The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced Tuesday that it had cited and fined three Weld County companies a combined $247,000 after it determined six people died following a hazardous gas exposure at a Weld County dairy farm in August.
Prospect Ranch LLC, which operates Prospect Valley Dairy east of Keenesburg, faces $132,406 in penalties after OSHA cited the company for failure to protect workers from atmospheric hazards, failure to communicate the hazards in writing and failure to train workers on how to detect hazardous gases, according to a U.S. Department of Labor news release.
Fiske faces $99,306 in fines and HD Builders faces $14,897 in penalties for failure to protect employees from atmospheric hazards and failure to provide hydrogen sulfide detection training. HD Builders employees were present during the incident, but were not harmed.
Fiske, based in Johnstown, is a construction and consulting company that provides equipment for dairy farms and other industrial services. HD Builders, based in Windsor, is owned by Agrifab Colorado, according to county records, and is a construction company specializing in agricultural equipment and structures.
OSHA’s investigation into the Aug. 20 incident found that a pipe in Prospect Valley Dairy’s manure management system had disconnected and released manure water and hydrogen sulfide gas, according to the news release. Contractors from Fiske and HD Builders had been hired to work on the system.
Hydrogen sulfide occurs naturally in crude petroleum and natural gas, but is also produced from decomposing manure, according to OSHA. In low doses, it is mildly irritating to eyes and lungs, but in high doses in a confined area it can quickly become deadly.
A Fiske employee and a Prospect Ranch employee attempted to stop the flow of the gas but died due to the exposure, according to the investigation. Three more Fiske employees and one Prospect Ranch employee entered the pump room where the gas was leaking and also died.
Four of the people who died were part of the same extended family, including father Espinoza Cruz and his sons Oscar Espinoza Leos and Espinoza Prado. They were related to Sanchez Pena by marriage, who lived in the employer-provided housing. The family worked in machinery repair for multiple dairy farms in the area.
The companies have 15 business days after receiving their citations to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA or contest the findings, officials said.
County records show the dairy farm is owned by Prospect Valley Dairy and Colorado business registrations show a Bakersfield, California, address for the owners of Prospect Ranch.
HUDSON, Colo. — After 65 years of drag racing in Morrison, Bandimere Speedway is looking to build a new track in Weld County near the small town of Hudson.
The family-owned business is seeking to develop land just off Interstate 76, marking a significant change for the community of 1,600 residents.
Denver7
Pictured: The proposed Bandimere site in Weld County
The zoning proposal was presented at the town’s Planning Commission meeting during a standing room-only meeting Wednesday night.
For longtime Hudson resident Linda Pavelka, the project represents an opportunity for growth in a town that doesn’t even have a grocery store.
“You realize it’s good for the community and it’s good for it to grow,” Pavelka said.
Do you live in the area and want to share your thoughts about this potential project? Email Claire.Lavezzorio@Denver7.com
However, not everyone is enthusiastic about the proposal. Concerns have been raised about potential noise, odor and light pollution that could come with the racing facility.
“We want to be good neighbors, but we are worried about the welfare of our hens,” said a representative of Opal Foods, a farm that borders that proposed site.
Denver7
Pictured: Town of Hudson Planning Commission meeting
Right now, the proposed site holds agricultural zoning, which would need to change to accommodate racing operations.
During Wednesday’s presentation, we learned the Bandimere family anticipates hosting 20 major events annually between April and October if the project moves forward. But the zoning application represents just the first step in what will be a lengthy development process.
Denver7
In an interview with Denver7, Hudson Town Manager Bryce Lange acknowledged significant infrastructure planning will be required.
“There’s a lot of conversations regarding how we’re going to handle transportation, what improvements have to be made to Colorado 52 or to County Road 49,” he said.
If the town’s planning commission approves the zoning application, it will head to full council for consideration.
Denver7 | Your Voice: Get in touch with Claire Lavezzorio
Denver7’s Claire Lavezzorio covers topics that have an impact across Colorado, but specializes in reporting on stories in the military and veteran communities. If you’d like to get in touch with Claire, fill out the form below to send her an email.
