AURORA | Environmental activists continue to advocate for the Aurora Reservoir as the possibility of a multiple-location fracking project in the region looms.
The grassroots organization Save the Aurora Reservoir, also known as STAR, presented a petition with “hundreds” of signatures on Wednesday asking for public hearings before the Arapahoe County Commissioners. STAR, as well as representatives from other advocacy groups, stood in front of the commissioners’ office in Littleton on Wednesday while demanding action from their elected leaders.
They have for months been protesting against the proposed Lowry Ranch oil drilling project, which has been in the works for years.
“There has been extraordinary public interest in and opposition to these well sites,” Marsha Goldsmith Kamin, president of STAR, said in their online press statement. “It is essential for the Board of County Commissioners to hold full public hearings on these applications to ensure the opportunity for satisfactory stakeholder input and public participation during the review process.”
Also on Wednesday, people spoke about the negative health and environment effects that come from fracking.
“We are here today to demand accountability. We demand transparency into the permit process, and the oil & gas rulemaking process that the County Commissioners promised last year,” advocate Bobbie Mooney said according to a press statement. “We demand a response from Arapahoe County to our petition delivered today, and we demand action — to protect public health, safety, welfare, and the environment, as the law requires.”
Arapahoe County officials were not immediately available for comment.
Civitas Resources, a Denver based energy company, submitted a proposal for this project in 2022. According to the state Energy and Carbon Management Commission, this development would involve 166 new wells across hundreds of acres in the region, some on public lands. The new oil and gas locations would be located east of Monaghan Road.
In a recent local hearing among state oil and gas officials, Civitas officials said the project has been amended to accommodate concerns about fracking beneath the Lowry Landfill, an EPA Superfund site relatively near the Aurora Reservoir. Civitas officials said the project would be subject to and would meet state environmental guidelines.
Still, the fracking project has faced resistance from a wide range of area residents and environmentalists, citing its proximity to the Aurora Reservoir and and plans to drill far beneath it. Arapahoe County Commissioners last year narrowly turned down a county hiatus on granting oil-and-gas applications while the county reviewed its permitting process.
Members of STAR say they are unconvinced the amended plan still doesn’t pose undue risk to local drinking water, air and other parts of the community.
Hundreds turned out and spoke against the drilling project during an hours-long public meeting hosted by the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission in May. Another public meeting will be held on June 26.
Additional information about the proposed project can be found on the Arapahoe County website.
I understand the economic value of exploiting oil & gas resources with fracking, but can we as a whole invest more in the direction of sustainable energy, please? Has anyone noticed what is happening to the weather? Fracking may or may not be an environmental hazard in this case, but it is certainly a misplaced priority.
The answer to this issue is simply; who owns the mineral rights. Much like water rights, mineral rights allow the owner a lot of latitude toward what they can do with the land the resource resides on or under. It’s all in the fine print that people are presented with then they buy a home, but most are too stupid to read it. It may not be the way people want it to be, but that’s the way our laws work. Here’s some information about mineral rights.
https://hallhall.com/what-you-should-know-about-mineral-and-surface-rights-on-your-land/#:~:text=Mineral%20rights%20are%20the%20rights,to%20the%20surface%20rights%20holder.
The better question these environmentalists should be asking is “how does the city ensure safe, clean water gets to our homes?” Not all of the city’s water comes from Aurora reservoir, but rather from multiple reservoirs across the whole state. Are the protestors checking to make sure that water is free of contaminants from above ground or below ground sources? Short answer is “probably not”, so you all can go pound sand.