Over 600 Spills in Colorado in 2015

DENVER—Oil and gas companies in Colorado were responsible for 615 oil and other chemical spills in 2015, according to the Colorado Toxic Release Tracker released today by the Center for Western Priorities. The new analysis, which summarizes public spills data from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, finds that 90 spills—or 15 percent of all spills—resulted in water contamination.

According to publicly available data from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission , there were 615 spills in 2015, meaning that nearly two spills occurred every day in the state.

“This is another stark reminder of the risks associated with oil and gas development,” said Greg Zimmerman, deputy director at the Center for Western Priorities. “Even in the face of falling oil prices and virtually no interest in new drilling, companies still managed to spill oil and other chemicals onto Colorado’s land and water nearly two times every day last year.”

The 2015 Toxic Release Tracker finds that produced water was the most common type of spill—companies reported 271 releases of produced water—followed by oil spills, which occurred at least 110 times in 2015. Of those, 51 spills released at least 5 barrels, or 210 gallons, of oil. During 2015, 61 spills occurred within the 500-foot setback of a building.

Source:  http://westernpriorities.org/2016/03/17/new-analysis-in-2015-oil-companies-reported-over-600-spills-in-colorado/

Hundreds Represent Thousands at Anti-Fracking Protest

Click on the yellow links to be directed to the full stories.

Anti-fracking activists converge in Denver for meetings, protests 

"The activists targeted Saddle Butte Pipeline, the EPA, Halliburton, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and Gov. John Hickenlooper's mansion. They set up a 20-foot mock drilling rig. Three activists were ticketed for blocking traffic at the mansion." 

'Not Protesters — Protectors': Fracktivists Descend on Colorado Governor's Mansion

"Colorado has become ground zero in the fight between local municipalities and fossil fuel-soaked state legislatures. The Colorado Supreme Court announced late last month that it would weigh in on this debate as it prepares to hear the cases of two communities which, despite the state's support for the oil and gas industry, voted to ban fracking within their borders."

Anti-FrackingActivistsTake Action in Denver

"The march left Commons Park for the State Capitol, then proceeded to the Governor’s Mansion, where a 20-foot mock drilling rig was erected just feet from his doorstep. Loudspeakers were mounted to the top of the platform, projecting the personal stories of citizens who have been harmed by fracking."

Gas Fumes Force Family Out

The article in The Post Independent below is no longer accessible under its original link (I think!) Try it here:   Silt Mesa family claims gas fumes forcing them out

But luckily I found the content here. In case that disappears too, I have posted the article below:


SILT, Colorado - One of the most vocal critics of gas drilling activities in the Silt Mesa area has been told by a doctor that she and her family have to move for their health's sake.Beth Strudley, her husband, Bill, and their two sons have been house shopping for weeks, after one of the sons reportedly began suffering from severe rashes, nose bleeds and blackouts.

But it was not until Dec. 28 that she got confirmation of her fears from a Grand Junction physician, Dr. Joseph Wezensky of Kokopelli Health & Wellness, said Beth Strudley." He said, 'Get out of that house, now!'" Strudley reported."Our water's screwed, the air is screwed, we have to leave our house," she said on Monday, during a break in the meeting of the Garfield County commissioners.

"We have to get out of Silt Mesa." 

Strudley has been protesting plans by Antero Resources to drill for gas in the area north of Interstate 70 known as Silt Mesa and Peach Valley, which is where she and her family have lived for four years, maintaining that the gas drilling is compromising air and water quality in the area.

Downplaying the concerns and fears expressed by Strudley and other residents of Garfield County in recent years, the industry has maintained that their activities are closely regulated by the state government and do not pose health hazards to nearby residents. The industry position is that there is no conclusive evidence of illness due to a person's proximity to gas wells that have been hydraulically fractured, or frac'ed, despite more than 60 years of the practice in various gas-rich parts of the United States.

In 2005, Strudley told the Post Independent, she called the offices of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and was told "they'll never drill for gas on Silt Mesa." She said she was told that one gas drilling company had done some testing in the late 1980s and concluded that it was not an economically viable location for extracting natural gas.

