Local Control Colorado Initiative #75

Local control and Ballot Initiative #75, what's it all about? The state fox is now guarding the local chicken coop.  Here is an example.  There is a Colorado law, CRS 37-90-137 (7) (b): "...if the state engineer finds that the proposed dewatering will cause material injury to the vested water rights of others, the applicant may propose, and the permit shall contain, terms and conditions that will prevent such injury. The reduction of hydrostatic pressure level or water level alone does not constitute material injury."

No material injury? The water wells at our ranch and our neighbors went dry after the coal bed methane industry pumped nearly 7 billion gallons of water from the Huerfano County aquifers. There's more. Section (7)(a) allows gas and oil companies to do 16 things with the brackish, oily, chemical-laced water they pump out of the wells.  It allows: "Injection into a properly permitted disposal well; evaporation or percolation in a properly permitted pit; disposal at a properly permitted commercial facility; roadspreading or reuse for enhanced recovery, drilling, well stimulation, well maintenance, pressure control, pump operations, dust control on-site or off-site, pipeline and equipment testing, equipment washing, or fire suppression; discharge into state waters...; or evaporation at a properly permitted centralized exploration and production waste management facility."  In short, it has become legal to spread the polluted fluids on the surface, into the air, and beneath the earth.

The good news, as of last week, is we do have an opportunity to turn it around.  Colorado Community Rights Network (cocrn.org) is sponsoring Initiative #75, a petition that can be signed by registered Colorado voters.  The petition asks: "Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning a right to local self-government, and, in connection therewith, declaring that the people have an inherent right to local self-government in counties and municipalities, including the power to enact laws to establish and protect fundamental rights of individuals, communities, and nature and the power to define or eliminate the rights and powers of corporations or business entities to prevent them from interfering with those fundamental rights; and declaring that such local laws are not subject to preemption by any federal, state, or international laws?"

We need the ability to determine locally that abuses stop happening. Initiative #75 has teeth. In cases that disregard local concerns, it makes possible outright elimination of the right to do business in our communities. Also fine-tuned regulations that reflect local conditions could no longer be overridden by corrupted laws such as CRS 37-90-137.  So when you see someone taking petition signatures in the coming weeks, please consider the opportunity that Initiative #75 brings to protect our well-being, our lands, and our waters.

With the tourist season here, it is time to take up the pen once again and give a progress report on our winter's work in our county.  We have discovered that one operator who was banned from further mining has nonetheless convinced a major national bank to loan them millions of dollars against their mineral lease portfolio in Huerfano County.  We have learned of another operator who is pulling very dirty carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the earth and piping it to Texas where it is mixed with precious water to scrub oil out of old wells. Then they have the audacity to say that they are sequestering the very same CO2 in these old leaky oil fields and hoping to get carbon credits for the practice.  Meanwhile, another major operator is seeking permission to use the filthy produced water that results from fracturing ancient shale layers into a mush that can be pumped to the surface.  With nontributary approval, they can use this contaminated water to spray on roads for dust control on and off the well sites, and there also are 15 other allowed uses for this water, including reinjecting it into the deep aquifer from which it came. The problem is that the water will have become sullied, that is, mixed with ancient mud, radioactive substances, volatile compounds, drilling lubricants, and fracking chemicals.  We also discovered that only 203 (as of November 2013) voting citizens of Huerfano County are mineral lessors, and the remaining 95% of us will have to live with the mess. There are also upwards of 400 of the 800 mineral lessors from outside the county who are not being taxed for their mineral property holdings in Huerfano County. Not taxed and not registered at the courthouse means clouded titles, lost tax revenues, and possible dubious basis for unitization and pooling schemes. Our concern is that elements of the county government still have open arms for gas and oil operators. This was obvious in The Signature Newspaper Visitor's Guide recently published, wherein the Huerfano County Government invites these environmental miscreants to do business here.  Notably, there was no mention of inviting solar and wind power projects, even though we have established a wind power zone in the eastern part of the county.  We have been circumspect in sharing our findings, first communicating to the county assessor, administrator, commissioners, and planning board.  But we can be silent no longer when we see the welcome mat being put out for gas and oil and all the misery it can bring.  There are better ways to get energy for our lives than fossil fuels.  Let's not destroy the environment and incur cleanup liabilities that boost the real cost of gas and oil far higher than solar and wind energy.  Let's pay for our courthouse expenses with long-term strategies instead of dirty money from oil and gas taxes.  If oil and gas take over here we will need more than a new courthouse complex to repair the damage.

