Oil and gas drilling closer to communities along Colorado’s Front Range, as seen in a struggle north of Denver, is putting residents and school officials on guard.
While Synergy Resources says it would tread as lightly as possible near Thornton, the lingering anxieties are an example of the sentiments that on Monday drove 230 activists from 30 states to demonstrate around Denver.
The protests — urging a faster shift to cleaner fuels to fight climate change — followed a two-day strategy summit that included work on a proposed Colorado ban on hydraulic fracturing, the technique used to extract oil and gas.
“The goal is to transition as quickly as possible to renewable energy so that all these communities affected by dirty fossil fuels can be healthier and not have to deal with that in their backyard,” said Lauren Pagel, policy director for Earthworks, a Washington D.C.-based group that helped organize the summit.
“Oil and gas cause climate problems and cause pollution. They are, hopefully, the energy of the past,” Pagel said.
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.
Although Colorado-based environment groups such as Conservation Colorado didn’t participate; the demonstrations drew support from national groups, such as the Sierra Club, and impassioned “fractivist” residents. A group called Coloradans Resisting Extreme Energy Development has declared the COGCC illegitimate and is developing ballot initiatives including a statewide fracking ban. Oil and gas companies have drilled more than 53,000 wells statewide and left more than 47,000 inactive well sites where land is being restored.
“It’s the scale of these operations that has changed the game for us,” said schoolteacher Anne Harper, who lives in Weld County between Longmont and Erie, where Encana is considering new wells. The threat of noise and truck traffic forced her family to put farming on hold.
“Communities have a right to ban it,” Harper declared on the Capitol steps. “We should not back down.”
A ban must be on the 2016 ballot “so that Coloradans can vote on having hydraulic fracturing near any home or school,” she said.
Texas firefighter Joe Lopez, with Trisha Cortez and their infant daughter, said, “We don’t consider our involvement radical. Advocating for posterity is what we’re doing. We have a daughter and are worried about continued warming of our climate.” Drilling in Laredo compelled them to come protest, Cortez said, while changing a diaper during a demonstration.
North of Denver in Adams County, school officials met with Synergy about a project to drill about 15 new wells near 120 suburban homes and the Rocky Top Middle School. “We want to make sure we’re not experiencing truck traffic during drop-off and pickup of our students,” Adams 12 Five Star Schools spokesman Joe Ferdani said.
Synergy “is still assessing” whether to drill from a 3.5-acre pad, chief operating officer Craig Rasmuson said. The drilling “is getting closer to municipalities,” he said. “We’re a niche operator that is willing to take on these tough locations. Mineral rights owners have the right to have their minerals extracted.”
State regulators would have to issue a permit.
“There will be continued conflict over this issue,” Adams County Commissioner Erik Hansen said. “We have limited options in local government. You have property rights of operators coming into conflict with property rights of citizens. It’s a difficult situation.”
Bruce Finley: 303-954-1700, bfinley@denverpost.com or @finleybruce