Xcel Energy will cut power to 9,000 customers in northern Colorado starting Friday morning ahead of strong winds and fire danger, utility officials announced Thursday.
National Weather Service forecasters issued a red flag warning for critical fire weather in the northern Colorado foothills from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, with low humidity and winds up to 75 mph creating conditions “favorable for rapid fire spread” and extreme fire behavior, the agency wrote in an alert.
Xcel Energy customers in Larimer and Weld counties will see power cuts starting at 8 a.m., including in parts of Fort Collins, Loveland, Kerns and Bellevue, according to an online outage map.
The outage area’s rough footprint is Wellington to the north, Windsor to the east, Horsetooth Reservoir to the south and Ted’s Place to the west.
Central Fort Collins is not included in the planned outage, including Old Town and neighborhoods near Colorado State University, according to Xcel’s map.
Planned outages in Loveland include neighborhoods north and south of Fourteenth Street/U.S. 34 between Glade Park to the west and North Wilson Avenue to the east.
While weather conditions are expected to improve around 4 p.m., “restoration work won’t begin until high winds and elevated fire risks have subsided,” Xcel officials wrote.
“It may take several hours to several days for customers’ power to be restored because a crew must patrol the entire power line to ensure it’s safe to turn service back on before a power line can be re-energized,” utility leaders said Thursday.
Customers can report outages and damaged power lines through the Xcel Energy app, online at xcelenergy.com/out, by texting OUT to 98936 or calling 1-800-895-1999.
A former Arvada teacher arrested Monday for reportedly creating and selling child sexual assault material was found to have violated St. Vrain Valley School District policies in 2023 for interactions he had with students at Erie Middle School, and officials recommended the teacher not return to the district.
That finding was not shared with Jefferson County School District when it hired the teacher, according to an arrest affidavit.
SVVSD officials said Wednesday that they were evaluating whether they could fire the teacher, 39-year-old Patricio Alejandro Illanes, when he resigned in late 2023.
Illanes faces 40 counts of sexual exploitation of a child in addition to 10 counts of unlawful practice of occupation or profession, according to a Boulder County Sheriff’s Office release.
Illanes reportedly photographed or took videos of at least 10 students at four different schools or youth program locations, including Centaurus High School, New Meridian High School and Erie Middle School, over the course of nine years, according to an arrest affidavit.
In 2023, a school employee reported to an Erie police school resource officer that he had overheard a 14-year-old boy describe an interaction he had with Illanes to another student.
The boy said Illanes had asked him to stay after class to help him with a video project, and the boy agreed, according to the affidavit. Illanes then instructed the boy to remove his shirt and shoes and pretend to be a lifeguard. The student said Illanes told him that he would pretend to chloroform him and instructed the student to pretend to be knocked out.
When Erie police interviewed Illanes, he “provided a similar story” but said he never touched the students inappropriately and that their shirts remained on, according to the affidavit. Illanes gave police the videos he had recorded, which showed the interaction described by the student, but with the student wearing a lifeguard shirt over a long-sleeve shirt.
Two other minors later told police Illanes asked them to help him with a project, then videotaped or photographed them in costumes.
In an October 2025 interview with police, Illanes said he did not use the videos for sexual gratification and understood the incident was “not an appropriate thing,” according to the affidavit.
The Erie police criminal investigation into the incident was “unfounded,” according to the affidavit.
An SVVSD internal investigation found that Illanes had violated district policies and recommended that he “not return” to Erie Middle School or any school in the district.
Illanes resigned in December that year. He was hired to work at Arvada Senior High School in 2024.
When Illanes resigned, SVVSD was evaluating whether it had “sufficient grounds” under state teacher employment laws to fire him, according to Kerri McDermid, the district’s chief of staff and strategic priorities.
Jefferson County School District officials told police they never received the SVVSD internal investigation report, and had they known about it, they wouldn’t have hired Illanes, the affidavit stated.
SVVSD officials told police Jeffco officials had not asked for the report and that they had been served a court document restricting them from sharing it, but did not provide the court document to police, according to the affidavit.
