The contentious Lowry Ranch Comprehensive Area Plan (CAP), a proposal for oil and gas drilling near the Aurora Reservoir, will go to two public hearings in front of the state's Energy and Carbon Management Commission on Tuesday and Friday.
The hearings will be livestreamed on Zoom starting at 9 a.m. both days.
Talk about the proposed drilling project started two years ago, when oil and gas company Civitas filed the CAP — which includes 32,000 acres of proposed subsurface mineral development. The company proposed eight locations with a total of 166 new wells and 14 existing horizontal wells. The development includes drilling about 7,000 feet under the Aurora Reservoir.
After several revisions sought by Colorado’s Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC), the state regulatory body determined in February that the application is now complete.
Area residents have raised concerns about the proposed drilling, citing worries in particular about the wells' proximity to homes and environmental and health problems.
Government agencies like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have also raised concerns about the wells' proximity to the Superfund site, where about 138 million gallons of liquid industrial waste was disposed of in unlined pits between 1965 and 1980. But the EPA is not objecting to the proposal, nor is the Colorado Department of Health and Environment.
Civitas has countered that the project offers unequivocal benefits to the surrounding areas and to the county. Company officials also promised to adopt a wide array of precautions, including building wells farther away from homes and adding air monitoring and sound barriers to protect residents and ensure the project does not negatively affect the area.
Civitas added the project would yield an estimated $235 million in tax revenue for Arapahoe County.
Online agendas show that each hearing will last several hours.
On Tuesday, the public hearing will begin with an ECMC decision on whether nonprofit Save the Aurora Reservoir (STAR), which has led efforts to counter the proposal, is considered an "affected party." That ruling will determine whether or not STAR members — many of whom live near the proposed drilling sites — will be able to speak to commissioners about their concerns during the hearings.
Civitas has argued that STAR does not meet "affected party" criteria, since they are not within 2,000 feet of the proposed well sites, according to STAR President Marsha Goldsmith Kamin.
The decision will be followed by statements from Civitas subsidiary Crestone Peak Resources, STAR (if given affected party status), and other agencies. The hearing will finish with questions from ECMC commissioners.
Even if the CAP itself is approved by the ECMC, Civitas has to get each proposed well site approved before they are allowed to move forward with them, according to Arapahoe County's website .
At this point in the process, Civitas has contacted mineral owners with offers to lease minerals and is now seeking approval from the ECMC on the CAP.
The ECMC regulates wells and all downhole and underground aspects of the drilling process, as well as well pads, according to the Arapahoe County website.
Arapahoe County regulates the surface aspects, including well pads and access roads. The county has approval criteria for the well pads, and if applications meet the criteria, the county is required to approve the applications, according to the website.
If the applications are approved by the county, they go to the ECMC in the form of an Oil and Gas Development Plan, and each one will receive its own public hearing with the opportunity for public comment.
Friday's hearing will follow a similar schedule, with closing remarks scheduled for 2:30 p.m.
The controversy over the Lowry Ranch CAP erupted even as policymakers are aggressively seeking to transition the state away from fossil energy. Indeed, while Colorado is one of the country's top energy producers — in 2022, the state ranked No. 5 in crude oil production and No. 8 in natural gas — there has been a persistent effort to limit the industry's footprint, a campaign that has intensified in the last several years.
Proponents of the transition argue it benefits the environment, creates a healthier environment for people and saves Coloradans money, anticipating that, over the long term, renewable energy would be more economical to produce.
Critics, meanwhile, say the transition is happening too quickly, that it would be financially costly to people and businesses alike and that a diverse energy portfolio that incudes fossil-fired and renewable energy is more reliable and sustainable.
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