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Local officials challenging states’ control over drilling
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Police and fire offi cials tape off the area after an explosion at an Encana Corp. oil and natural-gas facility near Fort Lupton, Colo. Some offi cials in Colorado would like to keep drilling away from where residents live and work.
By Jim Malewitz
Stateline.org
WASHINGTON
Dennis Coombs doesn’t oppose the oil and gas development spreading throughout Colorado. After all, he says, “I like to be warm in the winter.”
It’s just that Coombs, mayor of Longmont, Colo., would like to keep drilling‚ö or other major industrial activities for that matter‚ö a healthy distance from where most of the 80,000-plus residents of his city live and work.
“We wouldn’t want a heavy-duty industrial dairy farm in the middle of a heavily residential area,” he said. “We just want our citizens to be protected.”
Developers, however, would like to take advantage of the resources underneath Longmont, which sits atop the lucrative Niobrara oil and gas fields stretching across parts of Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming. And state law allows them to drill as close as 350 feet from homes, schools or hospitals in developed areas.
A recent study by Western Resource Advocates, a Colorado-based environmental group, found that in three northern Colorado counties, 26 schools lie within 1,000 feet of an active or proposed drilling site. In Longmont’s case, one middle school fit that description.
Last month, the Longmont City Council passed a slate of drilling regulations, including blocking it in residential areas. The move didn’t fully satisfy residents seeking an all-out ban, a proposal that likely will be put to a vote in November. Those residents say that relegating drilling to industrial zones won’t prevent possible air or water pollution from affecting residents, since such resources don’t conform to zoning laws.
“It’s a lame ordinance,” said Michael Bellmont, a local insurance professional and member of the grass-roots group petitioning for a drilling ban. “But they did the best it could, considering the circumstances.”
The council’s decision rankled state officials, and on July 24, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, whose mission is to foster responsible oil and gas development in the state, told Longmont officials to prepare for a lawsuit challenging their authority to regulate the industry. It’s uncharted territory for the agency, which occasionally is involved in suits, but not as the plaintiff.
In another scuffle over drilling 1,600 miles to the east, officials in seven Pennsylvania towns in the Marcellus Shale region heard news two days later that their move to zone out drilling had survived legal scrutiny. The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, in a 4-3 decision, struck down a provision in Act 13, key legislation on hydraulic fracturing passed this year, which says energy companies can drill most anywhere, regardless of local ordinances.
The majority ruled that the legislation “violates substantive due process because it does not protect the interests of neighboring property owners from harm, alters the character of neighborhoods and makes irrational classifications.”
Judge Dan Pellegrini wrote for the majority: “It would allow the proverbial pig in the parlor instead of the barnyard.”
Longmont and the Pennsylvania towns are among a growing number of local governments challenging state control over drilling. As oil and gas development spreads into residential areas, people who are unhappy with what they view as lax state regulations are increasingly turning to their city councils for solutions. The trend is worrying industry representatives and state regulators, who are seeking to broaden the industry’s reach.
At least 246 municipalities in 15 states have passed laws restricting oil and gas development on local land, according to tracking by Food and Water Watch, a Washington-based environmental advocacy group.
Some of the ordinances are merely symbolic, passed by towns that don’t sit on oil and gas supplies. But advocates for stronger local rule view the measures as self-defense against state regulations too generous to energy producers.
In Colorado, Longmont was joined by Boulder, Colorado Springs, Erie and Loveland in efforts to regulate drilling. In Pennsylvania, 14 municipalities have passed their own regulations.
Most at issue is horizontal hydraulic fracturing‚ö or fracking‚ö the controversial method of oil and natural-gas extraction that has dramatically boosted U.S. energy supplies while concerning health and environmental circles. The relatively new technique involves the high-pressure injection of millions of gallons of chemical-laced water deep underground to break apart rock and free the resources locked within.
Environmental groups say fracking leaves local water supplies vulnerable to contamination‚ö a claim disputed by energy-industry representatives, who insist the process is safe and hasn’t been directly linked to the pollution of drinking water.
That controversy has sparked many studies of fracking’s impact on state economies, air and water quality and public health. But those studies, many of which are narrowly focused or agenda-driven, combine to paint a confusing picture of the issue.
Coombs admits that’s a problem. “The real truth is probably somewhere in the middle‚ö that there are some particularly good oil and natural-gas drillers,” he said. But municipalities should be able to decide for themselves, he adds.