McDermid said the SVVSD human resources department and Illanes’ former supervisor at Erie Middle School do not have a record of receiving a reference or information request from Jeffco officials until October 2025. At that time, the district provided the information they were allowed to disclose under law, she said.
One person died and several others were injured in an early Sunday morning crash on U.S. 85 in Brighton, police said.
The crash happened at about 12:30 a.m. Sunday, near the intersection of U.S. 85 and Weld County Road 2.5, according to a news release from the Brighton Police Department.
A Ford SUV driving westbound on the county road ran a stop sign and was hit by a GMC SUV traveling northbound on U.S. 85, police said in the release.
Two people inside the Ford were ejected, and two others fled the scene on foot, police said.
One of the people ejected from the Ford died at the scene of the crash, and paramedics took the other to the hospital with serious injuries, according to the release. Paramedics also took an unspecified number of GMC passengers to hospitals.
Investigators believe the victim killed in the crash, who has not been publicly identified, may have been hit by a third vehicle on the highway. The unidentified driver left the scene of the crash, police said.
The victim will be identified by the Weld County Coroner’s Office at a later date.
Brighton police found the two Ford occupants who fled the scene on foot shortly after they ran, according to the release. One was taken to the hospital with unknown injuries.
The other, 20-year-old Erik Diaz Olivas, was arrested on suspicion of vehicular homicide, DUI, reckless endangerment, failing to display proof of insurance, driving on a revoked license, leaving the scene of an accident, vehicular assault, failing to obey a traffic control device and possessing alcohol as a minor, police said.
Anyone with information on the crash is asked to contact investigators at 303-655-8740.
After a pleasant days-long stretch of warm weather often eclipsing the 70-degree mark, northern Colorado and metro Denver will see quite a change in conditions starting Friday night.
Instead of breaking records for heat, temperatures will drop substantially and snow will begin falling in the far northern mountains tonight, spreading southward into the Interstate 70 mountain corridor and Summit County by late Saturday afternoon.
By late Saturday night, the National Weather Service predicts areas of snow to develop along the Interstate 25 corridor and along the adjoining eastern plains, with travel impacts continuing into Sunday morning. Some of those areas of snow could start out as rain earlier Saturday evening before turning to snow.
Just how severe those travel impacts will be in metro Denver are still in question.
“There is considerable uncertainty with regard to the amount of snow, since we anticipate bands of snow,” according to a weather service bulletin issued Friday afternoon for the metro area. “Thus, some areas may receive very little or no snow, while others get a few inches.”
Higher amounts of snow are assured for some of Colorado’s northern mountains, with the National Weather Service forecasting around 10 inches for Winter Park, 5 inches for Breckenridge and half a foot of the white stuff for Keystone. The predicted weekend snowfall for some of Colorado’s snow-starved ski resorts will come as welcome news to an industry that has seen a decidedly dry start to the season.
Meteorologists are calling for a low of 20 degrees Saturday night, a low of 14 degrees Sunday night and a low of 21 degrees Monday night in the metro area. But by Tuesday and towards New Year’s Day, temperatures will top out in the 40s and 50s with little precipitation expected.
A man was fatally shot by a Greeley police officer during a traffic stop near Banner North Colorado Medical Center, law enforcement officials said Wednesday night.
The shooting happened at 3:50 p.m. near 21st Avenue and 16th Street when a police officer pulled over a vehicle for a traffic stop. The woman driving got out of the vehicle, and a man remained in the passenger seat, the 19th Judicial District said in a news release.
Police knew the man had a felony arrest warrant. When an officer told him to get out of the vehicle, he did not follow the order and reached toward a bag in his lap. The officer shot the man after he ignored additional commands, officials said Wednesday night.
He was pronounced dead at the scene. His name will be released by the Weld County coroner’s office.
The shooting is under investigation, and anyone with information about the shooting can contact 970-400-5806 or acastillo2@weld.gov.
Two men killed in an Erie plane crash were practicing touch-and-go landings during an instructional flight before the crash, a National Transportation Safety Board report found.
The plane completed four touch-and-go landings, but as it approached the runway a fifth time, it began to climb in elevation instead of touching down, according to the report.
