Fights persist over oil and gas drilling near Front Range homes six years after reform law “changed permitting”

The community comments submitted to regulators on a proposed oil and gas drilling site near the Aurora Reservoir are unflinching in their opposition One declared the planned drilling would be an unconscionable act allowing the operator to exploit fossil fuels at the expense of our district s fitness Another commenter wrote that the plan endangers the vitality of Colorado s youngest residents while a third urged regulators to vote no on fracking too close to homes and schools More than online comments and emails have poured in over newest weeks excoriating Crestone Peak Materials plan to drill up to wells on acres in Arapahoe County just southeast of Aurora s suburban Southshore neighborhood If the project sounds familiar it s because just last summer regulators with the Colorado Capacity and Carbon Management Commission the state body charged with issuing drilling permits to oil and gas operators approved a comprehensive plan for drilling by Crestone on what is known as Lowry Ranch But it wasn t until last week that the individual well pads there are eight proposed across Lowry Ranch began their journey through the approvals process at both the state and county levels It s the latest face-off between vitality developers and nearby neighbors in Colorado and it comes six years after state legislators passed a landmark transformation law The law was designed to give homeowners and communities a greater say in the location and intensity of oil and gas operations At the time Gov Jared Polis explained it should end Colorado s oil and gas wars But if the ongoing concerns about safety and environmental impacts from vigor extraction are any indication of the current state of play the issue is still far from being resolved At the Lowry Ranch site first up for state approval was Crestone s -well State La Plata pad which won a unanimous thumbs-up vote from the ECMC on Wednesday Various people have arrived at the foregone conclusion that if an operator wants to drill there s not much they can do about it commented Jason Ephraim a three-year resident of Southshore sitting in his living room last week But we have to do something we have to fight this project For this stage of the battle Ephraim a volunteer with the neighborhood group Save the Aurora Reservoir comes armed with a new inquiry from the Colorado School of General Medical published in late March that draws links between childhood leukemia and proximity to oil and gas wells Add to that last month a Chevron well northeast of Greeley issued oil and gas into the air in what was called a well control matter The release injured one person and resulted in the evacuation of nearby homes and an extended closure of Galeton Elementary School That April matter in Weld County was a stark warning for Sakhawat Hussain a retired gastroenterologist who has lived in Southshore with his wife for two years His backyard is a half-mile or so from a proposed -well Crestone pad These facilities are inherently dangerous and accidents are inevitable it s not a question of if but when he commented Imagine trying to evacuate thousands of residents a large number of of them children and elderly in such an event The vulnerability is merely too great Denver-based Civitas Information the parent company of Crestone says its operations adhere to particular of the toughest regulations in the country in Colorado Civitas spokesman Rich Coolidge didn t directly respond to a series of questions The Denver Post sent the company but did provide a message via email The best management practices including an electrified production site high-line power drilling rig pipeline takeaway sound walls and plenty of others showcase the latest technologies and innovation driving our operations in current times he mentioned The Southshore neighborhood and the southern edge of Aurora Reservoir are seen on Thursday July in Aurora Photo by Hyoung Chang The Denver Post A combustible atmosphere The U S Power Information Administration ranks Colorado fourth in the nation in oil production Statistics from the agency show the state produced million barrels last year down from its peak of million barrels in All that oil and a growing population has made for an increasingly combustible atmosphere in Colorado That s particularly true in newer Front Range neighborhoods built on the edges of vast fields of underground mineral deposits The dynamic was thrown into sharp relief in the spring of when a severed uncapped flow line that was attached to a well leaked odorless methane and propane into a house in Firestone causing an explosion that killed two men The following year voters were solicited at the ballot box to dramatically boost the setback for new oil and gas enhancement from homes to feet While the measure went down in defeat after the industry spent millions of dollars against it the sentiment was there for state lawmakers to clamp down on the industry in one way or another In Polis signed Senate Bill The law directed state capacity regulators to prioritize protecting society fitness and safety and the circumstances over fostering enhancement of the industry as had been the scenario for years Environmental attorney Mike Foote a fomer Democratic state representative who helped craft that law stated it was helping keep things in check It s changed permitting mentioned