I WANTED TO KNOW HOW MANY COUNTY RESIDENTS LEASED

A 2008-2013 Census of Oil and Gas Lessors in Huerfano County:  How the Numbers Inform Strategy

In this census we used TheCountyRecorder.com website to obtain a list of oil and gas leases in Huerfano County from January 1, 2008 until December 2013. There are 1036 individuals, including a few legal entities, who leased. They leased to seven companies: III Exp, Hannon, Petroglyph, Presco, Spoon Valley, SWEPI, and Timberlake.

Of those granting leases, 203 live, vote, and pay property taxes on their mineral rights in Huerfano County. We referenced the Huerfano County Registered Voter List, which consists of 4,911 individuals. Surprisingly, this means that a mere 4.1% of voting county residents, that is 203 individuals, are leasing their mineral rights.

We also used the 2012 Property Tax Roll, which is obtainable on the Huerfano.us County website.

We learned that 419 leasing individuals live outside of Huerfano County and pay property taxes here on their mineral rights. It appears that another 414 who live outside of Huerfano County are not paying taxes and are not even taxed by the county on their mineral rights. These untaxed 414 individuals do not appear on the registered voter list, so it is safe to assume that they are not county residents.

From looking at the property tax roll, we frequently see a $0.25 per mineral acre tax. If a mineral rights owner has 40 acres, the tax would be $10.00 a year. Taking the example of Petroglyph and III EXP, which are both owned by Intermountain, they hold 65,000 mineral acre leases. The county income from this leased acreage, if comprehensively taxed, would amount to $16,250. Sadly, 259 of those leasing to Petroglyph and III EXP are now going unrecognized and untaxed by the county.

We have to ask, how much regulation, oversight, and mitigation of the 65,000 mineral acres in this example can the county expect to achieve on a budget of $16,250 per year?

How the Numbers Inform Strategy

We need to determine where the sympathies lie in the 94.9% of the voters who do not lease. We need to assess the costs of of public safety and health incurred by the many threats inherent on industrial gas and oil development. A mere handful of county residents stand to gain from oil and gas royalties. The rest of us will be left holding the bag.

It is encouraging to see the numbers in terms of the voting public. This census also indicates that Huerfano County government is overwhelmed and unprepared to deal with the complexity of oil and gas development. Until such preparation, a moratorium on fracking would be a reasonable goal.

A Petition to Gain Information

I received a request last week (September 19, 2013) to help draw public attention to the very latest oil and gas drilling news in Huerfano County, Colorado. Although I have never started a petition before, I was encouraged to go this route.

Our petition requests a public meeting with Tabula Rasa Energy of Houston, Texas, before the Monday, October 7, 2013 deadline for public comment on their application to drill.

The main issues in this and in all industrial activity in Huerfano County are: (1) the protection of the quality of life and property values of our full-time resident households, and that of our numerous second-home owners who bring so much to enrich the area both culturally and economically; (2) education of industry about our unique geology and associated water problems; (3) the threat of heavy truck traffic sharing our scenic lanes and country roads; (4) avoiding a repeat of past industrial abuses in the county; and (5) preservation of this beautiful area, unique in all the world.

To Tabula Rasa Energy: We are not singling you out. The actions of your gas and oil compatriots precede you. It is troubling, as we have seen elsewhere, to have a pristine plain altered into a network of drilling pads, waste pits, tanks, pipelines, and service roads. My own stake in this was the loss of a family owned water well when coal bed methane operators pumped billions of gallons of produced water from the Huerfano County strata. This well had never gone dry, even in the heaviest droughts. "Prove it," is the standard reply from industry.

We can't prove it, but we can try to stop it from ever happening again. First, at considerable expense, we dug a deeper well. Then we got involved. That is why I am writing you today. Huerfano County is not the typical flat-plain candidate for an oil and gas field. The geologic forces here are so complex, to the extent of creating a matrix of magma-sourced dike walls radiating out from majestic mountain peaks. These are vertical intrusions from deep in the earth. They create brittle vertical channels that allow liquids and gases to migrate.

It is our understanding that Tabula Rasa Energy uses a technology that favors low vertical heterogeneity. How would that fit into the geology of our county, with its vertical complexity?

To Our State Regulators: Huerfano County, and Colorado for that matter, has changed. There has been an influx of new tax paying home owners. Many have homes on now sub-divided ranch land. Did any of these home owners anticipate industrial oil and gas as neighbors? Yet the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) is mandated to promote oil and gas and not to be concerned about quality of life and property value issues. In their own words: " The law is intended to keep the general public safe when drilling and development occurs, and is not directed at protecting individual property values or a preferred quality of life."

