Colorado oil and gas regulators have, in the last few weeks, rejected proposed drilling projects in an effort to protect pronghorn and suburbanites.
The state Energy and Carbon Management Commission rejected a proposal for 16 wells in pronghorn high priority winter habitat in northeastern Weld County and a plan for 18 wells in a heavily populated area of Broomfield and Erie.
Extraction Oil and Gas, a subsidiary of Civitas Resources, proposed drilling 18 wells using approvals issued in 2017 — before the 2019 passage of Senate Bill 181, which prioritized protecting public health, safety, welfare, the environment and wildlife when issuing permits.
In response to Senate Bill 181, the ECMC, previously called the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, adopted stricter regulations, including requiring steps that would be protective of the public and the environment.
To be sure, the commission approves the majority of drilling plans submitted to it. In 2022, the ECMC approved 838 wells, according to the agency’s 2023 cumulative impacts report. Most of those wells were on the Front Range.
When development gets too close to homes, as was the case when Occidental Petroleum wanted to drill 26 wells near new homes in Firestone, the commission citing its new rules rejected the drilling plan.
In its application, however, Extraction contended that those rules did not apply since the commission had already approved its Coyote Trails drilling plan for up to 45 wells in 2017.
Twenty-seven wells were drilled by 2019, in two phases, and then the drill rigs and sound walls around the site, at the northeastern edge of the Vista Ridge neighborhood in Erie, were taken down and there was no more drilling.
Erie and Broomfield officials told the ECMC at a hearing on Jan. 24, they thought the drilling was completed since it was their understanding the work would be done in two phases of development.
“Our plans clearly indicated that we had intention for two phases, an appraisal phase and development phase,” Nathan Bennett, Extraction’s permitting and compliance director, told the commission. “These are the final wells in the development phase.”
The local governments had no notice. “For six years there were no communications,” said David Frank, Erie’s energy and environment specialist. “They didn’t give a heads up when new Form 2s were filed in 2023,” he said, referring to applications for drilling permits.
In those six years conditions around the Coyote Trails well pad have changed with more homes, schools, development and traffic.
“When it was approved there were zero residences within 2,000 feet,” said Lee Schiller, a resident of the Palisade Park development in Erie, which has 80 homes within the protective 2,000-foot setback established by the ECMC.
In all, there are 186 residences within 2,000 feet of the pad, as well as two parks. Within a mile of the proposed drill site are three schools, a preschool and a senior center, according to an analysis by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
Extraction was seeking to get its permit “pushed through a loophole in the rule change legislation,” said Emily Baer, an Erie Town Council member and a resident of the Coyote Trails area. “Should these wells be approved in a post-181 world? The answer is no.”
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Coyote Trails may not be the only undrilled wells
One concern, Erie’s Frank said, was that these old drilling plans do not require any new notices to communities, local oversight or adherence to new rules. He said he only found out about Extraction’s plans by reviewing the ECMC website.
“How many Coyote Trails are out there, how many should we be worried about?” Frank said. He said he has found four other undrilled locations with pre-181 approvals near Erie.
Extraction’s attorney Joseph Pierzchala argued at the hearing that the commission didn’t have the right to review the application for drilling permits since under the new rules approval of these permits is delegated to the commission’s executive director as an administrative function.
The commission rejected that argument, with ECMC Chairman Jeff Robbins saying that it was in the commission’s purview to review all agency actions.
As part of its new drilling plan Extraction committed to a long list of best management practices, or BMPs, aimed at reducing the impacts of its operations, including using electric drilling rigs, efficient, low-emitting, low-noise engines during fracking, low-emission drilling fluids and upgrading roads to cut dust.
The Department of Public Health and Environment estimated that it would cut emission compared to earlier development by 50% and that the truck routes planned would avoid most of the population.
Commissioner John Messner told Extraction’s representatives that the new rules require “making a showing that your plan is protective” of the public and the environment. “All I see is a list of BMPs,” Messner said.
The application also said the driller would develop a community outreach and information program once the permits were approved.
“Why on earth didn’t Extraction reach out to the city and county of Broomfield and Erie?” Robbins asked. “These communities who are very near to your location have expressed concerns since 2017.”
Extraction’s Bennett said it would be difficult to discuss prospective projects that haven’t been approved.
“It is disheartening that the communities only learned about this from their own snooping in our system,” Robbins said.
In the end the majority of the five-member commission was not convinced by Extraction’s arguments and rejected an ECMC staff recommendation to approve the permits.
“I don’t believe that the applicants met its burden in showing that what’s being proposed is the protection of public health, safety, welfare, the environment and wildlife resources,” Messner said.
Robbins, voting to reject approval of the drilling permits, said Extraction does have the option to refile with the documentation required by the commission rules.
Truck traffic in remote Weld County a risk to pronghorn
A week before the Extraction hearing, the commission wrestled with and rejected a drilling plan over wildlife concerns.
Summit Oil and Gas, a small independent driller, was seeking to drill 16 wells and erect 48 oil and water tanks in a remote area of northeastern Weld County. Summit is already operating wells in the area.
To address geological and production issues, Summit proposed putting its drilling operation in the center of a pristine section of land, which is also in the middle of mule deer winter range and high-priority pronghorn habitat.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife, which advises ECMC on wildlife issues, would have preferred the location closer to existing roads, but Summit agreed to a list of best management practices to lessen impacts plus paying a $154,000 mitigation fee.
The area is so remote, however, that there are no pipelines close by and production would require trucks to haul away oil and water from the wells. At the height of production, it could require 60 round truck trips a day and then 15 round trips a day.
“Without pipe we are going to be looking at 15 trucks a day,” Brent Dullack, a Summit representative, told the commission at a Jan. 17 hearing. “We can’t get away from it without pipe.”
“You need to be aware you are asking us, as you just admitted, to make a tough call,” Robbins told the Summit representatives.
Commissioner Brett Ackerman, a former CPW official appointed to the ECMC for his expertise on wildlife and the environment, said that open space is key for pronghorn, which can run 60 mph and are able to spot a predator nearly four miles away.
“Pronghorn escape cover is open space,” Ackerman said. Putting an oil and gas operation in the middle of a section with truck traffic, he said, “makes it unusable for pronghorn.”
The commission, again over a recommendation to approve by staff, voted to reject the drilling plan, with three outright no votes and two leaving the door open for reconsideration.