With oil and gas development moving forward in El Paso County, citizens in Colorado Springs are educating themselves on the practice of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in preparation for the possibility of further development within the city limits, said Dave Gardner of Colorado Springs Citizens for Community Rights.According to CSCCRís website the group formed to protect their right to clean air, water and soil ñ and good health.Their mission:
- Educate residents about oil and gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking)
- Work with local, state and federal governments to ensure comprehensive oil and gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing regulations
- Place a rights-based charter amendment on the ballot in Colorado Springs, banning hydraulic fracturing
What is fracking?According to the U.S. Geological Surveyís website, http://energy.usgs.gov, fracking is a process used to extract oil and gas most commonly used in ìlow permeability rocks like tight sandstone, shale and some coal beds to increase oil and/or gas flow to a well from petroleum-bearing rock formations.îIn August 2011, a two-day oil and gas summit was held, and experts from the industry were in attendance, many of whom presented general information on oil and gas development, as reported in the Sept. 3, 2011, issue of The New Falcon Herald.At the summit, Vince Matthews, a geologist from the Colorado Geological Survey, said that before fracking occurs, an oil and gas company must drill down to the trapped resources. In Colorado, the resource is the Niobrara Shale Formation.In the newly drilled well, layers of steel casings and cement are alternated to create a conduit for extracting the material, said Doug Flanders, director of external affairs for the Colorado Oil and Gas Association (speaking at the summit). To reach into the shale formation, the operators must create fractures through which the oil and gas can flow, Flanders said. Using a perforation gun, the operators make small holes in the casings and cement, he said.Thom Kerr of the Colorado Oil and Gas Commission also spoke at the summit and said a ballistic charge is then used to crack the surrounding rock. Flanders said these cracks are generally between one-to-three-tenths of an inch thick, and can be somewhere between 20 and 300 feet high. This process can be repeated up to 40 times in a 1-to-2-mile long stretch of well bore, Matthews said.Also at the summit, Dave Neslin of the COGCC said the cracks are propped open with fracking fluids that contain a mixture of water, chemicals and proppants. He said the mixture is about 90.6 percent water; 8.96 percent proppant (usually sand or ceramics); and .45 percent chemicals. Through the propped cracks, the oil and gas flows back into the well bore, Neslin said.
The controversyìFracking is nasty business based on the chemicals involved and where we put them,î Gardner said in a January interview. ìItís loony to pump all these carcinogens and toxins into the ground because you donít know where theyíll end up.îAn article in the December 2012 issue of National Geographic identifies three possible ways for contamination of drinking water: leaky ponds, faulty wells and fissures.
- ìLeaky ponds: Contaminated wastewater from fracking is often stored in surface ponds, which can overflow or leak, polluting streams or groundwater.
- Faulty wells: Wells are reinforced with steel casing and sealed with concrete. But poor cementing can leave gaps that allow methane or fracking chemicals to contaminate drinking-water aquifers.
- Fissures: Fracking fissures might connect to natural ones, allowing pollutants to migrate. Whether theyíd climb thousands of feet to shallow aquifers isnít clear.î
ìAir quality is a big (concern), too, because itís a health issue more than an environmental issue,î Gardner said. ìYou donít have to be an environmentalist to not want to poison your children.ìWith 13 inspectors for 39,000 wells in Colorado, the COGCC makes it pretty clear that they donít take enforcement seriously.îStuart Ellsworth, an engineering manager with the COGCC, disagreed with Gardner. ìThat number is not accurate. Our inspection group has a 16-person staff,î he said. ìWe also have 10 environmental specialists who are doing the exact same job as the inspectors by going on site to make sure there are no environmental issues, while the inspectors focus on the drilling procedures.îEllsworth said the key to making sure that any well is working properly begins at the permitting process. ìHow it works in relation to the site is done by environmental people in permitting,î he said. ìThe engineering staff reviews the well for how itís going to be built. Then they review the well for how it has been built. Itís very short-sighted to only count the inspectors. You have to look at the program; you canít just look at one element of the process of regulation.îGardner said the COGCC sounds great in theory but their original charter in 1951 defined the COGCC as an advocate for the oil and gas industry. The regulatory side of their organization was established a few years later.According to the COGCCís website, http://cogcc.state.co.us, ìThe mission of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission is to foster the responsible development of Coloradoís oil and gas natural resources.îUnder its strategic plan, the COGCCís first goal is to ìpromote the exploration, development and conservation of Coloradoís oil and gas natural resources.îìOur original charter in 1951 was to make sure that the ëdrill it hard and fastí thing didnít happen in Colorado,î Ellsworth said. ìAs our knowledge as a society and about different elements of mineral extraction has changed, our rules have changed. In 1972, when they claimed the safe drinking water and clean air acts, our rules changed. As that has changed, in the 1980s, they created the environmental protection department. In 2008, when people were asking for a better relationship with surface procedures, we created a disclosure rule for fracking chemicals and weíve looked into larger setbacks.îGardner said that groups like Colorado Springs Citizens for Community Rights have one bottom line: ìOur No. 1 hope is to see drilling and fracking banned in the city limits,î he said. ìWeíre focusing on Colorado Springs because fracking is banned in residential zones; and, yes, it seems ludicrous to have that kind of activity in a residential zone. But the best outcome would be to have drilling and fracking not in the city of Colorado Springs. ìIf it has to happen, we want to see much wider and stricter regulations and enforcements.îThe memorandum of understanding the COGCC entered into on Nov. 15, 2012, with El Paso County isnít satisfactory to the group regarding stricter regulations, Gardner said. The MOU requires oil and gas operators to follow the countyís guidelines on water quality testing, which is stricter than the COGCCís water quality regulation.ìThere are signs that the COGCC is wetting their finger and holding it up in the air to see which way the winds are blowing,î he said. ìWe are putting pressure on the COGCC to get more serious about doing their jobs.î
