County closer to gas agreement

“We’re trying really hard right now”

Stakeholders on all sides of the discussion about how the County should go about regulating the impacts of gas development sat down to a series of meetings last week to see if they could find a solution to some of the more troublesome aspects of the proposed amendments to the regulations for oil and gas operations to suggest to the board of county commissioners.

Last week, Gunnison County met  with industry and environmental representatives to discuss details of the new regulations to see if an agreement could be reached that would garner a broad spectrum of support for the regulations.
Since a draft of the amendments to the regulations was passed up from the Planning Commission last summer, pieces have been tweaked to address elements of the gas industry without abandoning the goal of protecting human health and the environment.
After Gunnison County successfully approached the state about becoming more involved in the state inspection of gas operations locally, acknowledging a shortcoming in the state’s capacity to perform the inspection on its own, the state attorney general’s office and Gov. John Hickenlooper have written letters to local governments and made statements discouraging, in no uncertain terms, local participation in the regulatory process.
In a January speech, Hickenlooper responded to a question saying, “If you end up with 64 completely different sets of rules, you’re increasing the difficulty for everyone,” he said.
“If counties can work together and with the COGCC [Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission] to negotiate for waivers, we’ve been trying to encourage counties to try that process.”
In December last year, Assistant Attorney General for natural resources and environment Jake Matter sent letters to Arapahoe, Elbert and El Paso counties warning those governments not to write rules that would conflict with the state’s regulations.
In other corridors of the state capitol, the approach has been more pragmatic. The COGCC told Gunnison County earlier this year there is room at the table for local governments, as long as they go through the proper channels. And Gunnison County worked to widen that channel, known as the Local Government Designee. They even delegated some of their inspection authority to the County.
“We’re are working hard right now to be attentive to the issues that are brought to us from what has historically been disparate groups in the trust that we can solve those issues in a manner that is generally acceptable,” Baumgarten says.
With conflicting messages from the state, other county governments are interested in a more nuanced approach to regulating the industry as well. Boulder County’s Planning Commission was scheduled last Wednesday to discuss changes to that county’s land use rules that could stray into oil and gas operations.
In Elbert County, Denver attorney Gerald Dahl was retained earlier this year to help with the drafting of regulations for gas operations. Arapahoe’s county commissioners voted 3-2 in January to let the state regulate the gas industry instead of pursuing their own rules, after they got a letter from the attorney general the month before.
In Gunnison County, Boulder attorney Barbara Green has been instrumental in crafting several areas of land use regulation, including the amendments to the regulations for oil and gas operations.
As evidence of the level of importance the Board of County Commissioners has placed on the regulation of impacts from the gas industry on human health and the environment, the county has spent more than $55,000 on special counsel during the three-year drafting of the regulations for oil and gas.
Barbara Green “is the best of the best,” Baumgarten said.
“We’re trying to make this happen in a way that protects our citizens primarily,” he continued. “Gunnison County recognizes this is a resource that needs to be extracted but it needs to be extracted responsibly.”