{"id":36828,"date":"2022-12-09T10:22:54","date_gmt":"2022-12-09T17:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-requires-drillers-assess-impacts-of-wells-does-it-matter\/"},"modified":"2022-12-09T17:22:54","modified_gmt":"2022-12-09T17:22:54","slug":"colorado-requires-drillers-assess-impacts-of-wells-does-it-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-requires-drillers-assess-impacts-of-wells-does-it-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado requires drillers assess impacts of wells. Does it matter?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission will hold a hearing Friday on a petition by six environmental groups calling for regulators to adopt tougher rules on measuring and judging the impacts of the growing number of oil and gas wells in the state.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Plans for nearly 1,500 new Colorado oil and gas wells were approved in 2022 and while all of them had to assess the cumulative impacts the drilling would create, environmental and community groups say those evaluations are inadequate.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission will hold a hearing Friday on a petition by six environmental groups calling for regulators to adopt tougher rules on measuring and judging the impacts of the growing number of oil and gas wells in the state.<\/p>\n

The groups \u2014 WildEarth Guardians, the Sierra Club, 350 Colorado, Womxn from the Mountain, Physicians for Social Responsibility Colorado, and the Larimer Alliance for Health, Safety and the Environment \u2014 want the COGCC to start a new rulemaking process.<\/p>\n

The hearing comes a day after the commission approved the largest drilling plan submitted this year, PDC Energy\u2019s Guanella<\/a> plan for up to 466 wells on 33,000 acres in Weld County.<\/p>\n

Under a 2019 law, Senate Bill 181, the COGCC\u2019s mission was changed to emphasize protecting public health, safety, welfare and the environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the commission did mission-change rulemaking, it acknowledged that those rules weren\u2019t going to be enough to address cumulative impacts,\u201d said Kate Merlin, an attorney with WildEarth Guardians.<\/p>\n

The industry and oil and gas dependent counties, however, see the petition, with its emphasis on broad issues such as regional ozone pollution and climate change, as a way to throttle the sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe petition, if granted, and the proposed rules, if adopted, would result in a ban on oil and gas development and production in Garfield County and most other areas of Colorado,\u201d Parachute Mayor Tom Rugaard, said in a letter to the commission.<\/p>\n

Still, in heavily impacted areas, particularly suburban communities, concern over the pileup of drilling weighs heavy.<\/p>\n

Data collected is so general that it\u2019s not useful<\/div>\n

The Town of Erie, which straddles the Boulder and Weld county line, for example, is home to 135 active wells and has another 314 wells operating or planned within 2,000 feet of the community, according to David Frank, the town\u2019s energy and environment program specialist.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe impacts to public health and environment from each individual well, if properly constructed and maintained, may be minimal; however, the cumulative effects of so many wells in such proximity to Erie residents cannot be discounted or ignored,\u201d Frank said in a filing.<\/p>\n

Both the oil and gas commission and operators have attempted to address the question of cumulative impacts. Each application for drilling must assess those impacts and the commission has created the Cumulative Impacts Data Evaluation Repository<\/a>, CIDER, to catalog the data.<\/p>\n

The commission also puts out an annual report on cumulative impacts. The first report<\/a> was issued in January, and the next one will be released in February.<\/p>\n

In briefing the commission Thursday on the upcoming report, Julie Murphy, the COGCC director, said the ability to assess impacts has to be built up.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be able to understand cumulative impacts, you need to start with a baseline and to date, COGCC has not collected a baseline set of information,\u201d Murphy said. The current data collection is geared \u201cto start to collect the information that can help inform us of trends or trajectories.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report, Murphy said, will also give the commission guidance in exploring what other information would be helpful.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got local governments, the COGCC, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and industry spending millions of dollars to monitor cumulative impacts,\u201d said Dan Haley, president of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, a trade group.<\/p>\n

The problem is that the material, so far, is so general that it is difficult to judge the real impacts or blunt them, said Heidi Leathwood, a climate analyst with the environmental group 350 Colorado.<\/p>\n

Is capping 576 old wells enough to offset new drilling?<\/div>\n

The PDC Energy plan approved Wednesday estimates the project would create as much as 60 tons a year of volatile organic chemical emissions and 361 tons a year of nitrogen oxides, or NOx, during drilling and fracking, with emissions dropping but persistent once the wells are producing.<\/p>\n

NOx and volatile organics are the two ingredients that, along with heat and sunlight, create ozone, a corrosive air pollutant. The Environmental Protection Agency has designated the Northern Front Range a severe ozone nonattainment area,<\/a> with levels exceeding health standards.<\/p>\n

State air regulators are working on a plan to curb ozone-linked pollution and get the region back into compliance with the federal Clean Air Act, but were forced to revise the plan after they found that they were undercounting NOx emissions<\/a> from oil and gas operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we have is a region where we don\u2019t have ozone attainment, don\u2019t even have a plan for ozone attainment and we are still approving oil and gas without looking at the cumulative effects,\u201d WildEarth Guardians\u2019 Merlin said.<\/p>\n