Witnesses reported seeing the airplane tumble or flip and surveillance camera footage showed the airplane spinning toward the ground.
An emergency airframe parachute did not deploy during the crash, the report states.
The NTSB has recovered the plane for further examination, according to the report.
Niles August Tilenius, 22, of San Mateo County, California, and William Johnston, 21, of Hillsborough County, Florida, were identified as the two who died, according to Weld County Deputy Coroner Joey Weiner.
Tilenius was a professional pilot and flight instructor, according to an online obituary. He was most recently a flight instructor at Odyssey Pilot Hours based in Erie, the obituary states.
On Aug. 20, Oscar Espinoza Leos, 17; Carlos Espinoza Prado, 29; Noe Montanez Casanas, 32; Jorge Sanchez Pena, 36; Ricardo Gomez Galvan, 40; and Alejandro Espinoza Cruz, 50, were found dead at Prospect Valley Dairy, 32063 Weld County Road 18.
Espinoza Cruz was the father of both Espinoza Prado and Espinoza Leos, an online student at Highland High School. The Espinozas also were related by marriage to Sanchez Pena, who lived at the dairy in employer-provided housing, according to Ana Schultz, a representative of Project Protect Food Systems Workers, a support network for food workers. Montanez Casanas also lived at the dairy, she said.
Initially, crews from Southeast Weld Fire Protection District responded to a confined space rescue. When first responders arrived, they noted the men may have been exposed to high levels of hydrogen sulfide, according to archived radio transmissions.
Following the tragedy, two agricultural safety experts told the Denver Post that in their decades of work, they had never seen six people die from hydrogen sulfide in the same exposure incident.
Hydrogen sulfide occurs naturally in crude petroleum and natural gas, but is also produced from decomposing manure. Low doses of exposure to the gas, also called H2S, can cause mild irritation to people’s eyes and respiratory system, but exposure to large amounts in a confined space can quickly become deadly, OSHA stated.
One person died and four others were hospitalized in May 2024 after being exposed to hydrogen sulfide gas at the Western Sugar Cooperative.
An OSHA investigation into that incident found multiple Western Sugar workers had been exposed to the gas when it was emitted from a pipe containing water with by-products from sugar beets, dirt, mud and chemicals used in water treatment.
Investigators found 11 “serious” violations and issued the cooperative more than $168,000 in fines. The company ended up settling with OSHA, accepting $59,917 in penalties.
Project Food Systems Workers Development Director Hunter Knapp called on legislators to take action to protect farmworkers from similar dangers.
He suggested adding protections to state statute related to confined spaces and requiring workers dealing with hydrogen sulfide to wear gas monitors.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment previously said it is not aware of any state certifications or training required for people who work in areas with potential high exposure to hydrogen sulfide. The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment said it does not enforce any statutes related to the training or regulation of toxic gas.
The dairy incident remains under investigation by the OSHA, as well as the Weld County Sheriff’s Office.
Now, 70 years later, Philip Bearly remembers the explosion “like it was yesterday.” Bearly, who was 5 ½ years old at the time, remembers driving to his grandmother’s birthday celebration at 17th Street and Main Street in Longmont when he saw a flash.
“… it was as bright as daylight,” Bearly said in an interview.
The DC-6B aircraft leaving Denver exploded on Nov. 1, 1955, when a dynamite bomb went off 11 minutes into the flight. The plane’s wreckage landed below on more than 6 square miles of beet fields in the Longmont area. The explosion killed 44 people on board, becoming the deadliest act of mass murder in Colorado history.
Nearly 400 Weld County residents sprang into action to search for survivors and protect the bodies from looters until authorities arrived.
In May 1956, a jury found 23-year-old Jack Graham guilty of the crime as he had placed explosives in his mother’s luggage before she boarded the flight. Investigators determined Graham sought to cash in on a $37,500 insurance policy on his mother’s life. Graham was executed in January 1957.
Page 1 of the Nov. 2, 1955, Longmont Times-Call
Philip Bearly, a 5-year-old first responder
“For a dumb, little 5 ½-year-old kid, I remember that like it was yesterday,” Bearly said.
