PARACHUTE, Colorado – A tanker truck that wrecked on Saturday and apparently spilled “produced water” onto the ground was contracted to the WPX Energy gas drilling company, according to a county official.

Garfield County oil and gas liaison Kirby Wynn said on Monday afternoon that he had not yet visited the scene of the accident, nor had he gotten a detailed report about what happened.

But he said he believed the company involved had dealt with the spill appropriately.

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“I’m sure they reported it,” Wynn said of the accident, although no report had been logged onto the website of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) as of Monday afternoon.

The truck, belonging to the Summit Energy Services contracting company of Grand Junction, slipped off the side of County Road 300 (the Parachute-Una Road) west of Parachute, rolling over onto its top and spilling an estimated 500 gallons of what is known as “produced water.”

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The driver, Glen Schramm of Hotchkiss, was trapped in the crushed cab but escaped relatively unscathed, according to Colorado State Patrol Trooper Kevin Rae, who was reached at the accident scene on Saturday.

Produced water, which is found deep underground with oil and gas deposits, comes to the surface during the drilling and hydraulic fracturing operations, along with the oil and gas.

Rae said the substance spilled was not on the state’s hazardous materials (HazMat) list, so it does not require special clean-up treatment. He said a HazMat team would not be dispatched to the scene, and the state patrol would follow up later to determine whether the spill was handled correctly.

The trucking company sent its pumper trucks to the accident, which happened at about 9 a.m., and pumped spilled liquid out of a ditch next to the road.

Wynn said WPX Energy (formerly Williams Production RMP) has anywhere from one to 10 days to report a spill, depending on its severity and the potential for contamination of a nearby river or creek.

He said he believed that the spill was not severe enough to warrant an immediate report, and said he would be following up to determine what happened.

“I think this one falls within the 10-day reporting period,” he explained, saying it was not close enough to the Colorado River to threaten contamination.

Attempts to reach Susan Alvillar, community relations spokeswoman for WPX Energy, were not successful on Monday afternoon.

jcolson@postindependent.com