But new drilling techniques brought Antero into the neighborhood last summer, and Strudley has been protesting against the drilling rigs, the service trucks and the industry in general ever since. Her most highly public effort involved posting large signs in her yard that proclaimed, "Antero Is Going To Poison Our Water," among other warnings."Unfortunately, that bloody sign, everything I have on it has come true," she said.

William Strudley, 13, was the first to show symptoms, beginning with severe nosebleeds that his mom said could only be stemmed by putting Tampon feminine napkins up his nose. He then developed a persistent rash over much of his body that itches and burns.Then, two weeks ago, his mother said, he passed out in the bathroom for no apparent reason. In the meantime, her other son, Charlie, 11, has begun showing the same symptoms, as have she and her husband."I have to buy a new box of Tampons," Strudley said with a flash of humor. "Everybody's been using them."

Speaking to the Board of County Commissioners, she said, "My son, our whole family, has been chemically poisoned by the toxic fumes that Antero Resources is enveloping Silt Mesa in, on a daily basis, since Aug. 9, 2010," when Antero put up its first rig in the area. "Silt Mesa is becoming the sad twin sister of Divide Creek," she told the commissioners, referring to another part of Garfield County that has seen intensive gas drilling activities.

In her statement, Strudley cited the case of Chris Mobaldi, a former resident of Garfield County who lived south of Rifle. She died last year of a rare pituitary tumor that she, her husband and a family doctor felt was related to her exposure to gas drilling activities.

"The rest of the world is watching in horror of what you are allowing to happen," she admonished the commissioners, adding that Wezensky told her that living where she is living "is on a fast track to all kinds of cancers."This, I believe, is now your problem to fix," she declared. "You need to get Antero Resources away from our homes and families. Well, what are you going to do? How are you going to stop my son from dying?"

The commissioners did not respond to Strudley's remarks, but called on the next speaker on the meeting's agenda.

By John Colson: jcolson@postindependent.com

Is Fracking Safe?

How can it be?

There are 55,000 wells in Colorado with 22,000 in Weld County alone, and yet there are only 18 state inspectors.

See more oil field accidents here

There are more than

•  850 Notices of Alleged Violations 

• 600 Public Complaints. 

• 1,200 Spill Incident Reports  

See the database of the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC)




Learn the facts about Gas and Oil development at this upcoming free presentation by Robert R. Winkler, International Risk Management Professional.

November 19, 2014

from 6:30 - 8:30 PM

Leeper Center, 

3800 Wilson Ave, 

Wellington, CO

Co-Sponsored by

Weld Air and Water.
Food and Water Watch
Women's International for Peace and Freedom
Move To Amend
Frack Free Colorado
Renewable Energy Coalition of Colorado

Parents Ask Community for Input Against Drilling Near School

A message from the Frontier Parent Group. Receive  their Instruction Letter Action Alert with more information by emailing:  fpg.parentgroup@gmail.com 

Please help us to protect our school and our community...

Our children deserve a safe, healthy, noise and pollutant free

 environment to study and learn!

"The new Mineral Resources proposal [to drill near Frontier Academy] is for 19 wells, 20 tanks and 19 separators. Plans show the site to be 1,512 ft from the school building and a little over 1,000 ft from the playground. On 6/16/14 Mineral Resources filed a location assessment permit (form 2a) with the COGCC – Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. This file is being reviewed by COGCC and is currently open for public comment.

We are asking parents, concerned community members, grandparents, local business owners, people who shop at local businesses (the proposed well site is 586 ft away from Walmart), anyone concerned, to VOICE their CONCERNS to COGCC via their online comment form.

The only way we will be able to be effective is if people show their involvement and worries for this location. Please, if you have any concerns with this location, now is the time to voice it! Your comment will become part of the public record of the application. Your name and e-mail address, if entered, will not be visible to other public users.

The deadline for comment is July 28.

Click on South Greeley Directional File # 400604803 to access it. After a few seconds you will be redirected to the correct page, then click on comment on the right, and then New Comment to add your own.


On 7/1/14 Mineral Resources filed for the USR (Use by Special Review) with the City of Greeley. The file is under review and a hearing date will be determined.

COGCC Director Implies: Accept Fracking or Move!

Take note Greeley residents! If fracking will take place near your home or your child's school, you have choices according to Matt Lepore. Two, to be exact! Accept the situation, or move away!