After his family saw the plane explode, Bearly’s father, Clayton, immediately took the family to the scene of the incident.
“Something terrible has happened,” Bearly, now 75, remembers his dad saying. “They’re going to need help.”
Upon arrival, Bearly, his mother, older brother and younger sister all sat in the car, headlights shining on the wreckage. Clayton was in the fields keeping looters out of the wreckage.
A law enforcement friend of Clayton’s gave him a spare gun at the crash scene. That officer posted him at the corner of one of the sites and told him to tell folks he had orders to shoot looters.
Bearly and his family didn’t get home until about 1:30 a.m. that night.
Over the two days that followed, Clayton, who managed the nearby truck stop Johnson’s Corner, cooked as many meals as he and his staff could to feed the first responders. The National Guard arrived a few days later to take over feeding responders.
To this day, Bearly has a letter the Colorado State Patrol head wrote his dad back on Nov. 22, 1955, thanking him for his help.
Seventy years later, Bearly wants Coloradans and Americans alike to know about Flight 629, its impact and its history. He also wants people to honor the 44 victims and the many first responders — including his dad — who didn’t hesitate to lend a hand to those in need.
“As Americans, that’s what we do. We help each other,” he said. “Don’t hesitate. Step up and help. Be a part of the solution.”
Bearly, who lives in Campion, also hopes to see a memorial on the land where the plane crashed, commemorating the lives lost and those who helped. He has worked with the nonprofit Flight 629 Memorial and hopes that it meets its goal of opening a monument to the flight on its 75th anniversary in Firestone.
Conrad Hopp, whose family farm became a crash site
Conrad Hopp, 88, still struggles to talk about the aftermath of Flight 629 crashing in his family’s fields outside Firestone.
“We didn’t have time to feel how it felt,” Hopp said in an interview.
Hopp was 18 years old when debris from Flight 629 landed on his farm, he said. He remembers looking for bodies after the plane fell, and that some of the bodies that fell from the plane landed directly in his fields, creating dead spots in the next summer’s hay yield.
He also remembers walking through his fields and stumbling upon the plane’s tail and knowing immediately that the crash wasn’t an accident when he smelled the dynamite used to blow up the plane mid-flight.
Hopp, who has lived in the area his whole life, remembers his younger brother making it out of the house and into the fields despite being told to stay inside. The young boy stumbled upon a body and screamed out, Hopp said.
Those are only some of the reasons why Hopp’s family resolved not to talk about what happened.
Hopp said knowing a memorial event to honor Flight 629’s victims and the first responders is planned for Saturday in Denver has helped him feel better since the explosion, after years of feeling the pain of living with witnessing such death and destruction.
“It means a lot,” Hopp said. “Showing respect for the survivors at this time is important.”
The Denver Police Museum will dedicate the memorial to the 44 victims and the first responders at the Old Stapleton Airport Tower, where Flight 629 originated, according to a press release.
Other memorial events on Saturday include the Denver City and County Building being lit in blue on the nights of Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 to commemorate the flight and a 7 p.m. symposium at the University of Denver to discuss what happened to the plane and how it changed the American judicial system.
The public is welcome to attend the memorial dedication at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Old Stapleton Airport Tower on Uinta Street in Denver.
A Lochbuie man is accused of stealing nearly $600,000 worth of property from a Fort Lupton renewable energy company and selling it as scrap metal.
Dustin Ulmer, 42, faces two counts of theft between $100,000 and $1 million, according to an affidavit for his arrest.
Just before noon on Oct. 14, Fort Lupton police responded to Sphere Renewables, 13516 Weld County Road 8, on reports that an employee had been scrapping company property and pocketing the money.
Managers at Sphere Renewables said they had spoken with All Recycling in Brighton and learned that Ulmer had been recycling tower feet weekly since August, according to an affidavit for Ulmer’s arrest. Sphere Renewables declined to describe what tower feet are.
Managers said 149 units, each retailing at $4,000, were missing, the affidavit states. In total, the Sphere Renewables estimates Ulmer recycled approximately $600,000 worth of tower feet, according to the affidavit.
Ulmer was paid out just under $10,000 from All Recycling, the affidavit states.
