The Coming Park County Oil Slick

Garfield County's Drilling Landscape - Coming to Park County?

If you were driving through my subdivision and looked over to discover a large piece of equipment on my land looking to be pumping huge tanks of liquid “stuff” into the ground, would it concern you? You might ask since you probably use well water for your domestic needs and you might wonder what I was up to.

I calmly tell you it’s not really a big deal. I need the money and I’ve leased the natural gas drilling rights to a Houston company who thinks there’s lots to be found and we’re so dependent on Middle East energy that we should try and use our own resources. They say all they’ve got to do is pump this “hydraulic fracking” material into the ground and presto – up comes the gas!

“Sounds pretty nifty,” you say. “Will it save us money?”

“I don’t know. I’ll make some from the lease, that’s for sure. But for the rest, I don’t know. “It’s up to the company, I guess.”

I began to wish that the derrick was better hidden. I didn’t want to think about the answers to the questions. Another neighbor approaches.

“What is that stuff they’re pumpin’ down there anyway?” he asks.

“I don’t know, but the company says it’s safe,” I say, getting a bit uncomfortable.

“Looks awful,” the neighbor says. “How long will it be here? And what’s that pond of guck I see over there? What do those tanks do?”

You already noticed an unusually large number of big tanker trucks coming and going at all hours and thought you smelled something “funny.”

Then all of the warnings that you’d been told were “alarmist” begin to fall into place.

"Processed" frac water in Garfield 

County Pit.  Companies don't have

to disclose the chemicals thanks to

"The Haliburton Loophole"

On the Precipice - Gasland
We’re on that precipice here in Park County after a Denver Based company, Land Energy, Inc., spent $1 million during a BLM lease auction in May for 10-year rights to potentially drill on more than 6,000 acres on land north of Hartsel. The Flume reported it on May 21, and through fortunate timing, HBO has been airing the Sundance Film Festival award-winning documentary Gasland since last week with airings still scheduled July 2, 5, and 9, as well as HBO on-demand.

The show is an eye-opening vision of possible hazards from domestic natural gas drilling and uses toxic scenes from Garfield County on Colorado’s Western Slope to bring home unintended consequences to the viewer. Of course, the gas industry has done its best to discredit the film, knowing full well that it’s more fact than fiction.

These documentaries are the only way to effectively get the word out as major media in this country has been taken over by money and corporate interests.

The Garfield County drilling boom triggered a rash of citizen complaints that petrochemical pollution has caused adrenal and pituitary tumors, headaches, nausea, joint pain, respiratory problems, and other symptoms. One related organization, the Paonia- based “Endocrine Disruption Exchange” seeks to compile and disseminate via their web site and other means, information on health and environmental problems caused by low-dose exposure to chemicals that interfere with development and function, called endocrine disruptors.

One little-known piece of the puzzle is the “Haliburton Loophole,” a 2005 Republican-created exemption named after the company former Vice-President Richard Cheney headed. Cheney, you’ll recall, conducted numerous secret meetings with members of the energy industry during his VP tenure.

“Fracking” involves forcing millions of gallons of water, sand, and chemicals, some toxic, into the ground. The process frees the gas back to the surface for capture. Cheney’s Haliburton “perfected” the technology and the loophole created an exemption to the Safe Water Drinking Act allowing companies to keep secret the chemicals injected deep into ground. Some statistics say each well uses from one to seven million gallons and that while half returns to the surface as a black muck, called “produced water” to be trucked away, the rest stays below.

Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-Colo) 

has pushed for better oil and gas 

disclosure of materials used in fracking.

Who’s there for you – the Democrats
Regardless of your political leanings, the facts are clear that it’s the Democratic Party trying to look out after you in spite of a Conservative-loaded Supreme Court intent to let corporations rule and make the muck murkier.

In the film, Colorado 1st Congressional District Congresswoman Diana DeGette, D-Denver, is shown sparing with industry executives over disclosure of the chemicals, but a bill she sponsored to close the loophole died in her Congressional committee in May and her amendment was withdrawn.

Contrast that with British Petroleum Lobbyist Dan Meyer co-sponsoring a $1,000 a plate Washington DC fundraiser on June 24 for Cory Gardiner, a Republican running to unseat incumbent Democrat Betsy Markey, D-Ft. Collins, in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District.

At the state level, Colorado Democratic Governor Bill Ritter helped put in place what some say are the most environmentally stringent oil and gas regulations in the country. Likely GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis will take aim at relaxing those rules.

McInnis has been an attorney representing the oil and gas industry and down on the county level, in 2008, he contributed $10,000 to help fund a 501c4 nonprofit group called Western Heritage; half of the $20,000 the group used for advertising in support of winning Garfield County Republican Commissioner candidates favorable to the industry.
The election drew record spending from outside interests and led to one fine levied against another 527 political committee for improper electioneering tactics.

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, a former geologist and our Democratic candidate for governor, has called on the oil and gas industry to disclose the chemicals to give the public faith in the processes.

Quality of Life
But this is more than just about fracking; it’s about quality of life. It’s about change and big money at a time when we should be focusing more on environmentally friendly energy technologies and less on how to get more oil and gas out of the ground and giving the industry more control over our landscape.

Colorado Democrats -- US Senators Mark Udall (left), Michael Bennet (right), and Bennet Primary challenger Andrew Romanoff (center) with a youthful constituent.

You’ve seen how that lack of interest in oversight led to the largest oil spill ever, still in progress in the Gulf of Mexico. Does this industry deserve more control?

To my astonishment, the US Senate voted in June NOT to repeal $35 billion in subsidies to BIG OIL, money that could’ve been used to pay down the deficit and fund a $10 billion grant program to encourage energy-efficient buildings. Voting with BIG OIL were Colorado Democratic US Senators Mark Udall and Michael Bennet, along with 19 other Democrats. Among other things, they cited a negative impact on jobs in that industry and a bill that could’ve been written better.

Bennet primary challenger Andrew Romanoff, who received unanimous support from Park County delegates at the state assembly in May, told the Colorado Independent newspaper last week “the truth is, it’s not about our wellbeing or well water that is at stake here, it is our children’s future.” He favors better regulatory reform and control of “a bigger slick of money spreading through Congress and washing away our hopes for reform.”
I agree. And believe you should as well.

In light of the activist Supreme Court carved out by George Bush, which earlier this year changed laws granting corporations the ability to contribute unlimited funds to influence elections – at any level -- if we care about our pristine State we should take heed.

In response, our Democrat-controlled state legislature passed a bill requiring more disclosure of corporate and union spending in our elections. It was signed into law by Governor Ritter in May. Every Republican in the Colorado Senate voted against the bill.

Colorado Oil & Gas Map by Resource Play. GREEN: Producing Wells YELLOW: Permitted Wells RED: Not-Producing www.resourceplay.com


This column was originally published in the July 2, 2010 edition of The Flume, the paper of record for Park County, Colorado.  The monthly column is titled "Democratically Speaking"