Lepore, director of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, in a CBS Denver clip of May 13, "Community Confronts Controversial Fracking Operation In Greeley" that has since been removed, says: "The governor is listening. We're looking for reasonable solutions".

According to Lepore "the drill rigs were placed after a year of community input, all environmental concerns have been addressed, and the wells are here to stay"

CBS reporter Tom Mustin then asks him, "So what if they still have concerns about it? Is there anything they can do about it?"
Lepore shrugs and responds with "You know, they have choices"

In closing, Tom Mustin says that "Oil and Gas executives have approved another 67 oil wells to be dug here in Greeley; several are near a local school"

See:

Community Confronts Controversial Fracking Operation In Greeley -  May 13, 2014 1:20 PM

Almost Half of 1000 Spills Contaminated Groundwater.

Interview with Shane Davis, published on Oct 1, 2013

"Shane is a nationally recognized expert data-miner and analyzer of official oil and gas documents. He publishes expose` documents that bring to light the truth about extractive mining that uses hydraulic fracturing and its collective adverse impacts to the environment and to human health.

..His creative methods of using official state data in public debates have the industry and the state calling him the ‘bane of the industry.’ He says:’ if the state and the industry says the data is wrong, that’s ok too, because it’s their data.’

Among some of his research projects, he has proven that one of Colorado’s aquifers was contaminated by oil and gas development [see: The Case of Mr. Anderson's Contaminated Water Well and the Contamination of the Laramie-Fox Hills Aquifer]

"On or about October 22, 2009, Eddy Oil began casing repair operations on the Well, without providing advance notice to COGCC Staff and without prior approval of the Director. This casing repair effort failed. On October 26, 2009, Eddy Oil contacted COGCC Staff for plugging orders on the Well, due the failed casing repairs. Consequently, COGCC Staff gave verbal plugging orders and completed a Form 6, Notice of Intent to Abandon, on the Dupper #2 Well. Eddy Oil then plugged the Well pursuant to the verbal plugging orders."

[Furthermore]...numerous private water wells were contaminated, homes have been built on top of abandoned oil and gas wells that subsequently exploded, groundwater contamination occurs at a staggering rate, playgrounds have been built on-top of backfilled oil and gas industrial waste pits, millions of gallons of toxic chemicals have been spilled and never recovered from the environment and the data goes on and on…"(Source: http://readthedirt.org/author/shane-davis)

Part One 

Shane Davis explains how he became an activist against fracking, and  how hydraulic fracturing works.

 

Part Two 

The environmental devastation by hydraulic fracturing in Weld County, Colorado as a result of the 2013 Front Range Floods.

Part Three 

How the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission has failed to protect the citizens of Colorado from pollution by the Oil & Gas Industry.

 

Their Story is Your Story

"Their story is your story; even if you don't realize it yet"  

Compelling words for a compelling situation; namely that of the infiltration of Oil and Gas drilling by means of fracturing (fracking) within communities, close to your own backyards, and in some cases even in it against your wishes if you own the land but not the mineral rights! How fair is that?

Says farmer Rod Brueske in the trailer: "Our democracy is contaminated."

Watch, and read about the "Dear Governor Hickenlooper" campaign, started by residents in Patagonia, Colorado, and help raise awareness for their film project! 

"Does our system of self-government allow Americans to protect themselves from an industrial threat when the state and federal governments will not? Our short (12-15 minute) film explores this question through the lens of Longmont, Colorado. We are making the film to help a nonpartisan political campaign called “Dear Governor Hickenlooper.” 

The campaign, launching in May 2014, is designed to pressure Colorado's governor to restrict or ban hydraulic fracturing (fracking) of gas wells across Colorado. The question we’re considering—whether Americans can control their destiny at home—cuts across political, economic, social and ethnic boundaries. 

In 2012 citizens of the small city of Longmont voted to ban tracking inside city limits. The state of Colorado, asserting that Longmont had overstepped its authority, sued the city to overturn the fracking ban. If the state wins, then fracking will continue to expand rapidly across Colorado and America. If the city wins, communities will have a potent legal tool with which to draw a “keep out” sign for industry.  

