July 29, 2024 04:05 PM UTC

Oil and Gas Drilling Near both a Landfill AND a Reservoir? What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

• 2 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

John Aguilar of The Denver Post reports today on final discussions about a proposal to allow extensive oil and gas extraction operations to take place in and around both the Aurora Reservoir and the Lowry Landfill Superfund Site (where an estimated 138 million gallons of liquid industrial waste are buried):

A contentious plan to drill up to 166 oil and gas wells on the southeastern fringe of metro Denver, near hundreds of homes and the Aurora Reservoir — a drinking water source for nearly 400,000 people — will finally land before state energy regulators this week for a key decision on its fate.

Neighbors worried about potential health and ecological impacts from the project want the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission to say no to the plan after an extensive hearing that’s set to begin Tuesday. The oil and gas producer behind it hopes to install hydraulic fracturing operations at eight sites across Lowry Ranch in Arapahoe County over the next four years…

…But Lowry Ranch opponents may face a bumpy road this week, following a recommendation by the Energy and Carbon Management Commission’s director, Julie Murphy, that the board of commissioners approve the comprehensive area plan for the project.

In her final determination this month, Murphy wrote that Crestone’s plan “complies with all applicable requirements” in the ECMC’s rules.

Admittedly, we don’t know much about any of the “applicable requirements” contained in the rulebook of the Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC), but you don’t need to be drilled on the details (pun intended) in order to understand that this drilling proposal from Crestone Peak Resources makes very little sense. Check out the graphic below from The Denver Post to see what we mean:

The ECMC is expected to hold final hearings on this proposal on Tuesday — with a potential for additional discussion on Friday. There are probably plenty of arguments to be made on both sides of this debate, but in our view, there’s only one that really matters: Are we REALLY going to risk contamination of the Aurora Reservoir, which is a primary source of drinking water for residents of Colorado’s second-largest city?

Back to the Post:

The property encompasses the 480-acre Lowry Landfill, a Superfund site at the northeast corner of Quincy Avenue and Gun Club Road, where an estimated 138 million gallons of liquid industrial waste are buried. An underground plume of contaminated water has migrated several miles from what is considered one of the country’s most contaminated toxic waste sites.

Some of the proposed well pads’ proximity prompted U.S. Rep. Jason Crow to send a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency on July 15. He asked whether it had studied the potential for extractive seismic activity at the landfill and how that might impact “the safety of the Aurora Reservoir Dam and the reservoir itself.”

The Democratic congressman asked how the agency could “be certain the drilling will not cause fractures and instability that threaten the mitigation strategies EPA has in place at (the landfill).” He also inquired if the agency has considered expanding the boundaries of the Superfund site to include the underground plume. [Pols emphasis]

Coolidge, from Civitas, said the company this year agreed not to drill underneath the Lowry Landfill.

“On claims around seismicity, there has been no reportable seismic activity caused by hydraulic fracturing in Colorado,” he wrote.

But Mike Foote, an environmental attorney representing Save the Aurora Reservoir — and a prime sponsor of SB19-181 when he was a state senator — said “drilling can cause earthquakes.”

Crestone also wants to drill under the Aurora Reservoir, so even if they manage to avoid causing leakage from industrial waste at the Lowry Landfill, there’s a chance fracking chemicals could seep into the source of drinking water for some 400,000 people.

There are certainly ways that oil and gas companies can do their thing while preserving the health and safety interests of residents, but there are also places THAT JUST DON’T NEED TO BE DRILLED. And it’s not like there is any real need for this; America is currently producing more oil and gas than any nation in the history of…nations.

If you are having a discussion about whether or not a particular drilling proposal might cause industrial waste to leak or might contaminate a critically-important source of potable water, that’s really where the conversation should stop. If such accidents are even possible, then the risk vs. reward is ludicrously unbalanced.

Let’s take a step back and use some basic common sense here — before we make the kind of mistake that can’t really be fixed.