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Longmont's Landmark Drilling Deal Begins Its Long, Complicated Roll-Out

Jim Hill
/
KUNC
An active oil and gas well in Colorado.

The Longmont City Council has entered a $3 million deal to permanently phase out surface drilling within city limits. As public officials hail the move as a victory over the oil and gas industry, some residents remain unsatisfied. 

Longmont has 11 nonactive drill sites and eight actively producing wells within city limits – all owned by two companies, Cub Creek Energy and TOP Operating Company. The deal, while requiring those operators to shutter surface infrastructure within the city, doesn’t stop them from drilling underneath the surface horizontally from wells built outside its borders.

The process of closing wells will not happen all at once, instead taking place over the next few years, according to city officials. When Mayor Brian Bagley signed the agreement in May, the first of four phases went into effect.

Phase 1: (May 2018 – September 2018)

  1. Forgo the right to drill on the nonactive Sherwood, Sandstone and Evans sites south of Highway 119.
  2. Plug and abandon the active Powell well, south of Highway 119. The companies have 4 months to do this. This well is shutting down first is because of it’s proximity to a trail — the St. Vrain Greenway by Sandstone Ranch — that’s reopening this summer. Dale Rademacher, general manager for the Longmont Public Works Department, said he hopes to get the Powell well closed before the trail opens.
  3. Plug and abandon the Serafini well, also south of Highway 119, within two years of the agreement or commencement of oil and gas drills south of the city – whichever comes first.
  4. Lease 516 acres of Longmont’s own mineral rights to Cub Creek Energy for 20 years.

Phase 2: (Begins upon completion of a new well north of the city, late 2018)

  1. Complete the shutdown of the Serafini well. Once this happens, the city will make its first payment to TOP Operating, about $263,000.
  2. Forgo the right to drill at 7 more nonactive drill sites around Union Reservoir.
  3. Get rid of two large tank battery sites within city limits.

Phase 3: (Begins upon completion of second new well site north of the city, timing uncertain)

  1. Forgo the right to drill at the final nonactive drill site within city limits.
  2. Plug and abandon the Stamp well west of Union Reservoir. That will trigger the shutdown of a controversial collection line that runs underneath residential areas.
  3. Build an access road between new sites north of the city for companies to use.

Phase 4: (Begins once drilling south of the city begins, timing uncertain)

  1. Close six active wells south of Highway 119. Once this occurs, the city will begin transferring up to $3 million in royalties from Cub Creek’s drilling activities, according to the new lease established in the first phase of the plan.
  2. Deactivate or remove all flow lines, gathering lines and other facilities that support active wells within city limits.

Credit Matt Bloom/KUNC
Dale Rademacher, Longmont Public Works general manger, sits in his office.

The timeline is open-ended because, said Rademacher, many of the well closures are contingent on the construction of two new wells outside city limits which don’t have set completion dates yet.

“Once we have that date and information, we'll be sharing it with the public, so folks know about it,” he said.

Rademacher said he knows the plan is not perfect in the eyes of everyone in the community.

“On the other hand, I would surmise that almost everyone in the community would agree that reducing the number of locations and pushing them further away from Union Reservoir and urbanized parts of the city is a good thing for Longmont,” he said.

‘A mixed bag’

When she retired and­­­­­­­­ moved to Longmont from Cincinnati, Ohio in 2009, Judith Blackburn expected her days to be filled with sunny weather and views of snowcapped peaks. She got those, but also got something else: living near oil and gas wells.  

“It shocked the heck out of me when I first got here and heard they were going to drill,” she said. “That was the beginning.”

The realization prompted Blackburn’s involvement with efforts over the years to stop drilling and fracking in Longmont, as well as keeping a close watch over the city council’s new surface drilling ban. She called it a “mixed bag,” saying she applauded the city council’s agreement but lamented the fact that drilling would still take place beneath the surface.

“It’s really only a matter of time until (new) well pipes, no matter how deep they are … all of those leak,” she said. “We’re kind of in a big experiment here.”

Credit Matt Bloom/KUNC
Judith Blackburn sits on the patio of her home in Longmont.

Bagley, Longmont’s mayor, said he understands concerns about continued fracking underneath the city but that the agreement with Cub Creek and TOP Operating is the best option his community has.

“We can’t outlaw fracking,” he said. “We can control the surface through creative means and mechanisms and that’s what we did.”

He’s now encouraging other cities to discuss the issue. He’s had lunch and meetings with officials from Louisville and Lafayette.

“What really is different now than past agreements or situations is that the oil and gas operators are now running up against populations,” he said. “The Front Range – this is fairly new to us.”

He added that the city’s new agreement does not apply to other oil and gas companies. But there are no more mineral deposits up for grabs within the city, so there’d be no reason for others to drill, he said.

In a statement Dan Haley, president and CEO of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, said he supports operators working with individual communities about “ways to meet each community’s unique needs.”

“This is clearly not a one-size-fits-all solution,” he said. “What works for one operator and one community may not work for others.”

TOP Operating and Cub Creek did not return request for comment by publication.

Drilling applications with the state have risen about 70 percent in the past year. That’s fueling new conflicts between residents and operators everywhere from Longmont and the rest of Boulder County, to Greeley and Broomfield.

Josh James, a Longmont resident and member of the climate advocacy group Boulder County Protectors, dismissed the city’s new plan as “pacification” of residents in the ongoing war between citizens and the oil and gas industry. His group wants fracking banned altogether, he said.

“We feel like this is a point in time where communities have to be defiant towards this industry and towards the laws that this industry has actually written for itself,” he said.

But Colorado cities don’t have a lot of power in this arena. Longmont voters already tried and failed in 2016 to ban fracking.

And some locals don’t mind it.

Bill Jesser lives right near a well in Longmont, though he technically lives in a small swath of unincorporated Weld County inside the city. He’s a sales clerk at Saddle Up, a tack shop near Union Reservoir.

He said he thinks the surface drilling ban is unnecessary.

“The natural gas pocket that is underneath us is a big one. And so they need to tap into it. Go ahead and let (the companies) frack it,” he said. “It doesn’t tear up the country. It doesn’t hurt the water.”

And frack they will — just from wells outside city limits.

I cover a wide range of issues within Colorado’s dynamic economy including energy, labor, housing, beer, marijuana, elections and other general assignment stories.
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