Given the number of squirrels that trigger power line break-downs, or the trouble raccoons can cause, it was probably inevitable that a cow would trigger a leak at a gas well head in La Plata County. There, apparently, were no witnesses, but cows can be curious, and like all animals, they do need to scratch.

So, between curiosity and an itch, a spill of about 400 gallons of “produced water,” a waste water byproduct, occurred from a valve a few days before Thanksgiving. The spill, near unincorporated Tiffany in the extreme southeastern corner of the county, was reported by XTO Energy to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and it is investigating.

Read more at durangherald.com.