TOPEKA, Kansas — About 10 barrels of oil and 1,500 barrels of industrial salt water spilled from an oil pipeline into a creek near the Quivira Wildlife Refuge in central Kansas earlier this month.

Hart Van Denburg/CPR News Salt Creek flows beside Roselawn Road underneath Santa Fe Drive on the east side of Pueblo, downstream from the Evraz steel mill property. Monday, April 18, 2022.

For people navigating Salt Creek by canoe or kayak, the riffles — nine in total — offer a challenge course of sorts. You’ll find one example under the Fullersburg Woods flat bridge.