He is set to appear for an advisement hearing Monday in Weld County District Court.
An undated photo of Terri Ann Ackerman, who was reported missing on Aug. 24, 2018, from her home in Lochbuie.
Lochbuie police this week confirmed the remains of 56-year-old Terri Ann Ackerman were found at her northern Colorado home, more than seven years after she was reported missing in the Weld County town of Lochbuie.
The Weld County Coroner’s Office announced Wednesday that Ackerman’s remains were found at a home in the 100 block of Poplar Street on Sept. 10 — the same area where she was reported missing from her home in August 2018, according to the Greeley Tribune.
Lochbuie police officials this week confirmed Ackerman’s remains were discovered at her home, but did not say where they were found or why they were not discovered for more than seven years.
The cause and manner of her death are also under investigation.
Officials with the police department and Weld County Sheriff’s Office could not immediately be reached for comment.
Ackerman’s family, who are raising funds to cover funeral costs, described her as “a loving, caring, and social person who meant the world to her family and friends.”
“She was always there for those she loved, filling every room with warmth and conversation,” her family wrote on GoFundMe page. “Terri Ann’s dedication to her family was unmatched, and her absence has been deeply felt by everyone who knew her.”
“We are heartbroken to share that there were no survivors in the single-engine plane crash that occurred earlier today, east of the Erie Municipal Airport runway,” police said in an 8:55 p.m. statement.
The plane’s two occupants were not Colorado residents, police said. The pair’s identities had not been released as of Monday morning.
The crash happened at about 3:45 p.m. Sunday, Erie Police Department spokesperson Amber Luttrell said.
Investigators with the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board were working to identify the cause of the crash, she said. As of Sunday evening, the Erie Municipal Airport at 395 Airport Drive remained closed for the investigation.
Police are investigating after a small plane crashed Sunday afternoon near the runway at the Erie Municipal Airport in Weld County, according to the department.
The Erie Police Department first posted about the single-plane crash at 3:59 p.m. Sunday. Department spokesperson Amber Luttrell said the crash happened about 15 minutes before that.
Two people were on board the plane, Luttrell said. The extent of their injuries was not immediately available.
Additional information about the crash, including the cause and the plane’s flight information, was not immediately available Sunday.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash, Luttrell said.
Neither agency immediately responded to requests for comment on Sunday.
Bundle up, Colorado! The first freeze of the season hit parts of the state, including Denver, overnight Saturday into Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.
Denver temperatures hit freezing just before 11 p.m. Saturday, according to hourly temperature logs from the weather service. By midnight, temperatures had dropped to 30.9 degrees, where they stayed until about 3 a.m., the logs show.
This year’s first freeze arrived nearly two weeks later than the average of Oct. 7, according to weather service records.
Eight of Denver’s first freezes in the last 10 years happened after Oct. 7, the records show. In 2020, Denver saw its first freeze on Sept. 8 — the earliest it’s been documented in the city.
Temperatures on the Eastern Plains dropped far below freezing overnight Saturday. Weather stations at Limon Municipal Airport recorded overnight temperatures as low as 19 degrees. According to the weather service, other overnight lows include:
A former Frederick Police Department officer was sentenced to a year of probation after pleading guilty to assault for hitting a man on the head while arresting him, according to court records.
Trevor James McCourt, 34, was arrested on suspicion of second-degree assault, official misconduct and reckless endangerment in June 2024 after his department fired him for using his service gun to hit a suspect on the head while he was arresting him.
The assault charge was a felony and the other charges were misdemeanors.
McCourt pleaded guilty to third-degree assault, a misdemeanor, in June as part of a plea agreement and was sentenced to probation, court records show. Prosecutors dismissed the other charges as part of the plea deal.
Colorado has a new law declaring nuclear power a source of clean energy. The Denver airport might explore building a small nuclear reactor to meet the rising demand for electricity. Local business, civic and labor leaders see nuclear energy as the fuel of choice when Xcel Energy stops burning coal at its power plants in Pueblo County,
Is nuclear power becoming cool in Colorado?
