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Crowd Expected at Windsor 'Fracking' Forum

Windsor is one of several cities and towns along the Front Range that’s experiencing a surge in oil and gas drilling and the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, and some residents worried about the impacts of the boom are planning to gather at a public forum there Wednesday night.  

Weld County, of which most of Windsor lies within, has the highest number of active oil and gas wells in the state, 17,000 and counting. It’s also widely seen as a pro oil and gas county. That’s partly because drilling is not new to the area, however, the most recent boom has coincided with an explosion in population. 

Kerry Crough is experiencing this dynamic first hand. She and her family live in a Windsor subdivision, and her HOA recently got notice that a company has applied to drill on land adjacent to her home.

Crough says she’s puzzled why the boom hasn’t gotten more attention from her neighbors.  

"Whether those people are just busy with everyday work, which is probably expected, they don’t have time to come out and speak, or there’s not a forum for us to get together and say ‘wait a minute, let’s just slow this down,’ but there are concerned people up here even though the politics may suggest different," Crough says.

Crough plans to attend what’s being billed as a “fracking informational session” tonight at six at the Clearview Library in Windsor.

A representative from the Sierra Club and the Colorado Oil and Gas Association will speak. Recent forums at other Front Range towns new to drilling have been well attended.

Kirk Siegler reports for NPR, based out of NPR West in California.