Since the lawsuit was filed, several other Colorado communities voted to ban fracking, temporarily or permanently, in November 2013. These citizens, believing the government has let them down, are taking matters into their own hands to protect their air, water and health. The Longmont tracking ban vote precipitated a showdown with oil and gas interests—a legal battle years in the making. Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission v. City of Longmont is a legal test case. 

It will determine whether citizens can use the Constitution to defend themselves against industrial practices they believe to be dangerous to them, their children, and their land. It reaches beyond Colorado and beyond fracking to Americans’ deepest sense of self-determination. Our intent is to produce a short film that does the same thing."

 Source: The Powers Not Delegated

COGCC Asks to Report Damaged or Floating Tanks

"The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission is setting up a clearinghouse to log the status of every well and operation, said Matt Lepore, the commission's executive director". ~ Denver Post,  Colorado and Industry working to assess damage in flooded oil fields

Marc Morton, the Local Government Liaison for Western Colorado of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission sent this email to liaisons in affected areas:

We are sending this e-mail to County and Municipal LGDs/local governments in areas affected by the recent flooding event in northeast Colorado that may be experiencing, or have observed potential environmental issues at oil and gas well sites or associated oil and gas facilities.

Please note that Oil and Gas operators and COGCC staff are already on the ground assessing impacts, but we welcome input from local governments and other sources (the general public, the media, or other organizations). Basically. we are seeking your input to inform us at COGCC of any specific incidents or observations at oil or gas facilities that you may be aware of, and believe may warrant inspection by COGCC staff and or Oil and Gas operators due to environmental concerns.

Please Report Oil and Gas Well/Facility Issues Related to Flooding. Send an email to: DNR_FloodInfo@state.co.us 

Provide:

• Your Name and Phone Number 
• Location of the Concern (e.g nearest crossroads, section, township, range). 
• Describe your concern (tanks, wells, pipelines, etc.). 
• If you have pictures, please attach them to your email.
• This e-mail address will be frequently monitored for new submittals.

There's Something in the Water!

Fact: Just one gallon of oil can contaminate a million gallons of water!

"If the drinking water is contaminated, many health risks can result: ...a component of gasoline, benzene, is known to be a carcinogen.." (Louisiana Dept. of Environmental Quality)

Polluted water is a serious risk, and the fact that hundreds of oil and gas wells in Weld County are situated in the flooded areas, and may be leaking oil and chemicals, adds to the danger. See a list of various contaminants that can mix with surface water during a flood.

"A spokesman for the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission said the agency is aware of the potential for contamination from flooded drilling sites, but there simply is no way to get to those sites while flooding is ongoing and while resources are concentrated on saving lives. (Boulder Daily Camera)

Here a sampling by Weld Air and Water members and others, of the many hundreds of oil and gas wells in the flooded areas. Though some were taken by the Greeley Tribune and Denver Post, nothing was mentioned about the hazards that oil and chemicals in these tanks pose to the people who rely on these rivers for their drinking water, or who will consume food grown in fields previously flooded!

A photo by Andy Cross shows what looks like oil floating on the water.

 (Denver Post slide show)

A toppled oil condensate tank in Evans. (Greeley Tribune)

Outside of Kersey (Greeley Tribune)

Cache la Poudre river (Bob Winkler)

Near South Platte river, Evans (Carl Erickson)

Cache la Poudre (Paula Powell)

Conflux of S. Platte and Big Thompson, 54th St.Rd. (Laurie Lareau)

Tank tipping over. (Laurie Lareau)

Water is receding. (Laurie Lareau)

 More tanks in the water in the same area. (Laurie Lareau)

Along the South Platte river.(kathywoztompkins-Facebook)

O&G employee: "Line break; gas has been blowing for 2 days. N.E. of Kersey"

(FrackingOpponentsUnited-Facebook)

Inundated drill rig east of U.S. 85 near Evans. Note the oil slick on the left.

Fight over Synergy drill site expansion in Greeley continues

From the Greeley Tribune, September 5, 2013

By Analisa Romero

The Greeley City Council approved the expansion of a Synergy Resources Inc. well site near Northridge High School late Tuesday, but opponents of the expansion say the fight isn’t over. In some respects, they may have made headway. Two Greeley City Council members voted against the expansion of the drill site on Tuesday, signaling a slight shift from the council’s historically unified stance that the city can’t interfere with an oil and gas company’s access to its mineral rights.

