From The Denver Business Journal:
Boulder County commissioners Thursday voted to extend the county’s moratorium on processing oil and gas permit applications — in place since February 2012 — through the end of January on an “emergency” basis.
The time will allow county staff to look into a number of issues the commissioners want more information about, with an eye toward incorporating them into the regulations.
Among the issues:
- Financial statements, bonding and other evidence that an oil and gas company seeking to operate in the county is financially able to safely operate and clean up its facilities.
- Additional environmental testing of air, water, and soil, including testing before and during production.
- Requirements addressing how produced water and other waste will be managed.
- An economic analysis of disruption payments to landowners affected by drilling and construction.
- Leak detection technology for pipelines.
Elise Jones, the board’s chairwoman, said that the board appreciated “all of the public input and hard work that has already gone into developing a set of draft regulations to address the adverse public health and safety impacts of oil and gas development in our community.
But, she said, “despite the extensive work and long hours, we must ensure that we have the absolute best protections in place before we can move forward.”
The county initially imposed a moratorium on Feb. 2, 2012, in order to update the county’s existing oil and gas regulations.
The latest version of the 2012 moratorium was previously set to expire on July 1, 2018, but in May the county commissioners announced it would be shortened to Nov. 18 after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in May that Fort Collins’ five-year, voter-approved oil and gas moratorium on fracking in the city conflicted with state law.
The new Boulder County moratorium, through the end of January 2017, will give the staff time to finish work on the issues raised by the commissioners, said Kim Sanchez, the county’s chief planner.
Doug Flanders, spokesman for the Colorado Oil & Gas Association, an industry trade group, questioned the nature of Boulder County’s “emergency” in extending the moratorium.
“After 57 months of studying and attempting to rewrite their local process, Boulder County has deemed it necessary to declare an ‘emergency moratorium’ to consider finishing their rewriting of the process,” Flanders said via email.
“Common sense should dictate that the county may not have a very good understanding of the definition of ‘emergency.’ This seems to be more about being fearful of actually making a decision and addressing the issue rather than actually getting the work done and finding a reasonable solution,” he said.
If the current moratorium runs through Jan. 31, 2017, it will be two days shy of the five-year anniversary of the vote to impose a temporary, six-month moratorium.
Boulder County commissioners will hold a public hearing on Dec. 13 on the status of the latest moratorium set to end on Jan. 31, 2017, and whether it should be shortened or lengthened.
