March 19, 2009 11:54 PM UTC

Time to Implement New Oil & Gas Regulations

• 4 Comments
• by: ClubTwitty

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

The Colorado State Senate has a historic opportunity to ensure that, even as we rationally develop our hydrocarbon resources, we implement sensible and needed regulations on the industry that is changing the face of our state.  

Monday and Tuesday the state Senate will consider final approval of these rules. If you have not contacted your senator, now is a good time to do so, and ask that s/he support HB 1292, the Rules Bill.  Our you can go here and send an email.

There has been lots of discussion and debate around these rules, and a lot of misinformation.  But nothing is more telling of the need for these regulations than the reality from the gaspatch, as the latest incident shows.  

This week started with the sad story of a fatal accident and hazardous spill on Highway 139.  That was Monday, the same day the Sentinel reported that Garfield County asked for a drilling moratorium around the Divide Creek area near Silt.

Garfield County commissioners have agreed to ask the state to reimpose a drilling moratorium in the area of the 2004 natural gas seep south of Silt.

The county acted in response to Lisa Bracken’s concerns that gas produced as a result of energy development may be contaminating domestic and surface water in the West Divide Creek area, where Bracken lives.

Commissioners John Martin and Mike Samson on Monday agreed to Bracken’s request that the county ask that the moratorium be reinstated. Commissioner Tresi Houpt recused herself from considering the matter to avoid a possible conflict of interest. She also sits on the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which will consider the county’s request.

Today a new calamity is being reported in the gasfields on the other side of the state, where the Examiner is reporting “Fort Lupton woman has flammable water, fears blast.”

FORT LUPTON, Colo. – A Fort Lupton woman says she lives in constant fear and is terrified her home could blow up because of natural gas that has managed to seep into her water supply.

Amee Ellsworth can turn on a faucet in her kitchen or bathroom, flick a lighter and watch flames shoot up from the sink. And Ellsworth says she’s afraid she or her neighbors are at imminent risk of an explosion.

Dave Neslin from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission say the gas is likely coming from a leaking well, but there are eight wells located within a half-mile of Ellsworth’s home. The wells are owned by two different energy companies.

Among the changes the new regulations would impose are setbacks from water sources. Another change is disclosure of toxic chemicals that are being used in the gasfields, including on private property on split-estate lands.

Increased protections–like the right to an appeal to the oil and gas commission–are included for landowners, the people who in many cases live a few hundred feet from a drilling site or well, often holding quaint notions of private property safeguards, equal protection, and due process.  

In this most recent case the woman worried about her tap exploding is meeting with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Noble Energy Inc., the companies drilling nearby, and hopefully they will act quickly to do the right thing.  In Garfield County companies repeatedly denied the problem, which is why the 2:1 Republican Commission voted to force the issue and ask for a moratorium.  

It is past time to ensure that these occurrences are rare, not regular, incidents as industry develops Colorado’s resources, which it is and will continue to do.

Now it is time for Colorado’s senators to implement these regulations, and not listen to the dubious whines of the industry or their enabling colleagues in the legislature.