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BATTLEMENT MESA — Garfield County officials have told residents who live near the Project Rulison blast site that the county will not seek an extension to request a hearing before the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission for 11 drilling permits near the nuclear detonation area.
Three couples asked the county to request a 20-day extension because a deadline to request a hearing on the permits was fast approaching.
Judy Jordan, the county’s oil and gas liaison, wrote a letter to Gunnison Attorney Luke Danielson, who is representing the couples, telling him the county will not request an extension to ask for a hearing before the COGCC over the permits.
“I received opinions of two members of the Garfield County Board of Commissioners (BOCC), both of whom are against requesting a hearing at this time,” Jordan wrote to Danielson.
Danielson said on Tuesday that he and the couples don’t “believe this is the last word” on the matter.
“Basically the (commissioners) have taken a position in the past without ever hearing from us,” Danielson said. “We think that they ought to hear our side of this before they get locked into any position. We are asking the commission to keep an open mind on this.”
Danielson, referring to Jordan’s letter, said he and the couples plan to go to the commissioner’s March 10 meeting to state their concerns over drilling near the blast site.
The couples argue that the use of fracturing technologies, which are designed to stimulate greater production of natural gas from subsurface formations, increases the risk that radioactive contaminants from the Rulison blast site may reach the surface.
The 1969 Project Rulison experiment was an attempt to free up commercially marketable quantities of natural gas, but the gas it produced proved to be too contaminated with radioactivity. The DOE prohibits drilling deeper than 6,000 feet in a 40-acre area around the site, and the COGCC requires a hearing for any gas wells proposed to be drilled within a half-mile of the site.
In Jordan’s letter, she wrote that the commissioners have previously determined that they will not ask for a hearing before the COGCC for drilling permits outside a half-mile of the blast site.
“Your correspondence does not indicate that the subject locations are within a 1/2 mile radius,” Jordan wrote. “Since (the commissioners’) response to your request to appeal to the COGCC would be denied, the two members of the BOCC who expressed their opinions to me on Friday feel that my requesting an extension would be an empty exercise. Therefore, I cannot grant your request to pursue an extension of time to review the subject (applications for permits to drill).”
Noble Energy Inc. is the company behind all of the 11 drilling permit applications. They are for locations about one mile from the blast site.
Stephen Flaherty, director of government relations for Noble Energy, said the company will cooperate with the COGCC, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and Garfield County, for its drilling operations near the blast site.
The couples, along with the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance and the Western Colorado Congress, filed an objection with the COGCC over 16 permits within a three-mile radius of the blast site earlier this year.
However, the agency said the couples did not have standing to request a hearing over those permits. Danielson has said that they are appealing that decision.
But Tricia Beaver, a spokeswoman for the COGCC, said that the agency’s commissioners on Monday ruled the appeal will not be granted a hearing.
Contact Phillip Yates: 384-9117
pyates@postindependent.com
Post Independent, Glenwood Springs, Colorado CO
Three couples asked the county to request a 20-day extension because a deadline to request a hearing on the permits was fast approaching.
Judy Jordan, the county’s oil and gas liaison, wrote a letter to Gunnison Attorney Luke Danielson, who is representing the couples, telling him the county will not request an extension to ask for a hearing before the COGCC over the permits.
“I received opinions of two members of the Garfield County Board of Commissioners (BOCC), both of whom are against requesting a hearing at this time,” Jordan wrote to Danielson.
Danielson said on Tuesday that he and the couples don’t “believe this is the last word” on the matter.
“Basically the (commissioners) have taken a position in the past without ever hearing from us,” Danielson said. “We think that they ought to hear our side of this before they get locked into any position. We are asking the commission to keep an open mind on this.”
Danielson, referring to Jordan’s letter, said he and the couples plan to go to the commissioner’s March 10 meeting to state their concerns over drilling near the blast site.
The couples argue that the use of fracturing technologies, which are designed to stimulate greater production of natural gas from subsurface formations, increases the risk that radioactive contaminants from the Rulison blast site may reach the surface.
The 1969 Project Rulison experiment was an attempt to free up commercially marketable quantities of natural gas, but the gas it produced proved to be too contaminated with radioactivity. The DOE prohibits drilling deeper than 6,000 feet in a 40-acre area around the site, and the COGCC requires a hearing for any gas wells proposed to be drilled within a half-mile of the site.
In Jordan’s letter, she wrote that the commissioners have previously determined that they will not ask for a hearing before the COGCC for drilling permits outside a half-mile of the blast site.
“Your correspondence does not indicate that the subject locations are within a 1/2 mile radius,” Jordan wrote. “Since (the commissioners’) response to your request to appeal to the COGCC would be denied, the two members of the BOCC who expressed their opinions to me on Friday feel that my requesting an extension would be an empty exercise. Therefore, I cannot grant your request to pursue an extension of time to review the subject (applications for permits to drill).”
Noble Energy Inc. is the company behind all of the 11 drilling permit applications. They are for locations about one mile from the blast site.
Stephen Flaherty, director of government relations for Noble Energy, said the company will cooperate with the COGCC, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and Garfield County, for its drilling operations near the blast site.
The couples, along with the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance and the Western Colorado Congress, filed an objection with the COGCC over 16 permits within a three-mile radius of the blast site earlier this year.
However, the agency said the couples did not have standing to request a hearing over those permits. Danielson has said that they are appealing that decision.
But Tricia Beaver, a spokeswoman for the COGCC, said that the agency’s commissioners on Monday ruled the appeal will not be granted a hearing.
Contact Phillip Yates: 384-9117
pyates@postindependent.com
Post Independent, Glenwood Springs, Colorado CO