WildEarth Guardians and 350 Colorado did a tally of the estimated truck traffic in 36 oil and gas development plans approved this year and found it came to 9.5 million miles of travel to and from sites.<\/p>\n

Oil and gas activities account for 29% of the region\u2019s NOx and 41% of its volatile organic chemical emissions, according to the Regional Air Quality Council.<\/p>\n

Operators are identifying cumulative effects in their drilling plans and are taking steps to mitigate them, often by adding best management practices, or BMPs, to the plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn an effort to avoid, minimize, and mitigate adverse cumulative impacts to public health, safety, welfare, the environment, and wildlife resources, PDC included several dozen BMPs,\u201d such as using non-polluting electric drills, the company said in its application.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese proposed BMPs cover cumulative impacts to air resources (including public health and safety), public welfare, water resources, terrestrial and aquatic wildlife and ecosystem resources, and soil resources,\u201d the plan said.<\/p>\n

In addition, part of the Guanella plan is to plug and abandon up to 576 existing wells that are leaking an estimated 144 tons of VOCs a year.<\/p>\n

The question is whether those steps adequately reduce the impacts.<\/p>\n

\"An
An abandoned pump jack in Adams County on Aug. 12, 2022. A second concern voiced by the environmental groups is the impact of oil and gas operations on curbing greenhouse gas emissions and meeting the state\u2019s goal of cutting overall emissions by 50% over 2005 levels by 2030. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Can Colorado meet greenhouse gas reduction goals while still drilling?<\/div>\n

A second concern voiced by the environmental groups is the impact of oil and gas operations on curbing greenhouse gas emissions and meeting the state\u2019s goal of cutting overall emissions by 50% over 2005 levels by 2030.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Roadmap<\/a> sets a goal of cutting oil and gas emissions by 50%, over 2005 levels, by 2030, equal to 12 million tons of methane. The sector is the third largest source of greenhouse gases after transportation and electricity generation.<\/p>\n

At the end of 2021, air regulators adopted a sweeping set of regulations<\/a> to cut oil and gas emissions, and the COGCC has adopted a rule strictly limiting<\/a> the burning of gas at well sites.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndustry acknowledges the concern over climate change,\u201d Haley said, adding the combination of the new rules and state-of-the-art technology is enabling Colorado operators to produce \u201cthe world\u2019s cleanest molecules\u201d of oil and gas.<\/p>\n

Still, the environmental groups contend without better data and a more rigorous analysis it is difficult to know the full impacts. They also question cumulative impact estimates in drilling plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of them don\u2019t pass the smell test, and there is no penalty if the estimates are wrong,\u201d Merlin said.<\/p>\n

As an example, she cited a plan by one operator which included 23 separators, devices that separate oil, water and gas coming out of a well, which would have zero emissions.<\/p>\n

The COGCC\u2019s Murphy said that as actual emissions reporting comes in from the state Air Pollution Control Division it will serve as a check on the estimates in drilling plans and help the commission understand how to evaluate the emission projections in the plans.<\/p>\n

As part of its petition, the environmental groups proposed some potential rule changes such as not issuing any permits for drilling if the state isn\u2019t on track to meet its greenhouse emission reduction goals or revoking a permit if its cumulative impacts exceed its initial projections.<\/p>\n

Another proposal would require an equity analysis for low-income and minority areas that are designated \u201cdisproportionately impacted communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

About five such communities fall within approved drilling plans, according to an analysis by 350 Colorado\u2019s Leathwood.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are going to approve more pollution in areas with disproportionately impacted communities,\u201d Leathwood said. \u201cThe COGCC rules don\u2019t allow them to deny permits in already heavily polluted areas. It shows they are completely inadequate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seven oil and gas counties \u2014 Weld, Garfield, Rio Blanco, Mesa, Delta, Moffat and Jackson \u2014 filed objections to the petition, saying there is a cumulative impact process in place, and the environmentalists\u2019 proposed rules are a regulatory overreach, which would be crippling for the industry.<\/p>\n

While Senate Bill 181 did make the protection of public health, safety and welfare, as well as the environment and wildlife, a priority, the law said that should be done in the context of protecting public and private rights in the efficient development of oil and gas, according to a Garfield County filing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe oil and gas conservation act has multiple goals and the petitioners have asked the commission to put onblinders to only look at a narrow set of the goals,\u201d said Kirby Wynn, Garfield County\u2019s oil and gas liaison.<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s two largest oil and gas producers \u2014 Chevron Inc. and Noble Energy \u2014 while opposing the petition, proposed setting up a working group of stakeholders to explore whether additional rules are needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a process that is happening,\u201d the oil and gas association\u2019s Haley said. \u201cBut you\u2019ve got to give it time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The petitioning environmental groups say they are wary that the commission and the industry is just \u201ctrying to kick the can down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the commission doesn\u2019t act on cumulative impacts it is likely it will be taken out of their hands,\u201d Merlin said. \u201cIt will end up in the legislature, another regulatory agency, the EPA or on a ballot measure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Environmental groups want regulators to toughen rules, consider impacts of increased drilling activity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1098,1030,221,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-36828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-energy","tag-environment","tag-gas-and-oil","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36828"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=36828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}