To our county officials: Though many of the stakeholders who cherish this area cannot vote in local elections, it is time to empower them through involvement in political election campaigns. We also must examine the regulatory loopholes that extend from state level down and local level up. First of all, address the idea of preemption. Wherein if the laws of the county government come into “operational conflict” with those of the state government, the rules of the county government are preempted or in other words, over-ridden. As we see it, state preemption of Huerfano County's up-to-date and numerous regulations addressing quality of life and environment is an affront to the citizens who drafted them.

And then there are loopholes and exceptions at the county level, which at best send a mixed message. For example, we see in the final section (8.2.42) of the Huerfano County Oil and Gas Regulations, that the County Administrator can oversee an "informal dispute resolution process," which could conceivably negate the original intent of any or all of the County Oil and Gas Regulations.

In closing, we have a legitimate stake in what happens on the lands, waters, and roadways of Huerfano County. It is our intention to communicate our point of view to industrial developers, to our county officials, and to voters. These voters also benefit from a pristine outdoor environment for their family recreation. Certainly all of us benefit from the continued presence of second-home owners and tourists who participate in local affairs, shop, dine, seek lodging, hire contractors, engage health care services, and in this case, sign petitions alongside our voters.

Again, we are not singling out Tabula Rasa Energy. We simply request a public meeting sharing our ongoing concerns and viewpoints. Thank you for your attention to this matter, and we look forward to meeting in the very near future.

Schizophrenic Behavior

Schizophrenic: 2. Of, relating to, or characterized by the coexistence of disparate or antagonistic elements.

In other words, schizophrenic is defined as holding opposing thoughts in one mind. Here are some examples of holding opposing (disparate or antagonistic) ideas in one mind.

 Fracking is great for the hotel/restaurant industry AND  Fracking destroys the scenery and drives tourists away.

We love Huerfano County's wide open spaces  AND let's bring on the frack crews, the frack pads, the pipelines, the congestion.

We love our families and children AND let's poison the air, deplete the water, and clog the highways with eighteen wheelers driven by inexperienced, overworked truck drivers.

We can hide the thousands of frack pads behind the ridges AND let's encourage horseback riding.  Also let's encourage artists to paint panoramas, and photographer's have dream scenery here.

We dislike city traffic AND let's make Huerfano County into a booming commercial area.

Too Soon to Tell

I received comments on my first post which was titled "Not a Good Fit for Huerfano".  They add enough as to make it worth reposting with the additions in italics:

Why shale oil, also known as light tight oil or LTO, and shale gas also known as natural gas, of which coal bed methane is a type found nearer the surface, are not a good fit for Huerfano County:

  First is water scarcity. Water use for fracking is very high. Water is highly mobile and if you dislike the city telling you not to water your grass, trees and shrubs, and you think that using water from one place will not effect water availability at another, you are sadly mistaken. Just ask the folks in the San Luis Valley. And if you think a future of difficulty getting your animals to water, let alone ensuring your own clean water at home will remain unaffected, just remember that many of your fellow citizens sounded the alarm. Ask any neighbors that have tried to sell their home or ranch when there is no potable water on the property how quickly they sold their land. Petroleum tank and waste processing pads and access roads and waste water collection ponds will cover the county and strip the grassland cover. Less rain will fall due to decreased water evaporation from grass cover, and rain will run off faster with less seeping into the ground and aquifers. Everything in life is eventually paid for and while I fully understand the allure of relatively easy money, especially compared to how hard it is to earn money at ranching these days, we must ask ourselves, what is this water really worth once it is polluted and much remains forever out of reach thousands of feet below us? When ethanol was first introduced into our gasoline, almost everyone hailed its arrival. Farmers liked the increase demand for corn, environmentalists liked the idea of decreased pollution. But then we began to learn that the diesel fuel used in growing and harvesting the corn virtually offset the environmental benefits. We learned that decreased corn available to our neighbors to the south was causing hunger issues in Mexico. When such stories remain so vivid, is it not wise to wait awhile until we know more about the dangers? The future of water in the West IS the future of the West.

  Second is the health of humans and livestock. Polluted water and polluted air from fracking affects us all, as well as the health of all our animals and wildlife. It is a reasonable objection to assert that we are not yet knowledgeable about all the possible health risks. But this much we can say. There is growing evidence that health concerns may be warranted. It is all too easy, at first, to deny initial concerns about cigarettes, Agent Orange and countless pharmaceuticals causing side effects. But equally frequently those initial denials (often strenuously posited by multinational corporations) turn out to be wrong. Cigarettes were once advertised as being healthy! Again, is it not wise to wait and gather more information? The carbon based fuels beneath us, if there are any, are not going anywhere.

