Fracking Concerns Worry Residents Targeted By Oil & Gas Production

CBS4
Paul Day
Oct 21 2011
AGATE, Colo. (CBS4) – Rick Blotter harvests late-season corn from his backyard organic garden. Nearby, a couple goats are tended by his wife Bev.

Where the couple lives — in the community of Agate in rural Elbert County — is surrounded by pristine ranchland. The Blotters are desperate to protect their retirement home from oil and gas production. National companies are already negotiating leases in the area.

“We’re just looking for good land that may be productive in the future,” says Kelsey Campbell, a spokeswoman for Chesapeake Energy.

Chesapeake — America’s No. 1 driller of natural gas — already has operations in Weld County. But it is among a growing number of oil and gas producers eyeing areas along the Front Range that have not traditionally been drilled, including Elbert County, Arapahoe County and Douglas County.

“I could imagine them leveling this out and putting a pad here,” he says.

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Watch Environmental Specialist Paul Day’s video reports for this story below:

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Oil companies rushing to buy leases along Colorado's Front Range

By Mark Jaffe
The Denver Post

Oct 23 2011

Nikki Stansfield, who lives in a suburban-style Larimer County development, persuaded neighbors to hire a lawyer to deal with a driller. She also hopes to meet with Gov. John Hickenlooper to discuss homeowner protections. (RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post )

The flier announced a meeting of the Ridge West Homeowners Association to discuss oil and gas drilling — but before it was even held, Nikki Stansfield had an oil-company lease offer in her mailbox.

"My immediate reaction was 'I can't believe this is happening here,' " said Stansfield, a resident of the suburban-style Larimer County development.

Her words are echoed by property owners all along the Front Range — the scene of an oil land rush over the past three years.

Between 2008 and 2011, leasing activity in six Front Range counties — Larimer, Weld, Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert and El Paso — more than doubled, with 8,100 leases filed in the 12 months ending Aug. 30, according to county records.

If Weld County, a traditional oil and gas area, is removed, leasing activity jumped to 2,700 leases in the 12 months ending Aug. 30, from 117 in the same period in 2008-09.

"It's been a land grab, with everyone going out and staking their claims," said David Tameron, a senior oil and gas analyst in Denver with Wells Fargo Securities.



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