The city council upheld the Greeley Planning Commission’s decision to allow Synergy to add three wells and several dozen more water and oil tanks on the 12.5-acre site near 4th Street and 66th Avenue. Because the council was hearing an appeal of the planning commission’s decision, the council upheld that decision based on whether the planning commission followed proper procedures in its own approval process.

Council members, including Mike Finn, said they would like to continue the dialogue brought up during the appeal regarding the city’s development codes related to oil and gas. In the meantime, the Sierra Club, a national environmental group with an office in Boulder, is urging Gov. John Hickenlooper to halt the Synergy expansion permit at the state level.

In coordination with Weld Air and Water, a group with members who appealed the Synergy expansion at the city council hearing on Tuesday, the Sierra Club sent a letter to Hickenlooper in the hopes that the state will stop “rubber stamping” permits for large oil and gas operations. Lauren Swain, chairwoman of the newly created Beyond Oil & Gas Team for the Sierra Club Rocky Mountain Chapter, said the Sierra Club would like the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to reassess its setback rules, which she said are still inadequate.

 “I think there’s a bigger principle at play here,” she said of the fight to stop the Synergy expansion. Craig Rasmuson, vice president of operations and production at Synergy, said his company has worked closely with the COGCC on some recommended conditions of approval to be good neighbors and to ensure public health while the company is drilling. 

Synergy will monitor air quality every month, conduct baseline water samples near Sheep Draw before and after drilling, put up a 30-foot sound barrier, reduce dust with a hi-tech vacuum, and ensure all new equipment on site is automated, which helps to reduce human error. Rasmuson said he is finalizing the wording of that agreement now, and that Synergy expects a permit from the COGCC within the week. 

He said Synergy didn’t have to agree to any of those conditions but went above and beyond what was required. “I truly feel like we have done our part, and I feel like (COGCC) Director (Matt) Lepore would communicate that to the governor’s office,” Rasmuson said. 

Sara Barwinski, a member of Weld Air and Water who spearheaded the appeal of the Synergy drill site expansion, said she, too, hopes to change how oil and gas permits are handled even if the Synergy site expansion goes through. She said she wants to see the city include conditions of approval for well sites that don’t interfere with state regulations, a concern that city council members cite as a reason not to regulate oil and gas beyond what the state has in place. In 1992, Greeley lost a Colorado Supreme Court case when the city tried to ban drilling. 

Barwinski said she was encouraged by the two dissenting voices on the city council — members Donna Sapienza and Sandi Elder — who voted against the expansion. Elder said she was not bothered by similar drilling activities that went on at the Aims Community College campus and near her home, and trusts that Synergy will go above and beyond state regulations to ensure public health and safety, but she said she wasn’t comfortable with the amount of equipment permitted for the site. Sapienza said the proximity of a high school, the Sheep Draw Trail and a subdivision to the drill site concerned her.

Greeley Ignores Criteria For Proper Planning

In the past seven months the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) issued permits for 181 oil and gas wells to be drilled and fracked in Greeley, but according to criteria in the city's 2020 Comprehensive Plan  the city council should deny them!

Take a look!

Land Use (LU4.3) Disallow high impact agricultural and heavy industrial land uses that generate obnoxious influences, such as noise, fumes, or hazards. ~ Page 197

From Source Watch Colorado and Fracking: A study conducted over three years by the Colorado School of Public Health concluded that fracking can contribute to “acute and chronic health problems for those living near natural gas drilling sites”... "The study found those living within a half-mile of a natural gas drilling site faced greater health risks than those who live farther away." Researchers located “potentially toxic petroleum hydrocarbons in the air near the wells including benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene and xylene.” See: Health Effects

Environment (EN3.B) Disallow the establishment of any new businesses or industry which will create offensive outdoor odors. ~ Page 114

EN5.10 C) Carefully balance economic benefits from mining activities with the social cost related to the altered environment.~ Page 120

EN3 Air Quality - In order to protect and promote a healthy, pleasant, and economically viable community, the quality of the air must be improved to minimize offensive odors and have a minimum of pollutants. ~ Page 113

 EN3.2 Maintain full compliance with federal air quality standards and reduce stationary and mobile source emissions of pollutants with special emphasis placed upon efforts to reduce pollutants which cause adverse health effects and impair visibility.