  Third, is the threat to our strongest asset, our beautiful countryside. Tanks, pads and burn-off stacks everywhere, along with heavy truck traffic, will drive away people who come here because of its beauty. Forget the tourists for a moment. What about US? Do we want hundreds of semis barreling down our streets? Do our kids? Everyone seems to agree that eventually we simply must convert to renewable sources of energy. Just as many people claim the need for natural gas as a “cross-over” fuel, so many others, equally well-informed experts, are convinced that if Americans stood up and demanded a more speedy transition to renewables, America would in fact surprise us all, and through its entrepreneurial ingenuity, could lead the world into this new and brighter future. Again, isn’t the wise path to wait, gather more of the information that is constantly and rapidly becoming available?
  The deck is stacked in favor of the oil and gas industry and the regulators. How do we fight back? We must not accept the power of corporations and regulators to make these decisions for us. Many residents have collected lease sign-up checks, but now see that to go further may well destroy our way of life in exchange for brown skies, traffic hazards, and depleted water. This can be stopped. As a county, we simply have to say "No, not here. At least not yet, not until we know more. Our county commissioners are on notice...we will remember who sold us out too soon and for too little and without enough information." All over the United States communities are standing up for their rights. Let's do it in Huerfano County. More could be added here, such as the effect of 25,000 acre units which consolidate mineral leases, where your lease can be extended indefinitely as long as there is exploratory drilling in the unit. And how drilling units will spread the royalties evenly so that no one lease gets all the benefit of what is directly underneath. In short, before leasing or renewing, read that fine print, or better yet think about it, just as we need to think about all of the other factors before committing to something we all will wind up regretting.

Very Brave Couple Drives Coast to Coast

Liz Nelson visited Huerfano County in July 2013.  She wrote a story about her efforts:

On a nationwide tour, the" frackmobile" left New Jersey on July 3rd and arrived here in La Veta on July 9th. The frackmobile is a mobile billboard highlighting the dangers of fracking to our resources and environmental health. It is the creation of New Jersey resident Liz Nelson, who became part of regional citizens fight to keep fracking out of the Delaware River Basin and keep toxic radioactive drill cuttings and frack waste from being stored treated or disposed in her state. “The anti-frackmobile was born when I realized that, if I placed my canoe on the roof rack of my hybrid Toyota Highlander, it would make a great billboard for the cause.” We have traveled all over my own region and to Washington DC. We lobby in state capitols, attend hearings about water withdrawals, pipelines and compressor stations, fracking regulations, and especially frack waste disposal. Recently our efforts have been joined by former frack waste haulers who have testified to the abysmal lack of worker protection and unregulated illegal handling of waste. The writing on the canoe and car is very effective, instantly drawing attention to the subject and engaging people in conversation. It also raises the spirits of citizens working hard in the trenches trying to avoid the terrible destruction of communities and permanent pollution, which fracking has brought. The Delaware River, which is the longest un-dammed river east of the Mississippi, is drinking water for more that 15 million people in the region, and is designated an "exceptional value river " because of its wild and scenic beauty. It also provides enormous recreational benefit to the region from fishing, boating and camping, which generates revenues and brings wealth to riverside-destination towns. When the Delaware River Basin Commission, which is charged with protecting the waters of the Delaware, was asked to draft regulations for drilling and fracking for methane, more than 60,000 local petitioners decided it was unacceptable and a moratorium is still in place. And just this week two big gas corporations have abandoned drilling leases on 80,000 acres of land in the pristine Upper Delaware, which is a huge victory. New Jerseyans have become aware of the toxic levels of contamination of air and water, loss of property value, and impacts on public and animal health , which have occurred in the fracking frenzy in Pennsylvania, just a couple of hours away, and we are not going to let that happen to us. Water is life. We cannot live without it. We are finding this is true in the densely populated Northeast. We do not have water to waste on fracking . In Pennsylvania the loss of some of the most pristine rivers and streams of the country to fracking is an atrocity. We are finding that in the Southwest water is already scarce and should be treated with the utmost respect. One of Liz's first adventures in La Veta was to hike to Lily Lake near Ellingwood Peak, which is the headwaters of the Huerfano River. Liz, Jim, and faithful frack-puppy pose with the colorful frackmobile.