BARRY NOREEN: Residents ask county for help to keep drilling in line

If there is a commercial natural gas deposit in northern El Paso County, there will soon be a compound fracture, but how many people will get hurt is hard to predict.

A citizens group has appealed to the El Paso County commissioners for help — without any luck.

The fracturing could begin next year, when a Midland, Texas-based firm starts an exploratory drilling program close to upscale homes near Monument. Like the vast majority of new natural gas wells these days, Dyad Petroleum will use hydraulic fracturing, which injects a mixture of water, sand and chemicals to break up rock formations so gas can be pumped out.

There is a growing body of evidence that hydraulic fracturing can ruin groundwater supplies, (see my blog today) and everyone in the north end of El Paso County depends on wells for their water.

As early as February, the Bureau of Land Management may release an environmental assessment for drilling on 21,000 acres. If it's a good natural gas field there could be hundreds of wells, with connecting roads and pipelines, as well as the fear concerning toxins such as benzene seeping into the drinking water supply.

Because of federal laws, the county can't stop the drilling, but it could establish rules to mitigate the impacts to roads, air quality and water quality. That's what the Front Range Environmental Resources Coalition wants the commissioners to do.

"I've been asking them to adopt oil and gas regulations," said Chris Amenson, director of the citizens coalition. "It's an opportunity to get ahead of this thing."

Amenson wrote the commissioners in September and says he has received no response.

Rio Blanco, La Plata and Gunnison counties have such rules in place. Tresi Houpt, a member of the Colorado Oil and Gas Commission and a Garfield County commissioner, said the impacts from drilling can be huge and counties should do what they can to protect themselves.

In Garfield County, impacts from drilling have been massive, even on private property, because federal law allows companies to venture there. Houpt said the Oil and Gas Commission is drafting rules that will offer more protection from drilling impacts, but they won't be in place for a while.

Bruce Baizel an attorney for the Durango-based Oil and Gas Accountability Project, said "The impacts are pretty uniform no matter where you are. It's not that counties can't do anything."

El Paso County Commissioner Wayne Williams, whose district includes Dyad's 21,000-acre parcel, said it's premature to worry about regulating impacts.

"We're not ignoring it," he said. "We're waiting to see what the state does."

County Commissioner Sallie Clark acknowledged she is "not aware we have much jurisdiction over those kinds of things."

To be fair, the commissioners do have time to address the issue. But the county has no one who knows much about natural gas drilling and the commissioners' lack of interest in a public health issue is curious given that they were big advocates of public health a month ago, when they were stumping for a tax increase.

When the time comes, we'll see how interested they are in protecting neighborhoods.


Contact Noreen at 636-0363 or noreen@gazette.com. He appears Fridays on KOAA TV channels 5/30 at noon and on KRDO radio channels 105.5 FM and 1240 AM at 6:40 a.m.