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Commissioners OK new drilling rules
Herald Staff Writer
County commissioners voted 3-0 to adopt the revisions as part of the county's land-use code without taking any additional public comments, a move that took many in the audience by surprise.
"I have brought clients in from out of town. I spent the weekend working on a presentation," Tom Duggan, a Durango attorney representing the industry, told the commissioners.
Chairwoman Joelle Riddle responded that the commissioners had indicated at a special meeting held Oct. 7 that they would not accept any additional oral comments and that the deadline for submitting written comments was Oct. 21.
Before taking a vote at Monday night's meeting, the commissioners considered and accepted staff's recommendations for final changes to key provisions, including for the disclosure of chemicals used at well sites and the disposal of pit liners.
The new regulations require the county to defer to state regulations in those two areas.
In the absence of applicable state laws or regulations, the county's new regulations stipulate that well operators must maintain an accurate inventory of all of chemicals used on site and disclose all information pertaining to chemical spills to emergency medical professionals.
They also say that well operators must remove from well sites all pit liners and remaining materials that do not meet state clean-soil standards.
In the area of wildlife and livestock protection, the county's new regulations allow county staff to establish case-specific agreements that address the needs of individual livestock operators and other agriculturalists. In most cases, however, well operators must comply with the Colorado Division of Wildlife's recommended standard operating procedures.
Christi Zeller, executive director of the pro-industry La Plata County Energy Council, was one of about 50 people who attended the meeting.
In an interview afterward, she expressed dismay that the commissioners took action without waiting for the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to finalize the state's rules and without hearing from the public.
"We had a lot of pertinent testimony that needed to be made this evening, so the process has been a disappointment," she said.
Landowner Ron Burkett said he was satisfied the commissioners had addressed many of his concerns. Still, he hesitated to wholeheatedly endorse the new regulations.
"(Do the regulations) create new problems for me or fix some things for me? We'll just have to see," he said after the meeting.
The new regulations will go into effect Jan. 1, 2009.
The COGCC is undergoing a similar process of overhauling the state's gas and oil regulations and is expected to finalize the rules in early December.
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