File Photo by Gabriel Christus/Aurora Sentinel
AURORA |A move by the Trump administration’s Bureau of Land Management to begin auctioning off parcels of public land in Colorado for Oil and Gas lease has prompted an outcry from environmental groups and community advocates both in Aurora and across the state.
The Sept. 8 auction saw the bureau offer two parcels, one covering an additional 600 acres just west of the Aurora reservoir. The site, known as Lowry Ranch, has already been cleared for 108 wells on roughly 32,000 state run acres. Lowry Ranch drilling and fracking sites have long been a point of contention for many Aurora residents who feel their concerns over environmental damage and possible health risks are being sidelined to accommodate oil and gas development.
The Energy and Carbon Management Commission in Colorado, the state government entity tasked with regulating energy production in the state, gave the go-ahead in April to a significant fracking operation less than a mile from the reservoir.
The State Sunlight-Long fracking site has been one of the primary focuses of local community advocates and environmental groups due to its proximity to a residential area and the Aurora Reservoir, a major water source for the City of Aurora.
Crestone Peak Resources and its subsidiary, SM Energy, were allegedly approached by officials within the Department of the Interior as to what additional lands they had their eyes on.
However, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Land Management denied any allegation of approaching private developers with the express intent of development. According to the spokesperson, the Bureau has “an established process for interested parties” which includes oil and gas companies.
“In that process, the industry comes to the (bureau) with areas it would like considered, not the other way around,” The spokesperson added. “Not the other way around. The (bureau) then reviews each proposed parcel to determine whether it is available and appropriate for leasing, considering environmental concerns and consistency with land use plans.
The spokesperson also told the Sentinel that the bureau “stays in regular contact with industry as part of managing the federal oil and gas program.”
Bureau officials declined to state whether or not the agency had specifically had contact with either Crestone Peak Resources or any of its subsidiaries.
Although the federal government refrained from comment, community advocates argue that now the federal government is putting its finger on the scale in favor of out-of-state oil companies.
Randy Willard, who is with a neighborhood collective called the Save the Aurora Reservoir or S.T.A.R., told the Sentinel the move has prompted renewed activism on the matter.
“We’ve brought on a new lawyer… we’re convening a roundtable with 24 elected representatives from the area who are involved, in one way or another in oil and gas, so that we can have a discussion about how the community is treated,” Willard said.
Two environmentalist organizations, Wilderness Workshop and the Wilderness Society, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Colorado, arguing that the lease sales would “allow for the development of oil and gas wells in habitats critical to some of the United States’ largest, last remaining migrations of pronghorn antelope, mule deer and elk.”
Willard said he doesn’t have faith that the federal government is acting in the best interest of Aurora.
The specter of overreach by the federal government to crack down on lawful dissent remains pervasive.
The executive order was used to prosecute several anti-ICE activists in Alvarado, Texas. With one woman being sentenced to 50 years in prison for distributing ‘zines’, which the federal government characterized as “insurrectionary materials”.
“I don’t trust [any of the federal agencies] at this point,” Willard added. “We’re a little concerned about the NPSM-7 executive order, which is the one that lets them basically weaponize the Treasury Department to go after non-profits.”