State declares health emergency at Windsor oil drilling site

Coloradoan.com
May 1st, 2012

Colorado oil and gas regulators have declared an emergency at an oil well being drilled atop an old landfill on the Larimer County side of Windsor – a well that generated a groundswell of public concern when it was announced last year.

A drilling rig became unstable last Wednesday as Ranchers Exploration Partners was drilling an oil well atop the long-shuttered Johnston Landfill in Windsor, a site near the River West and Ridge West subdivisions south of Colorado Highway 392.

The well site is on a hill above a gulch that drains into a nearby reservoir along the Poudre River.

After Greeley-based Ranchers Exploration attempted to stabilize the drilling rig with cement, landfill debris and other trash were seen being expelled from the well bore, and the rig lost “circulation of fluids, likely due to the presence of highly permeable unconsolidated landfill materials,” according to a cease-and-desist order the state served Ranchers last week.

In last week’s cease and desist order, Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission Acting Director Thomas Kerr declared an emergency because Ranchers’ operation poses an environment and public health risk.

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Notice of Neighborhood Meeting - Windsor Colorado [Fracking]

3/26/2012
Windsor Colorado

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Halliburton to build $20 million terminal in Windsor to support hydraulic fracturing activity (IMAGE)

Denver Post

Mark Jaffe

Houston-based Halliburton will build a $20 million sand terminal in Windsor to support its hydraulic fracturing activity in the Denver-Julesburg Basin, the company said.

Halliburton will use 54 acres in the Great Western Industrial Park, which is being developed by the Denver-based Broe Group.

Sand is a key component in fracking fluid, which is pumped into wells under pressure to fracture rock and release more oil and gas. The sand props open the tiny fissures.

There has been an increase in hydrofracturing the in the basin as companies search the Niobrara formation, which is more than 6,000 feet below the surface, for oil deposits using horizontally drilled wells.

"With the increasing interest in horizontal well development in the DJ Basin, we have seen an increase in exploration and production by some of our key customers,"

Halliburton senior region vice president Rick Grisinger said in a statement.

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REVISIT - Natural-Gas Fracking Rules Considered by U.S. for Federal Lands

BLOOMBERG.COM
Jim Snyder and Katarzyna Klimasinska -
Aug 18, 2011 12:37 PM MT


The U.S. is weighing whether to impose new rules on hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas on public lands.

Companies such as Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC) of The Woodlands, Texas, and Treasure Resources Inc. of Windsor,Colorado, may be required to disclose chemicals used in the drilling and adopt well-integrity standards as part of the permit process, Robert Abbey, director of the Bureau of Land Management, said in an interview today in Bloomberg’s Washington office.

“We have the authority to move forward with our own rule-making to require such a disclosure and other best-management practices that we deem are feasible and appropriate,” Abbey said. Such regulations are being “seriously entertained,” he said.

In fracturing, or fracking, companies inject water, sand and chemicals under high pressure thousands of feet underground to break up shale-rock formations and release the gas trapped there. The technique is used for more than 90 percent of wells drilled on public lands, Abbey said.

Environmentalists and local officials have said the technique can pollute water resources.

Natural-gas production on federal lands rose 6.5 percent to 2.97 trillion cubic feet, or 14 percent of U.S. production, last year, according to the agency’s website.

Abbey said the bureau had no evidence that fracking has“adversely affected groundwater.”

Disclosure, Best Practices

 

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