Foote who represented the Save the Aurora Reservoir group during the Lowry Ranch comprehensive plan hearings last summer Prior to SB- these new locations were going up right next to neighborhoods frequently It s also made it so that the ECMC regulators put more conditions on the permits they do approve As a condition of the green light Crestone received last year from the state the company pledged to use quieter and cleaner electric-powered rigs and equipment at all pad sites on Lowry Ranch It also agreed to erect sound walls to dampen noise But for those worried about living in the shadow of extensive oil and gas operations caution is the watch word Hussain the retired clinician reported his neighbors are particularly concerned about Crestone s proposed -well pad called State Sunlight-Long It would be closest to the neighborhood and the reservoir Aurora s main source of drinking water Click to enlarge Crestone is seeking an exemption to Arapahoe County s one-mile setback of wells from reservoirs It says the Sunlight-Long pad is at lower elevation or downgradient from the reservoir and isolated by intervening topography thereby minimizing the danger that drilling and extraction activity could contaminate the water body But Hussain announced he has measured the topography and determined the Sunlight-Long drilling site is nearly feet higher than the Aurora Reservoir Despite this the county is allowing the pad to be placed just feet from the reservoir he declared This undermines the purpose of the setback and exposes the residents and reservoir to unnecessary peril Can safety be assured Jill McGranahan a spokeswoman for Arapahoe County reported no approvals for Lowry Ranch pads have yet been issued by the population works and rise department Arapahoe County s oil and gas rules she explained are a few of the strictest in the state given updates the county made to its rules in latest years Commissioners and staff are committed to balancing quality of life physical condition and safety issues with responsible potential expansion and will evaluate all applications through this lens in accordance with established regulations she declared Of the State La Plata pad that was approved by the ECMC on Wednesday Coolidge revealed it represents Civitas best-in-class operations Ephraim the Southshore neighbor announced his objections are not just about human soundness He testified virtually during the State La Plata hearing about probable impacts from oil and gas drilling to wildlife on Lowry Ranch This is a high-priority habitat for pronghorn and mule deer he noted in an interview afterward With a -year-old daughter Ephraim says he finds the new wellbeing assessment from the Colorado School of Community Healthcare immensely scary Between and the assessment looked at children ages to who were diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia They were to times more likely to live within eight miles or so of a well site than those without cancer While the investigation s authors stopped short of saying exposure to chemical pollutants from oil and gas sites was the cause of the children s cancer they urged state representatives to revisit Colorado s setback requirements for oil and gas growth It made everything a lot more real Ephraim mentioned of the examination In light of that new science and the well release in Weld County last month he commented it s time to slow down rather than push forward Cyclists ride near the southern end of Aurora Reservoir in Aurora on Thursday July Photo by Hyoung Chang The Denver Post Lessons from Erie A sign of just how intense the resistance to new oil drilling has become is that in southeast Aurora state regulators have promised Rule hearings an opportunity for residents participation and comment for all the proposed pads on Lowry Ranch as they roll out over the coming months Ordinarily ECMC spokeswoman Kristin Kemp explained a hearing is only held upon the request of a district Related Articles Colorado regulators approve plan to drill up to petroleum wells at Lowry Ranch near Aurora Reservoir State regulators delay decision on controversial drilling plan near Aurora Reservoir Neighbors make a final stand against massive oil and gas drilling plan near Aurora Reservoir A preview of what s ahead for Southshore residents may come from Erie several miles to the north There a fierce society battle exploded last year over Civitas plans to drill wells in the vicinity of a planned residential neighborhood in the fast-growing town State regulators required Civitas subsidiary Extraction Oil and Gas to try to find an alternate location for its wells known as the Draco pad When the company explained a different site was infeasible however the ECMC approved the project in late March Weld County where the company plans to veritably sink its wells has topped Colorado s counties for population upsurge in fresh years and is expected to continue doing so Foote the environmental lawyer revealed it s more than likely there will be fights like the ones in Erie and Aurora as neighborhoods at the edge of Colorado s mineral wealth deposits continue to take root Each new well pad adds to the cumulative impacts of the drilling he reported It reinforces the argument that people have been making for years that you shouldn t be putting these things close to homes or close to each other Get more Colorado news by signing up for our daily Your Morning Dozen email newsletter