\u2019 property, Patrick Goddard, owner of Rainbow Springs Trout Farm, was oblivious to the commotion occurring on County Road 219.<\/p>\n