From and article in the Denver Post: Oil and gas emissions now are the main source of volatile organic compounds in Colorado and the third-largest source of nitrogen oxides, at a time when a nine-county area around metro Denver is already failing to meet federal clean-air standards, state data show...State air monitoring has found that oil and gas sources currently emit at least 463 tons a day of smog-forming VOCs and 149 tons a day of nitrogen oxides — much of it in the ozone-prone Front Range corridor. Read more: Oil and gas air pollution

 EN3.5 Incorporate air quality objectives into the land use planning and development process by encouraging land use patterns which reduce travel and air emissions.

A) Evaluate all zoning and land use development requests for their impact on air quality. ~ Page 115

EN5.11 Maintain minimum setback and site design standards from oil and gas wells and tank batteries which protect the public’s interest through attention to safety and compatibility issues relative to adjacent properties.

EN6.7 Work with the Division of Wildlife on development in proximity to natural areas to assure sensitivity in the siting and design of urban features in key wildlife and related habitat areas. ~ Page 121

EN1.4 Consider wildlife movement corridors in the siting and development of urban uses to assure that native species are able to access habitats without human interference. ~ Page 111

EN8 View Shed and Important Corridors - In order to improve the area quality of life, enjoyment of community, and appreciation of natural resources, the City should promote the development of the community in such a way as to protect key view sheds and travel corridors and reflect in the built environment a sensitivity to the areas of environmental significance. ~ Page 123

EN8.1 Develop a list of important corridors and areas which carry environmental significance and/or visual appeal related to its natural features and establish special design treatments along such areas. Evaluate the following areas for inclusion on such a list:

A) Bluff area along northern edge of community;
B) Sheep Draw;
C) Ashcroft Draw;
D) Confluence of the Cache la Poudre & South Platte rivers;
E) “O” Street corridor;
F) Cache la Poudre River corridor; and,
G) U.S. Highway 34 corridor

EN8.3 Protect open lands in strategic areas within and around the community in order to provide visual relief from the urban landscape, preserve important vistas, and/or retain separation from other communities. ~Page 124

A) recognize the value in retaining agricultural crop land in acknowledgment of the community’s heritage and the opportunity for this land use to meet this strategy as long as Right-to-Farm protections are provided.

LU2.19 Residential development should be the primary land use adjacent to elementary, middle and high schools. Discourage zoning or development of property which diminishes residential population in an area which is supported by a neighborhood school, or which poses safety impacts to children.

LU4.2 In new site development residential uses should not be allowed adjacent to medium or high intensity industrial uses and zones to prevent unnecessary conflicts between such uses and to promote the expansion of industrial sites without undue hardship of needing to address mitigation or buffering treatments and impacts to residential and other low-impact uses. ~ Page 197

Driving Out of Greeley is Depressing!!!

Leaving Greeley from any road these days is depressing! No matter if you go north, south, east, or west you see gas wells with tanks, separators, and flares that visually pollute the farm fields. Today my son took me via a scenic road south to Denver to visit the zoo with his son, my 2-1/2 year-old grandson. The country side south of 49th street was lush, and green with acres of corn stalks. Simply beautiful, as long as you tell yourself to ignore all the gas wells and tanks, left and right....and that is hard to do.

Once we were headed south on U.S. 85 we saw many more oil condensate tanks, but also new sites in the making, with drill rigs, and others where fracking operations are in full swing; you can tell when you see a field full of semi truck sized compressors that are needed to pressurize the water as it gets pumped into the well.

Clearly not a pretty sight, but appalling and stressful, really! I thought visiting the zoo with my grandson would give me a reprieve from the concerns of fracking, and it did once we got there. But oblivion was not to last very long as I noticed with dismay that some exhibits are named after corporate sponsors!  There's the Toyota Elephant Passage, the Gates Wildlife Conservation Education Center, the Janus Gateway center, the Conoco Zoo Gardens., and ....shocker of them all?

