A controversial plan to drill up to 166 oil and gas wells near Aurora Reservoir was approved by the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission on Wednesday with the caveat that the operator, Crestone Resources, electrify its operations.
The requirement to electrify the company’s drilling and production operations would cut down on air emissions and noise — two concerns raised by area residents — making the plan “much more approvable from a comprehensive cumulative impacts perspective,” ECMC Chairman Jeff Robbins said.
Crestone, which is a subsidiary of Denver-based Civitas Resources, had submitted a so-called comprehensive area plan, or CAP, for 166 wells on 32,000 acres, including the state-owned Lowry Ranch.
CAPs were added to the state regulations to allow for regional planning and better assessment, and coordination and management of cumulative impacts from large-scale drilling plans.
The Lowry Ranch plan, however, drew strong local opposition. A May commission hearing at the Arapahoe County fairgrounds drew about 300 residents, who gave more than three hours of testimony — almost all in opposition.
When Crestone received an oil and gas lease from the Colorado State Land Board for Lowry Ranch’s 26,000 acres in 2012, there were hardly any homes in the area. Now, there are an estimated 12,000 homes.
Crestone has already drilled and fracked 17 horizontal wells on the ranch and plans to drill the new wells from two existing pads and eight new ones by 2029.
A group of more than 500 residents formed Save the Aurora Reservoir. The group was granted the right to participate in the commission’s hearings as an “affected person” and hired an attorney to make a presentation and question Crestone witnesses.
Jaime Jost, Crestone’s attorney, called STAR “an activist group trying to stop oil and gas drilling in Colorado.”
STAR argued, using expert witnesses, that gaps in the plan left residents unprotected and that it did not properly calculate the cumulative impacts of all the drilling, wells, truck traffic and ongoing operations.
“We are devastated by the commission’s decision,” Marsha Goldsmith Kamin, STAR’s president, said. “This is without doubt the wrong decision for the health, safety and environment of our community.”
Despite STAR’s challenge, the commission found Crestone had substantially complied with the CAP requirements, even as commissioners expressed frustrations with gaps in the plan.
“I still do think that it does meet our rules and is approvable,” Commissioner Mike Cross said. “I hope it would be clear to the operator doing this, that minimum checking the boxes is not what we are looking for.”
Commissioner John Messner disagreed, saying that “on many fronts” the plan lacked the “commitments and evidence” to show that it avoided, mitigated or minimized potential cumulative impacts.
In July, Julie Murphy, the commission’s director, had recommended approval of the drilling plan saying it had met “all applicable requirements.”
Commissioner Brett Akerman voiced concerns about gaps in the plan. “Make no mistake about it, I do think there is an approvable CAP, if not immediately, before us nearby,” he said. Ackerman proposed sending the plan back to Crestone for more work.
Robbins, however, said that the commission could not send the plan — which substantially complied with the state and local regulations — back to Crestone unless it could give the operator detailed guidance on what additions would be required.
Akerman said that one of his concerns was that the proposed line of pad developments — even though well beyond the state’s required 2,000-foot setback — remained “very close to residences.”
The comprehensive area plans are not a final approval, Robbins said. For each well pad Crestone will have to seek approval of an oil and gas development plan, OGDP, and that would be the appropriate time to take up pad location, as well as other issues raised in the hearing, including noise mitigation, fire safety and wildlife protections.
“At this point we are feeling the ECMC is going to scrutinize every one of the OGDPs so we are not giving up,” STAR’s Goldsmith Kamin said. “We are going to keep pushing.”