Unable to get a waiver from homeowner whose rental property is less than 500 feet from well site
From the Grand Junction Sentinel
Denver-based Ursa Resources is planning to move equipment to the far edge of a proposed oil and gas pad in Battlement Mesa to avoid the need for a state rule variance, due to its inability to get a waiver from a nearby homeowner.
Ursa told Garfield County commissioners Monday that while the pad location would remain the same, the company is seeking to locate production equipment on the northern side of the pad, farther away from mobile homes on the top of a hill to the south.
The result would be that the closest home would be 512 feet from the production equipment. That compares to 340 feet under its previous proposal, under which several of the homes would have been closer than 500 feet.
Urban mitigation area
The pad would be located in what’s called an urban mitigation area under Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission rules. That means Ursa can’t drill closer than 500 feet from homes unless it gets waivers from all homeowners within that distance, or obtains a variance.
One homeowner couple rescinded waiver on worry about impacts of drilling to a family renting their property
Ursa got the waivers, but one couple later rescinded theirs, worried about the impacts of the proposed drilling to families, including the family that is renting their property.
Ursa had been in discussions with the state about the issue, and Matt Honeycutt, vice president of operations at Ursa, told Garfield County commissioners Monday that the company was asked to take another look at the pad and see what it could do to place the production equipment outside the 500-foot buffer zone.
“We were trying to honor that buffer zone rather than fight our way through the buffer zone, and we believe ultimately it’s a better project for it,” Honeycutt said.
The company plans to move tanks, separators, a combustor, three wellheads, and a wastewater injection well and associated equipment to comply with the buffer. Garfield commissioners on Monday agreed to have county staff evaluate the changes as a minor modification to a county land-use permit Ursa has for the pad.
Leslie Robinson, with the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance, told commissioners that Ursa is “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic” and the pad is still too close to homes, and she noted that the change also puts the equipment closer to the Colorado River.
Dave Devanney, with Battlement Concerned Citizens, said while he’s glad some of the equipment will be farther from homes, he’s still not pleased knowing that Battlement Mesa residents will be close to oil and gas operations. He said the change “wasn’t done to protect public health and safety but to narrowly meet COGCC regulations that were jeopardizing Ursa’s plan.”
He noted that the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment had opposed letting Ursa drill closer than 500 feet from homes without waivers, citing a lack of scientific evidence to support allowing oil and gas operations within that buffer.
Devanney asked rhetorically Monday, “Do you suppose that they have evidence showing it is safe to drill within 550 feet or 600 feet or 512 feet?”
Last year, the health department concluded the health risks are low for people living farther than 500 feet from oil and gas operations.
CU/Boulder County/NASA and Cal Irvine study concludes lifetime cancer risk for people living within 500 feet of a well is 8X EPA threshold
New research announced last week and led by the Colorado School of Public Health at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus concluded that the lifetime cancer risk for people living within 500 feet of a well was eight times higher than the Environmental Protection Agency’s upper-level risk threshold. According to a news release from the school, the study’s lead researcher, Lisa McKenzie, an assistant research professor at the school, said Colorado’s current 500-foot buffer may not protect people from air pollution.
Researchers with Boulder County Public Health, the University of Colorado at Boulder, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the University of California at Irvine also were involved with the study.
Garfield County Commissioner Mike Samson, whose district covers western Garfield County, said he’s not hearing concerns from Battlement Mesa residents about the drilling Ursa already has been doing there, other than from Robinson, Devanney and a few other people.
“I don’t see any great public outcry. I don’t see people coming and talking about this and calling me, texting me. It’s not there,” he told Devanney.
Devanney said a lot of people showed up at a public hearing in Battlement Mesa over Ursa’s drilling plans, but that didn’t stop the drilling from occurring, and they’ve tuned out.
“It’s human nature. These people are tired of beating their head against the wall,” he said.
County commissioners noted that the county imposed dozens of conditions on Ursa’s Battlement Mesa operations based on input the county got from residents.
