Скачать или смотреть When Fracking Exceptions become the Fracking Rules

After weeks of testimony and discussion, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) gave preliminary approval on Jan. 9 to a broad set of new rules for oil and gas drilling. The rules will do little to ease the concerns of hundreds of thousands of families living near drilling operations. Western Resource Advocates has examined the provisions to help Colorado families understand what to expect from the new regulations.

"Citizens and scientists testified that drilling setbacks of 1,000 feet or more are needed to protect Colorado families living in the gas patch who are getting sick," said Mike Chiropolos, Chief Counsel for the Lands Program at Western Resource Advocates and the lead representative for a coalition of environmental organizations involved in the rulemaking process. "With the exponential increase in drilling along the Front Range, 500-foot setbacks don't cut it. Adding insult to injury, two of the exceptions could allow drilling even closer to residential areas than ever before."

A groundbreaking new study by the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado affirmed the need for stronger rules than those approved by COGCC. Announced on January 14, just days after the COGCC ruling, the CIRES report found that emissions from oil and natural gas drilling are responsible for more than half of compounds that lead to harmful ozone pollution in Erie, Colorado. The study found that elevated levels of propane alone were 10 times the amount found in notoriously smoggy Pasadena, California.

Western Resource Advocates examines the key rules and how to interpret them:

SETBACKS

Prior Regulations: Minimum setbacks of 150 feet in rural areas and 350 feet in urban areas.

New Regulations: Minimum setbacks increased to 500 feet, regardless of rural/urban designation. Additional 1,000 foot setback requirement for schools and hospitals.

Practical Changes: The 1,000 foot setback for schools and hospitals can only be bypassed through a special hearing with COGCC, which offers some layer of protection from exception. But the 500-foot minimum setback includes two significant exceptions that could render the rule all but irrelevant:

The "Beware Thy Neighbor Exception": Surface use agreements with landowners can allow drilling sites to be pushed to the edge of a neighbor's property line, even if that change moves the well closer to a residential area and inside the new 500-foot setback. People who live closest to drilling operations are at the greatest risk for health problems, and the "Beware Thy Neighbor Exception" increases those risks.

The "Expansion Exception": Existing active well locations are not subject to the new 500-foot setback, and "active well" size is not defined. Not only are active well pads grandfathered into the rules and not subject to a 500-foot setback, one active well pad can be expanded to include multiple different drill sites within the same well pad. In other words, drill sites that don't yet exist are essentially grandfathered and exempted from the new rules.

Amid a boom in drilling activity in Colorado's densely populated Front Range, Western Resource Advocates argued for a minimum setback of 1,000 feet for residences and 1,500 feet for schools, hospitals, nursing homes and other similar facilities. These arguments were not without precedent; the State of Maryland requires 1,000 foot setbacks (without exception), and several towns in the heart of drilling in North Texas require setbacks of 1,500 feet.

"We hope Colorado will do more to protect the health of residents in the upcoming rulemaking process on emissions," said Chiropolos.