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Greeley residents go to city hall to fight proposed fracking operation 

GREELEY, Colo. — Residents in Greeley got together to fight what they say is a large fracking operation that wants to set up operations in their neighborhood. Sara Barwinski moved back to Colorado a few years ago. “We love living here,” she said. “We’ve had hawks, eagles, you name it.”

In that time some things in her neighborhood haven’t changed, and then there are the things that are about to. “There would be 32 tanks to support it. That’s how much volume those tanks present. That’s an industrial complex in the middle of the neighborhood,” Barwinski said.

In 2008 Synergy Corporation opened a fracking operation with six small tanks and minor impact on the neighborhood. But now the company wants to build a much larger operation requiring the approval of the Greeley City Council. Neighbors’ biggest concern is that the project is just 400 feet from Northridge High School. Left with few alternatives, Tuesday night Barwinski and an army of neighbors took their case to city hall begging the city of Greeley to stop the project.

All neighbors voiced the same worries – that they have too little information about the potential environmental impact, not to mention the public health concerns. “That school track is 411 feet from the wellheads and we don’t know what emissions come out of these.”

The central issue the city council must decide is whether the project is an industrial one that is compatible with the surrounding neighborhood. Synergy corporation argues that the project is not heavy industrial and that they have gone above and beyond to satisfy neighbors’ concerns.

Greeley must protect quality of life for residents

By Therese Gilbert

I seldom see the Rockies clearly from Greeley anymore. My sisters, during their visit two weeks ago, noticed this as well. Having grown up in Colorado and now living out of state, they look forward to seeing that beautiful and familiar vista to the west. What accounts for this gray-brown haze on blue-sky days? We can’t possibly match the traffic level of metro Denver, so what could be contributing to this poor air quality?

Within the last 10 years, there has been an accelerated rate of oil and gas development in Weld County. While the industry has brought in some revenue and created jobs, the cumulative effect of this drilling on our air quality is now becoming apparent. We currently have over 20,000 active wells in Weld County, and new additional drilling projects, already permitted by the state, will soon close the “donut hole” within city limits.

Drilling within the center of Greeley has been last for obvious reasons; the risks of such development are simply not compatible with the quality of life that most residents consider acceptable. Since March of this year, over 181 wells were permitted to drill, many within 500 feet of schools.

Behind Frontier Academy and Walmart 67 wells are planned.
The red dot is where the drill rig will be placed; the dots and
yellow stripes at the bottom are storage tanks and separators.

 The process of hydraulic fracturing involves adding over 600 chemicals to 2-10 million gallons of clean water and sand per well, and the mixture is injected with great force to open up rock fissures underground that allow natural gas to escape and be captured on the surface. The gas is collected in the large, cylindrical, beige colored tanks that blotch our landscape.

If unsightliness were the worst feature of these tanks, we might have reason to complain, but little to worry us. However, what we don’t see is the problem. Toxic gases such as benzene, ethylbenzene, xylene, ethane, toluene, and others leak from these condensate tanks, some of which cause cancer and respiratory illnesses. The highest industry standard allows for 2% of the gases to escape, but it is estimated that many leak more than 5%.

Now, imagine the cumulative effect of over 20,000 wells leaking 5% of their toxic gases! Most emissions escape during the initial drilling process, and according to one study, those living within half a mile of natural gas wells are at the highest risk for exposure. (2012 Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado – McKenzie, Witter, Newman, Adgate)

 A recent study has found that oil & gas production in Weld County contributes 55% of the VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) that cause ozone pollution in the northern Colorado region, and for the past 2 years the air in Weld County has been out of compliance with federal standards for ground level ozone. (2013 Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences – Gilman, et al)

As residents of Weld County and Greeley, we are surrounded with the consequences of this heavy industrialization every day. The latest project by Synergy Corporation proposes to add 12 horizontal wells and 25 condensate tanks to a site within 450 feet of the track at Northridge High School where students exercise. Is this responsible development?

Should we be risking the health of those who must live so close to this drilling? We were given this beautiful planet to call our home, and we must be responsible stewards of this gift. A healthy environment is a safe home; let us be careful in making choices that might forever damage the precious air we breathe. I urge our city council to make decisions that not only protect the rights of mineral owners, but protect the quality of life for those of us living and breathing on the surface.

French Film Crew in Greeley in Search of Fracking

"Would you want to meet with a french film crew, and help show them around? They want to do a film on fracking in Weld." 

