EDITOR: While the bulk of oil and gas development in Colorado has taken place in Weld County in recent years, it is certainly not new to Arapahoe County. If we are fortunate, we might emulate our northern neighbors in Weld and see some of the tremendous benefits they have enjoyed in job growth, increased property values, enviable tax revenues and a booming economy.
Weld County has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the entire nation at just over 2 percent. The county’s assessed valuation has nearly doubled since 2010 from $4.7 billion to $9.1 billion, jumping about $2 billion from 2013 to 2014 alone. Real-estate website Zillow.com reports that the median home price increased 14.3% last year, and they are predicting another 5.4 percent increase in 2015. While these increases may not be 100 percent attributable to oil and gas activity, there is certainly a close relationship.
The increase in assessed valuation has led to such large increases in tax revenues in Weld County that the Board of Commissioners lowered their property tax mill levy. Additionally, the county has been able to build a $100 million reserve fund that can be used on infrastructure improvements and public safety. Not to mention the fact that schools in Weld and across Colorado received millions more in tax revenues in 2014 thanks largely to all of the oil and gas activity.
So what’s the problem? Well, the usual slate of national fracktivist organizations are trying to scare Arapahoe County citizens with stories of danger, noise and pollution. Fortunately, the Arapahoe County Board of Commissioners, county staff, and industry representatives worked together over the course of 18 months to develop a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that is being used as a model for other counties around the state. The MOU was passed unanimously by the Board of Commissioners, which is split between three Republicans and two Democrats.
The Aurora City Council recently updated its statutes to align with the increasingly restrictive standards implemented by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in recent years. For example, the City Council increased the medium setback from existing buildings for new oil and gas wells from 350 to 500 feet, and they allowed vapor recovery towers to reach 31.5 feet, enabling companies to comply with Colorado’s strictest-in-the-nation methane emission standards.
Colorado’s local government controls work in concert with state regulations to ensure that our families and our environment are protected. I have lived in Aurora for more than 40 years, which means I have seen many changes. It also means I’ve seen the air quality in the metro area improve greatly due to the fact that our state continues to lead the nation in its air quality regulations. As technologies improve, as residential, commercial and industrial development plans change, and as we reap the benefits of a strong energy economy we will continue to make improvements in our communities. As we do so, we ought to continue the ongoing dialogue between citizens, local and state governments, and oil and gas companies. If we do, we will be stronger for it.
— Polly Page Co-Chairwoman Arapahoe Responsible Energy Advocates – AREA
The States of New York and Vermont sure didn’t think fracking brought
a “tremendous opportunity” to their States. They banned fracking due
to health and safety concerns. The State of Maryland is proposing an
eight year ban for the same reasons.
I’m curious why a comprehensive “Health Impact Assessment” is being avoided???
A Health Impact Assessment would: Indentify potential effects of gas and oil
development on the health of the people and describe what effects it will have
on its citizens. Increases of chronic health problems could impact thousands of
people and create escalating health care costs.
Provide emphasis on segments of the population most vulnerable specifically
infants, children, pregnant women and the elderly. Consider health risks from
cumulative impacts on gas and oil development including exposure to radon,
carcinogenic chemicals and toxic contaminants from drilling, fracking, and
transporting. Examine occupational risks to workers and those living on or near
well sites. Recommend and implement actions to minimize or eliminate health
effects to protect people that the assessment indentifies.
Robert R. Winkler, MBCI, MBCP, CDRP, CRMP, CBCP
International
Institute of Risk Management
Pay attention to market, and wait until oil price go back up.
The Denver Post reported that oil and gas drilling and fracking operations dump massive amounts of carcinogenic benzene into our Front Range air. Isn’t that enough reason to assure that it never takes place near homes and schools? How can this ever be justified? https://www.denverpost.com/environment/ci_25719742/scientists-flying-over-colorado-oil-boom-find-worse
In response to Polly’s assertion that “If we are fortunate, we might emulate our Northern neighbors in Weld.”
According to the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, Weld County
has 21,992 fracking operations. That’s a lot of fracking going on.
Their Laramie Fox Hills Aquifer was contamined with toulene and
thermogenic gas by an oil and gas operation in Weld County.
The Denver Post reported over 700 spills in 2014.
I disagree with Polly.. . .doesn’t sound like a “tremendous
opportunity” for Arapahoe County, or anywhere else.
Big oil and gas own our country: lock, stock, and barrel. Consider the millions of dollars they spend on misleading television ads telling us how safe and wonderful fracking is. Wonderful for the greedy oil and gas companies, yes. Wonderful for our air, water, land, safety, and health? No. Increased property values? Sure, I’d love to buy a house on a road over which travel humongous, loud, smoke-spewing trucks at all ours of the day and night; to hear from my windows the constant whirring of fracking wells; to wonder each time my children took a drink of faucet water if it would inevitably lead to illness and maybe death. I’d love to look at the foundation of my home and wonder if it would withstand an earthquake, which fracking operations are proven to cause. And to have a great revenue for better parks, education, and recreation in our community? Sure, just make sure we have better health care and hospitals to take care of all the sick and dying residents, too. Oil and gas are trying to sell us a bill of goods, just as big tobacco did decades ago. “Fracking is safe” is the new “Nicotine is no addictive.” Let’s not fall for it, people. We need energy in the form of wind and sun, and we need to stop wasting our precious resources and do all that we can to protect this fragile planet, not to destroy it.
This letter could have penned by Blackbeard the Pirate speaking of the booty to be pillaged from community merchant ships…except the booty lays beneath people’s homes and the oil pirates, and their political deckhands, can easily scuttle the public’s right to claim the prize.
If you don’t want to frack because you are wary of the environmental effects and competition for water resources in a world of droughts and global warming, then don’t frack. There are other lower-cost ways to produce oil for less than $15-$25 using new Portable CO2 EOR enhanced oil recovery technologies such as those developed by https://FossilBayEnergy.com: See https://oilpro.com/post/12681/best-tax-deductible-retirement-investment-portable-co2-eor-oil-fi
and
https://oilpro.com/post/10072/replace-unconventional-shale-oil-production-portable-co2-eor-oil
With energy production driving so
much of Colorado’s economy, we clearly have a high stake in federal policies
that affect the energy sector. It seems obvious to me that the
state’s elected officials both at home and in Washington should take care to
protect Colorado from legislation and regulations that would trigger a decline
in energy production in the United States or a decline in the growth of the
energy sector.
As Colorado is among the top ten
states in both crude oil and natural gas production, it stands to reason that
any policy that hurts this production would hurt the rest of the state’s
economy too.
We need laws that will stimulate our
economy and our national security, not ones that will reduce U.S. energy
production and make us more dependent on imports.