The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) approved 181 oil and gas drilling applications since August 2013 that were incomplete, according to a study by the Sierra Club and the University of Denver Environmental Law Clinic.
A team of three student attorneys and a supervising attorney reviewed 1,300 approved permits, or Form 2As, and found that about 14 percent of the approved applications failed to provide critical information about the number of wellheads at the site and comments regarding the well sites’ locations.
The crux of the issue is that the mandate for oil and gas operations requires that all sites within 1,000 feet of a home or commercial building must be located “as far as possible” from those buildings. With applicants not providing the location and number of sites within that range on their applications, COGCC regulators were permitting operations to begin without ensuring that the “as far as possible” mandate was met or even recognized.
The affected sites and permits have resulted in 951 wells, 1,221 oil and condensate tanks and 932 separators. Most of the approved incomplete applications were for sites in Weld, Garfield and La Plata counties, where most of the state’s drilling is concentrated.
Lauren Bushong, a DU student attorney who worked on the report, says her team was surprised to find so many applications that missed critical information.
“I expected there to be human error, stuff happens, some mistake, but I think the sheer number of permits that were lacking this information but were yet approved really did surprise us. Maybe it doesn’t surprise people in the community where oil and gas industry is in their backyard,” Bushong says, adding that her team members all live in Denver and so aren’t exposed to drilling operations immediately nearby.
Bushong says the COGCC isn’t following through on the standards they set for oil and gas drilling, and she ponders what the point is of making a mandate if it won’t be enforced.
“The commission sets out the goal for themselves, and you can read it on their website that it’s their goal to protect the people of Colorado’s welfare and safety,” Bushong says. “So I guess when that information isn’t there, to me it’s like, well you’re not meeting your own goal for yourself if you’re not requiring these details that are very specific to where well sites are built.”
Having seen the way the commission and state operates, Catherine Collentine of the Sierra Club says she’s not surprised the COGCC let so many applications slip through the cracks.
“I guess I had hoped that we would see that the COGCC was in fact doing everything within their power to enforce the setback regulations,” Collentine says. “We’ve long been advocates that setbacks putting oil and gas operations further from communities … is the way to go. So to see that the COGCC isn’t always pushing that as far as they can, it just again raises our concerns both for the need of citizen engagement and the need for local governments to take a stand; for communities to engage and say, ‘This is too close’; for citizens to stand up and say, ‘Not here, this is not what I was looking for when I moved into this great area next to a good school where I can raise my kids.’”
The report outlines a number of recommendations that both Collentine and Bushong say they hope the COGCC will take. Those recommendations include rejecting any application within a buffer zone that fails to include all required documentation; having operators notify all within a 1,000-foot zone of potential well sites; and giving the public more opportunities and time to submit feedback.
One way to do that, Collentine says, is to increase the functionality of the COGCC website. By adding more timely and easy-to-use features and maps, citizens in potential drilling areas can be informed about any drilling plans. Giving citizens the power to do that will help prove the COGCC has their interests in mind, and not the drilling industry’s, Collentine says.
“I think that when you look at the tasks laid out before the COGCC, it’s all about prioritizing public input and protecting public health and the environment over seeing those permits go through. It raises concerns for me that if the COGCC is not enforcing these regulations, it’s that the COGCC is putting these permits ahead of communities and the environment,” Collentine says. “I believe that when they go back to the heart of their mission, it does require them to take a step back and say, ‘What are we putting first, and if it’s not the health and safety of communities and Coloradans, then what is it? And how can we go back to making Colorado a safer place?’”
As for if she thinks the report will make an impact in COGCC operations, Bushong says she’s heard that the commission is looking to update their website and have already started to modify the 2A well site application forms. Collentine says there are still a lot more obstacles in the way of a well-functioning COGCC.
“At this point there is more work to be done,” Collentine says. “When you look at how the Hickenlooper administration has prioritized the idea of setback enforcement and stated that it is a priority for the COGCC, and [then when you] look at the data and see that it is in fact not being followed in its entirety, I think that it is a priority for them to improve and show the public and follow through on enforcing the regulations in place. They have the tools they need to do that, it’s a matter of following through.”
Because after all, Collentine says, “a setback is only as good as the enforcement of it.”
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