The Triple Creek Directional project is the first multi-well oil and gas project the Greeley Planning Commission has denied in recent memory. In April 2014, the planning commission approved the largest site in Greeley for up to 58 wells on an existing pad near U.S. 85 and U.S. 34, though some residents complained it was too close to a new school and a residential subdivision.
In July 2013, the planning commission approved up to 18 oil and gas wells and 20 tanks near Northridge High School. The Bestway drilling project, also a multi-well situation and originally proposed to have 40 wells, sits in the heart of Greeley’s residential areas at 35th Avenue and 4th Street. It was approved in 2011, along with a 22-well site off of 11th Avenue near Island Grove Regional Park.
Still other multi-well projects have been proposed in Greeley, with the company’s ultimately pulling their applications after residential opposition. Some threatened to leave town.
Others talked of the dangers of mixing heavy truck traffic from a highly industrial oil and gas facility with newly licensed teens driving to and from school along 71st Avenue. Still others talked reputation. Greeley may have once been known as the stinky town, but now, some said, it’s the fracking town people and businesses would increasingly avoid if the city allowed a 22-well project in their west Greeley neighborhood.
However they put it, the main message Tuesday from the roughly 100 residents to the Greeley Planning Commission was they did not want an Extraction Oil and Gas facility — even with a planned 1,000-foot setback, twice the minimum state distance — near their homes.
“Residents would rather Greeley become the most sustainable city rather than most fracked,” Maydean Worley told the commission as she and other residents packed a meeting room in the Greeley Recreation Center, 651 10th Ave., to oppose the facility, citing everything from bruising the city’s growing reputation to health and traffic concerns.
After about two hours of testimony against the project, the Greeley Planning Commission agreed, denying Extraction’s project on a 6-0 vote. The group discussed the project in December, but ran out of time for a vote and rescheduled the meeting to Tuesday.
“This location is inappropriate for the application being presented,” said planning commission member Eddie Mirick. “It would be very detrimental to the community in and around the area, who have lived there a long time, enjoy their homes and environment, and contribute greatly to the city and have for years in many ways.”
Th
e company has 10 business days to appeal the decision to the Greeley City Council. Project manager Blane Thingelstad said he could not yet commit to appealing the decision. If an appeal is filed, surrounding neighborhoods will receive notification, said Mike Garrott, planning manager for the city.
Denver-based Extraction had sought approval to build the project west of 71st Avenue and north of 18th Street on an empty lot surrounded on the north, east and south sides by neighborhoods. The plan was to put the facility on a 14-acre piece of a 69-acre property, which also is surrounded on all sides by about nine existing well sites. There are two existing wells and tanks on the site already.
Thingelstad had earlier explained the project would use only electric drilling rigs, which eliminate the loud noises that emanate from the diesel engines of other drilling rigs. There would be berms and a sound wall to shield residents from the project’s noises and lights while the wells were drilled. He said the company also would employ the use of a new tool called lease automatic custody transfer unit, which sucks up fugitive emissions during transfers from storage tanks to trucks, a process which usually is the chief source of fugitive emissions on a well site.
There are more than 425 wells throughout Greeley. Many in recent years have been grouped on multi-well pads — which are said to reduce the environmental footprint of an oil and gas company to extract its minerals —like the proposed site by Extraction.
Windsor resident Dale Agan told the commission if they approved the project, residents are in for months of agony. “If these wells are allowed, these residents will face months and months of disruption in their lives, and I believe, significant long-term effects,” Agan said. “In my estimation, 22,000 wells is too many in this county. We’ve taxed Mother Nature beyond her limit. When I look to the east, I see a big brown cloud that wasn’t there three years ago.”
Residents had repeatedly asked Extraction officials to find an alternate location. This one, Thingelstad said, was just about the last resort. An earlier location, closer to King Soopers along 71st and 10th Street, was unsuitable. The mineral resource the company is trying to get to is directly beneath the center of the city. The company had planned to drill those resources from 2.5 miles away, which would be the longest horizontal drilling yet attempted in Colorado.
Extraction officials, in a better pricing environment, had promised to install tankless facilities, essentially using a pipeline to move crude and gas directly from well heads to processing. But with the recent downturn, such a prospect is too expensive, they’ve said.
A secondary problem with the project was it was close to Sheep Draw, which is near a nesting ground for red-tailed hawks. The company couldn’t drill during that nesting time, which could extend the entire project beyond the initially planned two years to drill.
Commissioner Ryan Mayeda said that was a major concern.
“Just the idea of having to take off five to six months breaks for raptor breeding drags this project out to four to five years of drilling, not just one or two years,” he said. “I’m not comfortable with it.”
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