Residents around Aurora Reservoir who are fighting a large-scale oil and gas drilling operation are trying to use an untested maneuver — seeking to be declared “affected persons” — to get their voices heard by state regulators.
The affected-person designation is mainly for people living within 2,000 feet of a drilling operation or those demonstrating a unique impact from the oil and gas development.
But members of the grassroots group Save the Aurora Reservoir, or STAR, in their petition to the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission argued that the health, wildlife and traffic impacts extend beyond 2,000 feet. STAR has 330 members.
The ECMC is scheduled to hold a day-long hearing Tuesday and rule on Crestone Peak Resources’ proposed Lowry Ranch Comprehensive Area Plan, which would drill up to 166 wells from nine pads on 32,000 acres straddling Arapahoe County and the city of Aurora.
The comprehensive area development plans, or CAPs, were added to the commission’s revised rules as a mechanism to better assess, coordinate and manage the cumulative impacts of drilling.
In 2022, the ECMC, formerly the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, approved a Crestone Peak CAP for 151 wells on 20 pads in a 55-square-mile area in Aurora.
The commission at the start of the Crestone hearing will decide whether STAR’s petition meets Rule 507, the state regulation defining affected persons.
Public commenters before the commission are limited to three minutes. If STAR’s petition is successful the group could get three hours to make a presentation, cross-examine Crestone witnesses and offer a rebuttal closing argument.
Birders, hunters, cyclists, dog walkers all could have legal standing
Crestone, a subsidiary of Denver-based Civitas Resources, one of the state’s largest oil and gas producers, is opposing STAR’s petition. “STAR failed to comply with the requirement of Rule 507 and has provided zero legal position for its request as an association with standing,” the company said in a filing.
Mike Foote, STAR’s attorney, said that commission has more broadly drawn the circle for affected persons, noting that the commission said a hunter or a birder concerned about preserving deer or birds in an area slated for drilling could have standing.
“A mountain biker may have a unique interest in avoiding surface disturbance in an area of public lands where she frequently bikes,” the commission said in the statement of purpose for its rules.
The 12 STAR families, petitioning the ECMC, bike, jog, and walk their dogs around the reservoir and through parts of the CAP. Some swim and boat on the reservoir and others work or have children going to school within the drilling area.
The home of Jason and Shannon Randels, according to the petition, is 3,500 feet from one of the proposed drill sites.
“The Randels chose their lot on South White Crow Way specifically for its proximity to the reservoir, the wildlife, the views, and the peacefulness of the surrounding area,” the petition said. “They were not aware of looming oil and gas development at that time.”
The battle lines between STAR and Crestone are between the operator’s efforts to show it has reached out to the community and to limit the impacts of its drilling plan and the grassroots group’s stance that under any circumstances there will be widespread impacts on hundreds of homes.
Drilling beneath the Lowry Landfill Superfund site has been removed from the plan
In its prehearing statement, Crestone noted that after consultations it has removed two sites and trimmed 1,440 acres from the plan. After the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency voiced concerns, the company agreed not to drill beneath the Lowry Landfill Superfund site.
It has also increased the setbacks for five pads, in one case adding 2,356 feet to the buffer, bringing it to nearly 4,500 feet.
Crestone already operates 17 horizontal oil and gas wells from six drilling pads in the CAP and two of the nine drilling pads it proposes to use already exist. The drilling would begin in this year and last until 2028. Production from the wells could last 25 years.
The company has also committed to a series of so-called best management practices to reduce the impacts. These include: continuous air monitoring, the use of pipelines to transport oil and gas from the sites (cutting down on truck traffic), and using cleaner burning engines.
Crestone said in a filing it is also working to electrify its drilling and production activities but cautioned that “electrical connections are dependent on Xcel Energy’s capacity, load and timing.”
“Crestone anticipates electrification during the production phase with a high degree of certainty, lower certainty for drilling phase,” the company said.
“We’re known as an early adopter of new technologies and innovative practice,” Richard Coolidge, a Civitas spokesman said in an email. “ We’re always exploring opportunities to recycle and reuse produced water and remain committed to finding solutions that will work for the unique challenges in our state’s geology.”
Coolidge said the Civitas will also have to meet the regulations adopted by Arapahoe County last November, which include a 3,000 setback from existing or planned reservoirs and a 3,000-foot buffer from homes and buildings, platted lots and water bodies.
The regulations also require air and water testing and groundwater and surface water quality plans.
In a cumulative impacts analysis submitted to the ECMC, Crestone’s consultant concluded that “the maximum annual emissions during production operations for each facility identified in the CAP are not expected to exceed the current major stationary source thresholds” for pollutants under state and federal regulations.
The ECMC director Julie Murphy has recommended the commission approve the CAP.
STAR in its planned presentation and filings disputes many of Crestone’s claims. It notes that the impact of truck traffic was never adequately assessed and that while pipelines would be used for products, produced water, which comes up from a well with the oil and gas, would be trucked away.
For 155 wells each producing 20 million gallons of produced water, that added up to 310,000 truck trips through the CAP, STAR said.
And while air emissions may not exceed regulatory thresholds, in 2025 the operations would put about 1,800 tons of ozone-causing pollutants into the air plus 54,000 tons of carbon dioxide, the prime greenhouse gas, according to Crestone’s consultant.
“It is widely understood that living near oil and gas development can cause negative health outcomes,” the STAR petition said. “Increases in ozone precursor chemical emissions can also lead to higher ground-level ozone levels.”
STAR also raised questions about the quality of Civitas operations saying that in the first quarter of 2024 the company paid $332,500 in enforcement action penalties to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and has 10 open enforcement cases.
While Crestone agreed not to drill under the Lowry Landfill, STAR said the drilling plan could put horizontal wells under people’s homes. “The densely populated neighborhoods of Aurora and Aurora Reservoir deserve at least as much protection as a Superfund landfill,” the STAR presentation said.