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.