Colorado: Facing boom, Huerfano County citizens group makes push for tougher oil and gas drilling regulations

Posted on November 19, 2011
by Bob Berwyn   
Summit County Citizens Voice

“We don’t want our communities to become yet another industrial sacrifice zone.”

~Ken Saydak

Fracking rigs are popping up like mushrooms,

and citizens of Huerfano County, Colorado

 are concerned about impacts to their communities

and the environment.

SUMMIT COUNTY — With the leasing of almost 40,000 acres of BLM mineral rights in Huerfano County, citizens are pressing their county commissioners to adopt tougher local oil and gas drilling regulations.

The commissioners this week voted to adopt new regulations following a boisterous public hearing, but those might not be tough enough. Dozens of residents expressed concerns that the regulations don’t go far enough to protect citizens from the harmful effects of natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing.

“These regulations may have been the best in Colorado in 1997, but are they adequate in 2011 to protect citizens from fracking in a high risk geological environment for drilling like Huerfano County?” said Sandy Borthick, a member of Citizens for Huerfano County, a recently formed 400-member group.

Huerfano County initially adopted the regulations in 2009 after Coal Bed Methane drilling caused widespread problems including explosions, contaminated drinking wells, water depletions and decimation of a local dairy farm.

At the time the commissioners titled the regulations to only apply to CBM. According to County Planner Steve Channel, the BOCC didn’t want to apply the regulations to “deeper drilling that had been operating for years in the county without incident.” Those drilling operations included several natural gas wells and a large CO2 gas well complex.

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Colorado: Shell gets OK for fracking in Spanish Peaks Colorado

State approves 14,000-foot-deep fracking operation without public hearing

The Spanish Peaks, with La Veta to the north.

Posted on July 4, 2011 by Bob Berwyn   


SUMMIT COUNTY — Shell Oil & Gas has been cleared to drill deep into a unique geological formation near the Spanish Peaks, in southern Colorado, to explore new natural gas resources.

Huerfano County planning and elected officials gave the exploratory fracking project a conditional green light last week, to the dismay of many local residents who are clamoring for more upfront research and better safeguards against environmental impacts.

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission last month denied a citizen request for a public hearing because the request didn’t come from a local government entry.

“To my knowledge, this is the first fracking operation on the Front Range of Colorado,” said Sandy Borthick, member of a citizens group which presented a request for “seven safeguards” to the Huerfano planning and zoning commission.

The approval process was fraught with controversy, as the planning and zoning commission refused to let members of the public speak at preliminary meetings on the approval. Scott King, chair of the commission, threatened to forcibly remove citizens from meetings, according to Ceal Smith, of the San Luis Valley Renewable Communities Alliance.

When audience members protested this action, King responded with, “So sue us,” according to Smith.

The group, Citizens for Huerfano County, requested a public hearing with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, but was turned down because the request did not come from a local government body. Check out this Facebook page on fracking in Huerfano County.

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How on Earth could the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) give the green light when the public is asking for initial research to prove the drilling (fracking) techniques will safeguard their livelihoods?  WTFrack.org is now officially asking that the COGCC REMOVE 'Conservation' from their name.  You have no business leaning on the term ‘Conservation’, when you do not employ it!

- WTFrack.org