On the Denver Zoo website it says that

"Anadarko Petroleum Corporation has supported Denver Zoo through Do At The Zoo and Brew At The Zoo sponsorships since 2008. Beginning in 2013, Anadarko greatly expanded their involvement by presenting Denver Zoo's 2013 Do At The Zoo event in addition to providing educational, live animal community outreach programming in Weld County."

They also state:

"A special thank you to these Corporations [Encana is one of them too!] for their significant contributions...Corporate sponsor dollars are critical to Denver Zoo. These dollars are used to assist in the direct care and support of Denver Zoo’s animals and allows Denver Zoo to further its mission. Through these sponsorships, Denver Zoo continues to thrive and to carry out wildlife conservation and education for our community [while on the outside petroleum corporations like Anadarko and Encana are destroying our countryside and poisoning the air we breathe]"

Thankfully Greeley is getting more and more negative press. Perhaps because of that there's a glimmer of hope, as,

"The Colorado Oil and Gas Commission said neighbors’ concerns are one reason it hasn’t approved the wells yet."

See the CBS 4 News report with video interview with Sara Barwinski in which they say, "The city of Greeley is widely known as an oil and gas town." 

Dunn's Done it Again!

Tribune reporter Sharon Dunn's article below shows bias for the gas and oil industry. Just compare it to what Bobby Magill wrote on the same subject for the Coloradoan .See: Fracking critics scaring public.
At least he shared the questionable comments by both Matt Lepore, the director of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, and Weld County commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer. Dunn shared none!! 

Just as with the Health Forum on the Effects of Hydraulic Fracturing, when Dunn chose to leave out important information, like the dangers of ground level ozone, she this time, ignored Kirkmeyer's accusation that people with concerns about fracking,

"are trying to scare the crap out of everybody with the wrong facts and making things up".

 Dunn should have taken issue with that remark, considering it is Kirkmeyer herself who makes things up, claiming that groundwater is not being contaminated, when a presentation on the COGCC website clearly acknowledges that it has! See 2012 Fracking Spills.

(By Sharon Dunn)
LOVELAND — Fossil fuels will be the chief way America and the world will get its energy for years, and those in the industry must strike a balance between the incredible growth that is propping up the economy and the environmental concerns that follow, said the American Petroleum Institute’s senior economic adviser, Rayola Sougher. “What’s happening here is absolutely phenomenal,” Sougher said in an interview prior to her keynote address at the Energy Summit put on Tuesday by the Northern Colorado Business Report at the Ranch in Loveland.

“But there seems to be a big divide between the ... environmentalists and the oil developers. But they’re not mutually exclusive. We can do both. Everyone in the community has to hold the industry to the highest standards. That should not be negotiable.” The importance of the industry and continued innovation in extracting the resources has proven to be a powerful ally for the United States, not only politically, but for jobs and taxes that have helped build more wealth in the country, she said.

 In fact, America is experiencing a “stunning” energy revolution that is on pace to see the United States become a world leader and net exporter of oil and gas, some say as soon as 2030. “We were accustomed for decades of thinking that we had less oil, and have been making energy policy on that assumption. That entire vision has changed,” Sougher said. “There are millions of new jobs, a great deal of government revenue and it is enhancing energy security.” Last year alone, the United States put 1 million extra barrels of oil on the international market. That has translated to some of the best energy prices in the country, she said, saving American families roughly $926 a year in home energy costs.

 In the last decade, Colorado has seen a six-fold growth in natural gas production and triple the growth in crude oil production. In Colorado, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average energy bills here are 23 percent less than the rest of the nation, largely because of natural gas, Sougher said. “When you add up what you would have been spending, were it not for this technology, it has important repercussions for the family budget,” Sougher said. The technology she speaks of is the advent of hydraulic fracturing coupled with horizontal drilling to get at the resources trapped in the tight shale rock a mile beneath the ground.

She said continued innovation will only enhance production, and likewise enhance job growth. Sougher said this “unconventional drilling,” alone, is responsible for 1.7 million jobs across the country. “And by the end of this decade, that will be 3 million,” Sougher said. “It’s a significant driver of economic growth.” As an example, she pointed to the average wage in the oil fields of $116,000 — 91 percent above Colorado’s average wage. The industry also pumped $1.4 billion into the Colorado economy in taxes in 2011, equivalent to 15 percent of the state’s tax revenue.

