Adams County adopts setbacks
New rules, coming after SB 181, also push energy companies to use cleaner rigs
BRIGHTON» Adams County on Tuesday became the first community in Colorado to enact new rules on oil and gas extraction — including a doubling of the statemandated distance between new wells and homes — since a sweeping industry reform bill was passed by state lawmakers earlier this year.
The vote was unanimous on the five-member board of commissioners and followed about five hours of testimony by dozens of residents, oil and gas workers, industry representatives and antifracking activists.
Senate Bill 181, signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis in April, for the first time gave specific authority to local governments to regulate oil and gas activity within their borders — a power that had been exclusively held by state regulators up until the bill’s passage. Oil
and gas operators told the commissioners Tuesday that Adams County’s rules do not comport with the bill’s language stipulating that regulations passed by cities or counties in Colorado be “reasonable and necessary.”
Dan Haley, president and CEO of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, criticized the county for its new setback distances and other requirements regarding emissions and noise.
“I’m here today because the regulations in front of you still pose serious concerns and push the statutory limits of what is ‘reasonable and necessary’ — or in other words, the limitations of county authority,” he said. “If Adams County is serious about letting us continue to do business here — and to help spur economic development throughout the county — please permit us to continue to work with you to develop regulations that allow for the safe and responsible development of the county’s oil and natural gas resources.”
But Lyndsey Collins of Brighton, one of several residents who spoke to the increasing level of hydrocarbon extraction in and around the county in recent years, told the commissioners that just as vehicles today pollute less than the ones that were put on the road 40 years ago, oil and gas extraction needs to improve in the areas of emissions, noise and spills and that regulations like the ones being put forward by Adams County are a good first step.
“It’s time for oil and gas to do better,” she said.
Commissioner Charles “Chaz” Tedesco said the county’s new rules had been heavily vetted and debated over the last few weeks and were the right direction to go in a county where the population is booming and oil and gas operations are finding themselves ever closer to neighborhoods in Denver’s northern suburbs.
“I’m not here to end oil and gas, but I think regulations need to change with the times,” he said.
The new setback distance of 1,000 feet from homes, schools, hospitals and day care centers is an increase from the state requirements of 500 feet for homes and 1,000 feet for schools. The Adams County rules also require an “alternative site analysis,” in which operators have to present multiple proposed drilling locations that the county will evaluate for impacts to public health and safety before a final site is approved.
Adams County’s rules also push energy companies to use quieter and cleaner electric drilling rigs, though county attorney Heidi Miller said that may not happen in areas where it isn’t reasonable.
Miller noted the county’s new rules will allow operators to request exemptions from certain requirements, including setbacks, if the circumstances justify it. A decision on where a well is drilled in relation to a home might be very different in the sparsely populated eastern portion of Adams County, she said, than in the more urban western end, for example. Commissioners would have the final say on waivers.
“We put in some pretty stringent safety requirements, and they can come to us for a waiver,” Miller said.
Adams County is one of a number of cities and counties working on new oil and gas regulations. The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, the state’s regulatory authority, is also hammering out rules by which to implement SB 181.
Several attorneys representing the industry told the commissioners Tuesday that Adams County’s new regulations could prove so onerous that they might constitute a “takings” of property by blocking access to underground minerals. Whether that means the industry might try to sue the county, Miller said her office is prepared.
“It could very well end up in litigation,” she said.
Colorado Rising executive director Joe Salazar said the “reasonable and necessary” language in SB 181 applied not to the rights of oil and gas operators but to the rights of residents to have their health protected from the impacts of drilling. Colorado Rising is helping lead the charge to rein in the industry in the state.
“That means if extending the moratorium was reasonable and necessary, you could do that,” he told the commissioners.
Adams County has a sixmonth moratorium on new oil and gas drilling applications, imposed in March, that will be allowed to lapse later this month.
There are 749 operating oil and gas wells in unincorporated Adams County.