Colorado toughens standards for drilling
Oil-gas commission OKs policy as part of SB 181 rulemaking
New Colorado regulations designed to protect groundwater throughout the life of an oil or gas well are being described as the strongest in the country.
The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission approved the rules Wednesday as part of ongoing revisions to oil and gas regulations mandated by Senate Bill 181, approved by the legislature in 2019.
The regulations deal with the well bore, or the hole that’s drilled to access oil or gas as well as the pipes and casings installed to inject fluids to make fractures in rocks and sand and bring up the oil and gas. The casings and cement that are part of the construction are also meant to ensure that no fracking fluids, oil or gas escape and flow into groundwater.
Heading into the hearing, there was general agreement among the parties on the proposed changes. Since the COGCC and the state Air Quality Control Commission began writing new rules, oil and gas industry representatives, community and environmental groups have clashed with each other and with agency staffers in hearings and meetings over how far the regulations should go.
But Julie Murphy, COGCC deputy director, said the agency was able to consider new rules on well bores earlier than expected thanks to a broad consensus among the various parties. She said the “top-line” change is the new requirement that the pressure in all wells across the state be tested annually to ensure that the casings and cement are still in good shape.
The annual testing and regular monitoring approved put Colorado at the head of the pack among oil- and gas-producing states, said Adam Peltz, an attorney with Environmental Defense Fund who has reviewed and worked on similar regulations across the country. He noted that the COGCC has tried to incorporate as many recommendations as possible from a 136-point list put together by a multi-state body of regulators and policy makers.
Another important change is a more precautionary approach to making sure that groundwater no matter, how far down it is located, is protected by isolating the oil, gas and fracking fluids with casings and cement, Murphy said.
Michael Freeman, an attorney with Earthjustice, said that was a major concern of the six conservation and community groups he represented.
“The original proposal said protected water is only relatively shallow groundwater, water that’s less than 3,000 feet underground.
What that did was leave all kinds of good quality groundwater unprotected,” Freeman said.
The new rule is consistent with Colorado state groundwater standards, Freeman said. The COGCC staff added language saying that groundwater with less than 10,000 parts per million total dissolved solids in it must be protected, Freeman said.
The standard addresses the amount of salt in the water and is the same one in the federal Safe Drinking Water Act and used by the Colorado Water Quality Control Commission, Freeman said.
Lynn Granger, executive director of the industry group API-Colorado, said in an email that the new rules strengthen what are among the most stringent regulations in the county. “This rule making has served as a model example of stakeholders working together and having reasonable conversations, resulting in consensus on many of the issues.”
Dan Haley, CEO and president of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, a trade group, said in most cases, companies are practicing what the new rules require. However, the new rules will make it consistent for everybody, he said in an email.