The state has had only one nuclear power plant, Fort St. Vrain near Platteville. And it was converted to natural gas in 1989 after 10 years of technical problems. The former Rocky Flats weapons plant, which produced plutonium triggers for nuclear bombs, drew thousands of protesters for years to the site north of Denver, including such prominent activists as Daniel Ellsberg and Beat poet Allen Ginsberg.
Worry about the demand for electricity outstripping capacity and concerns about progress on cutting greenhouse gas emissions led state Rep. Alex Valdez, a Denver Democrat, to back legislation this year that defines nuclear power as “clean.” He sponsored House Bill 25-1040, which added nuclear to the energy sources that utilities can use to meet state clean energy targets.
“As a kid, I grew up in the ’80s when a lot of talk about nuclear was in relation to the weaponry that was pointed at each other between the Soviet Union and the United States,” Valdez said. “I think I just kind of lumped nuclear into the same conversations as most people do: around its negative uses, less desirable uses.”
With some forecasts showing electricity demand rising dramatically, Valdez said the U.S. will have to add “a tremendous amount of energy” to the grid if it’s going to compete in quantum computing and other advanced technology.
A boom in data center construction driven by increasing the use of artificial intelligence is expected to escalate the need for more electricity generation.
Valdez, who spent most of his career in the renewable energy field, said the legislation he sponsored recognizes that the power generated by nuclear energy is carbon-free. “As we move toward our path to zero-carbon (energy), it can be included in the mix to get us there.”
Not ready for prime time
A lot of the current interest in nuclear power revolves around a new technology: small modular nuclear reactors, about one-tenth to one quarter the size of a conventional reactor. They’re billed as potentially less expensive, safer, easier to build and adaptable because modules can be added as more power is needed.
The technology is also still in the development and demonstration stage. Just a few are operating in China and Russia. No small modular reactors –SMRs– are in commercial use in the U.S.
“SMRs aren’t ready for prime time,” said Dennis Wamsted, an analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. “You will hear from developers and others about the advantages. The advantages right now are all on paper.”
The institute focuses on research into the economics of expanding the use of renewable energy.
“We are not fans of nuclear power because it costs too much and that cost has been consistently high over the years. We see no track record of it declining,” Wamsted said. “We certainly don’t see that happening with a new class of reactor that nobody’s built before and nobody’s run before.”
Noah Rott, a spokesman for the western region of the Sierra Club, said the environmental group feels that discussion around nuclear energy “is largely a distraction as utilities work to address electric load growth in the next decade.”
“Cleaner sources like wind, solar, demand response, energy efficiency and storage are the answer here,” Rott said in an email.
The airport put the study on hold after complaints that city officials hadn’t talked to area residents first. The airport determined that a broader scope will best serve its interests and needs and will issue a request for information later this fall on multiple clean energy solutions, including reactors, after first receiving ideas and input from the community, spokeswoman Courtney Law said in an email Wednesday.
Nuclear power generation is the top choice of a local advisory committee for replacing coal at Xcel Energy’s Comanche power plants near Pueblo. Xcel has proposed tapping renewable energy, battery storage and natural gas when it stops burning coal by 2031.
But the Pueblo Innovative Energy Solutions Advisory Committee, established by Xcel and community members, said renewable energy facilities wouldn’t provide the same number of jobs and tax revenue for local governments that nuclear or gas facilities would. The committee is promoting installing SMRs.
Xcel Energy operates nuclear facilities in Minnesota and has said they’re not off the table for Colorado, but the new type of reactors likely won’t be commercially available when the utility has to replace its coal plants.
The Western Governors Association, WGA, held workshops in September at the Idaho National Laboratory, which focuses largely on nuclear energy.
The workshops were part of an initiative by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox called “Energy Superabundance: Unlocking Prosperity in the West.” Cox, the WGA’s chairman this year, said the country is looking to the West for ways to meet the surge in need for more electricity.
Andy Cross, The Denver Post
Some community leaders want to see nuclear power replace coal-fired power when Xcel Energy quits burning coal at the Comanche power plant in Pueblo County. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
Idaho Gov. Brad Little said during a workshop that the U.S. won’t meet its energy needs “with our legacy energy.”