That was the message I found in my inbox yesterday. "Heck, yes! Of course I wanted to show them around! Let's get word and video out to the world beyond our city limits, and borders, of how dreadful the oil & gas installation infestation has become here! When was the last time we had a clear view of the mountains?

Unfortunately I forgot to take along my photo camera, and cannot show that I and two others actually did meet the crew. It was six o'clock when they finally arrived at the Kress theater where we'd been waiting for almost an hour. It turns out they'd been wandering around up north, near Grover!

After introductions I asked Herve and Pierre, "Did you see a lot of gas wells and oil tanks on the way here?" "Yes", Herve said, "but we want to see fracking" . "But that all is fracking!" I told them, but it turns out they wanted to see the actual process where the water goes in or comes back out. They were looking for a site with lots of trucks and compressors.

"No such thing going on around here for the moment," I told them. "Your best bet is to find active sites along U.S. 85". And so, after having spent just 10 minutes in our well infested city, they left again.


We thought they had wanted to see the various gas well sites near houses and water, but they were not interested in the effects after drilling and fracking is completed, and that it is the emissions from the installations that pose the largest and most immediate danger to people's health.

Near Riverside Park, Evans

Granted, a field filled with trucks and compressors looks more impressive and obnoxious than the tanks and separators neatly painted in sand color to blend into the surroundings, but it is precisely these that are dangerous and noxious, and remain so! The fracking process is bad and poses real hazards, but let's not forget that after fracking, residents will still be inhaling noxious fumes!

Gas Wells Poisoning Children's Air

Excerpt from Huffington Post.

"If everything goes as planned, Angie Nordstrum's son may look out the window of his second-grade classroom at Red Hawk Elementary this fall and see a full-scale natural gas drilling operation. He and his classmates, Nordstrum noted, will then have no choice but to breathe emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), benzene and other toxic pollutants -- even while they tend to a 1,500-square-foot organic garden at their LEED-certified school. "This is so disturbing on so many levels," said Nordstrum, of Erie, Colo. 

According to many public health experts, the natural and manmade chemicals released during drilling, hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) and reinjection steps are making more and more people sick. Adding to the concern are new findings showing the associated air pollution, and the dangers of exposure to very small doses of certain chemicals.

Developing fetuses and young children can be the most vulnerable to these effects. In addition to the pollutants, and the intense noise, a natural gas operation looks like a "Christmas tree on steroids," noted Nordstrum, a member of the grassroots group of parents, Erie Rising, which is battling the gas wells. "So much is being said in news about how this is the new clean fuel," she said. "It's not."

According to a new study in Colorado that sampled air quality over the course of three years, people living within a half-mile of an oil or gas well were exposed to a number of toxic chemicals including benzene, a known carcinogen. VOC levels measured five times the safety limit set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

 "For children, the potential cancer risk is a serious consideration. They are more sensitive, exposed at younger ages and for longer periods of time,"

said Lisa McKenzie, lead researcher on the study at the Colorado School of Public Health. McKenzie said the results also pointed to potentially significant respiratory and neurological effects. For children, this could mean more headaches, sore throats and asthma.

"Children are more sensitive to all of these pollutants, whether traditional ozone, dust or particulates caused by hydrocarbons leaking out of the wells or the diesel trucks carrying the materials," 

added Sonya Lunder, a senior analyst at the nonprofit Environmental Working Group, whose goal is to protect public health and the environment. Lunder called the new findings "sobering" and emphasized the need for further study. "There are an incredible number of other industrial chemicals involved," she said. But research is complicated by the fact that these chemicals tend to vary from well to well, with names and quantities not always disclosed by the fracking company.

 Erie's eight pending natural gas wells would sit close to not only Red Hawk, but another elementary school, a middle school and a day care center in the well-to-do suburb. Local parents are convinced that the hundreds of gas wells already scattered throughout town may be at least partly responsible for various ailments in local children like severe asthma, chronic sinusitis and stomach problems.

All three of April Beach's sons suffer from chronic conditions that appear to be triggered by the pollution. One night, after one of his frequent dizzy spells, her 7-year-old Jacob wanted some answers: "Why are they doing this to us? Why can't they make it stop?" Beach recounted.

 "I have this drive to not only protect my kids but to protect all the kids who don't have a voice in this. We need to stop allowing kids to be guinea pigs."  said Beach, founder of Erie Rising.

 The Beach family will soon be moving out of Erie. "We have to get away from here," said Beach, adding that the pending move may mean financial suicide since they can't sell their house.

"I couldn't sleep at night if I knew another family was sleeping in this house with kids."

Read full article here

Also see: Where do the children play?