Immediately following the regular meeting Sept. 8, the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners held a special work session to address concerns regarding oil and gas drilling in El Paso County.Craig Dossey, project manager with El Paso County Development Services, presented a 29-point discussion of regulations for oil and gas exploration and production set forth by other counties in the state. The points ranged from emergency response plans to visual impact to noise control.City Attorney George Monsson was on hand to address the legal framework for regulations. “Local governments can regulate operations as well as the state can, as long as there is no operational conflict,” Monsson said. Any conflict is usually determined on a case-by-case basis, he said. If there is a conflict, state regulations will supersede local government regulations.For example, the city of Greeley lost a voter-initiated complete ban of oil and gas drilling within the city limits. Monsson argued the Greeley case, but the city lost because the ban was an operational conflict with the state.Dossey identified three tiers of regulatory levels and the counties that fall under each tier: Sawatch, Gunnison, Elbert and La Plata counties were high-level regulatory counties; the city of Greeley was mid-level; and Adams, Morgan and Mesa counties and the town of Frederick were low-level regulatory counties.Monsson said the disparity in the amount of regulation from county to county could have something to do with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission regulations, which might be too broad or vague. “Places like La Plata and Gunnison counties … feel like they want to add more regulation,” he said, while other counties believe the COGCC’s regulations and state statutes are sufficient. “The COGCC is spread so thin throughout the state, with a limited number of field inspectors. Local government can put more eyes on the ground and can be more responsive on the local level, as far as the enforcement process.””My goal was to identify what they are attempting to regulate, even if (the regulations) were mirroring that of the COGCC,” Dossey said. He said he wanted to take the input from the meeting and put the pieces together to create a “regulatory format.”Dossey offered three options for creating a regulatory format. First, the BOCC could do nothing and defer to the COGCC and state statutes. Second, the BOCC could continue regulating under the current code, using temporary-use permit and variance-use permit processes. Dossey said the drawback is that variance-use permits usually carry a five-year expiration date, and most oil and gas companies plan to be around longer. Last, he suggested amending the existing land development code to specifically address oil and gas issues.After Dossey’s presentation, the meeting was open for public comment. “I think our focus needs to be on the areas where the state may not be regulating in the best interest of our local interest,” said Commissioner Dennis Hisey.Other concerns from the audience targeted responsibility for potential problems: Who would accept financial responsibility in the event of aquifer contamination; would there be someone available round the clock to fix a gas leak; and who is responsible if a fire broke out.Board members were also concerned about water safety and road conditions.”One of the things right now the state does not mandate or regulate is baseline groundwater sampling and continued sampling,” Hisey said. “I think that, A – we have the legal room and authority (to require that); and B – just from what I’ve heard in all the hearings, that’s a fairly high area of interest for people in the county.”Commissioner Amy Lathen said, “The first value I define is water. Our infrastructure is our second issue with me, specifically our roads. That is going to be a major issue.””My personal and professional opinion is if El Paso County doesn’t regulate anything else, we should look very hard at road impacts,” Monsson said.”What I’m hearing is let’s go back and look at what the COGCC has and compare that to what some of these other counties have done to establish that ‘gap analysis,'” Dossey said.The BOCC will hold another work session following the Sept. 29 meeting, with a future work session possible.”The next work session can focus on where we have some discretion, and I agree that the land code is where this probably needs to end up,” Hisey said. “I think we’re headed down the right path.”