 Sougher advocated for more development across the country to keep these numbers high, especially in offshore areas. She also advocated for completion of the XL Pipeline, a pipeline from Canada to the southern links of America’s oil trade hubs, which has been under scrutiny for five years. With more Canadian and U.S. oil entering into the international framework, she said, energy prices will stabilize, even when not-so-stable nations threaten the world’s oil supply.

 At the same time, she said, the industry must work in concert with government officials and residents concerned about safety. She said the industry, too, shares concerns about the environment. They’ve been stewards of best practices since World War I, she said. “We’re on a path now, because of a lot of these breakthroughs, to have 5 percent fewer emissions in 2040 than we had in our peak of 2005,” Sougher said. “A large part of that is the shift more toward natural gas and energy efficiencies. A good part of the credit has to do with technologic innovations.”

Who's Doing the Lying about Fracking?

Excerpts from an article in the Coloradoan, with my comments in orange

LOVELAND — "..Fracking detractors are trying to “scare the crap out of everybody with the wrong facts and making things up,” said Weld County Commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer, who was moderating the discussion between COGCC Director Matt Lepore and Anadarko regulatory affairs manager Brad Miller.

 “The problem we have, we have a group of folks on the other side who don’t care about the truth,” she said. “They’re out there saying all sorts of things about how it’s contaminating the groundwater, and, you know, that’s not true,” Kirkmeyer said.

Is she lying or merely ignorant of the real facts posted in a series of PowerPoint slides on the website of the the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission she's trying to defend? These numbers from 2012 do show there's been groundwater contamination.

What was spilled?

What was done about them?

And what to make of Matt Lepore's statement? 


"..residents “storm city hall and demand you protect their health, safety and welfare armed with misinformation,” [he]said Tuesday, speaking at the Northern Colorado Energy Summit."

As the director of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission he surely has seen, and also approved these slides! Here is one from another presentation, probably put up after Governor Hickenlooper took a sip of Frac Fluid!

He also said the following.

If you look at the demographics of anti-fracking activists, he said, they are generally affluent enough not to be concerned with the cost of home heating and cooling, he said.

Clearly, those who struggle to make a living are so bogged down in simply trying to survive that they have no time to get informed of anything of importance, including how gas and oil production may endanger their and their children's health.

 “A ban on fracking is really a ban on drilling,” he said. “A ban on fracking means an increase in coal use to generate electricity. It means an increase in local costs of electricity.”

Have you seen a decrease in your energy bills? I haven't! Besides, how can opponents be blamed for driving up the prices, since drilling is still in full swing almost everywhere in the country?

When asked by a member of the audience whether the oil and gas industry should work with local school districts to educate kids about the value of oil and gas as a way to boost industry public relations, both Miller and Kirkmeyer said such plans are already underway. “We have to educate the youth and start there, and we also have to educate the general public as well,” Miller said. “Both of those programs need to start now. The industry is starting that.” Kirkmeyer said Weld County is working with at least one school district in the county to teach kids about the importance of industry.

If there is any hope for a future for today's children and their kids at all, it does not lie in fossil fuels, but in renewable energy and sustainable livelihoods. That is what schools should focus on. It is bad enough gas wells are sprouting up close to people's homes, and that 67 wells are planned within a quarter of a mile of Frontier Academy along 29th street. Read: Where Do The Children Play

 In an earlier speech, Mercator Energy President and Western Energy Alliance board member John Harpole said fracking is good for poor people because the more fracking done in the U.S, the more natural gas will be available to drive down consumers’ cost for heating.

Fracking is actually bad, especially for poor people who may feel forced to work in the oil and gas fields to make a living, and will compromise their health in doing so. Furthermore, people in poor neighborhoods do not have the opportunity to protest a proposed well site nearby.
So far, protests have indeed come from those residents who are more affluent, but they are fully supported in their plight by people from all over Greeley, who not only want to help them but anyone anywhere who will be affected by the intrusion of noise, hazards and polluted air. With hundreds of wells already producing within city limits, we all are breathing VOCs and ozone molecules.