Residents of Battlement Mesa want a voice in oil and gas development in their neighborhood. They say so far their concerns have been ignored.
In a rare Glenwood Springs meeting of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission on Tuesday, homeowners spoke of past issues, their fears about proposed well pads in their subdivision, and a broken process.
The oil company Ursa Resources has several wells in the Battlement Mesa area, and residents are upset about strong odors and loud noises. Homeowner Karen Knupp explained her frustrations with a current well.
“We have had odor problems at our home 30 times since September 2015. Thirty times we called and complained. And only on one occasion did they actually acknowledge the problem,” Knupp said.
On Tuesday, the commission issued Ursa a 20 thousand dollar fine for odor violations.
While residents are logging complaints, industry supporters said Ursa is a top-notch company creating much-needed jobs and that company officials have gone out of their way to work with the community. Jeremy Celayeta works for the pipeline company that Ursa has hired.
“These jobs are very important to us; we’ve hired fifteen to twenty employees just because of Ursa, so that’s fifteen to twenty families and jobs they are creating over here on the Western Slope," Celayeta said. "I believe the community members have every right to be concerned and I think Ursa’s meeting or exceeding those concerns.”
This conflict between industrial and residential interests is common in Colorado. Garfield County is the state’s guinea pig for a stricter review process when oil and gas companies want to drill in residential areas. Two well pad permit requests in a Battlement Mesa retirement subdivision are the first test of regulations that came from Governor Hickenlooper’s 2014 oil and gas task force.
Residents want a say in where those well pads sit but as Matt Lepore from the state commission noted at Tuesday’s meeting, “Almost all the time, drilling permits and oil and gas location permits are approved by the director without a public hearing.”
Matt Sura is an attorney representing the citizen group Grand Valley Citizens Alliance; he sat on the governor’s task force.
“Unfortunately, it was a doomed process. Indeed, Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and their siting authority is not working," Sura said. "There is no place for the impacted public.”
The commission approved one well pad in the Battlement Mesa planned unit development. It is still considering another well pad that would sit about 400 feet from a nearby water treatment facility. The citizens group is asking for changes to that permit request.
The state has no set timeline to make a decision.
