A dubious record will likely be set when the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) meets over the next two days in Adams County: the highest fine ever levied against an oil and gas company for a spill in the state of Colorado.
Despite a record fine of $390,000 levied last month against Oxy USA, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) has a backlog of unresolved water and soil contamination cases resulting from natural gas drilling in northwest Colorado, a Colorado Independent investigation reveals.
Colorado oil and gas industry officials continue to fall back on new state drilling regulations to fend off more county or federal scrutiny, even as their trade association challenges the Colorado rules in court. The irony appears lost on the…
Environmental activists are calling on Colorado officials to require oil and gas companies to chemically tag the fluids used in hydraulic fracturing, an increasingly controversial natural gas drilling process. Many suspect that “fracking” may be contaminating ground water and chemical tags would make it possible for regulators to identify the source of any contamination. The idea is a hot topic among those favoring increased federal oversight of the process, but industry officials won’t even discuss the idea, and state regulators say it’s barely on their radar screens.
The Garfield County commissioners Monday did decide to fire off a strongly-worded resolution condemning contamination of drinking water by the natural-gas industry. It just wasn’t the resolution some people expected.
Despite some speculation the commissioners might vote Monday on a…
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