“We’re going to have to have scalable, safe nuclear energy,” Little said.
While it could be five to 10 years before small reactors are up and running in the U.S., Mark Jensen, a chemistry professor at the Colorado School of Mines, said the federal government is more involved in promoting nuclear energy than in the recent past. He noted that the Department of Energy has opened federal sites to allow companies to test prototypes and that could help streamline development.
President Donald Trump has issued executive orders intended to invigorate the nuclear power industry and streamline regulations.
Jensen, director of the nuclear science and engineering program at the School of Mines, said more private money is flowing into nuclear projects than he has seen over the past 35 years.
Wind, solar the ‘workhorses’
Jack Waldorf, WGA executive director, said in an email that advancements in nuclear energy provide the opportunity to expand clean, reliable generation of electricity, but achieving true energy abundance will require a comprehensive approach.
Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement that Colorado has a history as an innovator and nuclear energy should be no different. ” As projects become cost competitive and safer, we should view nuclear energy not as a competing energy source to wind and solar, but as a complementary solution for better overall reliability and lower costs.”
Will Toor, executive director of the Colorado Energy Office, agreed. He said as Colorado moves to more deeply cut emissions, other technologies will be needed and nuclear energy should certainly be in the mix.
“It’s pretty clear that wind and solar will be the workhorses of the grid just looking at the cost modeling,” Toor said. “You can build them relatively quickly and they’re so much cheaper than other resources.”
He expects nuclear power to be in a group of what he calls “clean, firm” energy sources: ones that emit low or no greenhouse gases and provide round-the-clock power. Toor said geothermal energy is likely the furthest along among those sources.
“The challenge with nuclear is really still the same challenge that it has been for utilities, which is the cost, how long it takes to build and the uncertainties of federal permitting,” Toor said.
He added that he would be surprised if Colorado utilities moved ahead with conventional nuclear or “to be first in line for the first-of-its-kind” small modular reactor.
WELD COUNTY, Colo. — The 19th Judicial Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) was activated Friday after Greeley police officers shot and killed a suspect in Weld County.
According to the CIRT, several Greeley police officers were trying to apprehend a suspect in the 600 block of 27th Street Road in Garden City around 4:25 p.m. The CIRT said the male suspect was wanted for misdemeanor and felony charges, but did not specify the charges.
The suspect reportedly took off, and the officers ran after him.
The officers “attempted to use less lethal impact rounds, but the suspect did not surrender,” according to the CIRT. The suspect then allegedly turned and brandished a firearm before he was shot by officers.
The suspect was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The Weld County Coroner’s Office will release his identity once his next of kin is notified.
The 19th Judicial Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) has been activated and will investigate the shooting. No further details were provided.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact Weld County Detective Jeremy McLaughlan at jmclaughlan@weld.gov.
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CARR, Colo. — Two Weld County sheriff’s deputies were injured during firearms training on Tuesday.
According to the Weld County Sheriff’s Office, the deputies were participating in training at the Sam Brownlee Training Center in Carr.
Toward the end of the training, while the deputies were no longer on the firing line and securing their gear, the sheriff’s office said a deputy discharged their firearm, injuring themselves and a fellow deputy.
The two deputies were taken to the hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.
***WCSO MEDIA RELEASE***
Two Weld County deputies injured due to deputy discharging weapon during training
[WELD COUNTY, COLO.] Today, at 3:17 P.M. Weld County Sheriff’s Office deputies were participating in firearms training at the Weld County Sheriff’s Office, Sam Brownlee… pic.twitter.com/Ui2aDiQ4R9
WCSO said there is no danger to the public, and the incident is under investigation by the sheriff’s office.
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State officials expect a rise in ozone and fine particulate levels that will be unhealthy for older adults, children and people with heart or lung disease, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
The agency issued an action day alert at 4 p.m. Thursday that is set to last until at least 4 p.m. Friday. Communities covered by the alert span urban corridor from Douglas County to the south and Larimer and Weld counties to the north, including Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley.
People who are sensitive to air pollution should not spend long periods of time outside or participate in heavy exercise outdoors, state officials said.
