Colorado oil and gas industry regulators faced fury from local governments and residents Monday as they began to refine state rules for underground pipelines, measures spurred by a fatal house explosion in Firestone and an urban growth boom that complicates fossil fuels extraction.
Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission regulators have proposed tougher requirements that companies cut off abandoned lines, test active lines to detect leaks, participate in an 811 system for locating lines at specific excavation sites and report more fully on fires and explosions that happen about once a month.
But residents and local governments — fearful, frustrated and angry about the accidents they know about — are demanding much stricter protection for people and the environment.
Seven years into a surge of oil and gas production, hundreds of miles of underground lines carry volatile hydrocarbons near people, with more than 120,000 “segments” known to be buried within 1,000 feet of buildings. State officials have conceded they don’t know the locations or even the total miles. They lack data on underground lines beyond well pads called “gathering lines” that carry fossil fuels toward larger interstate pipelines. And no agreements have been made, state officials acknowledged Monday, for regulatory cooperation with other state agencies and federal overseers of those interstate lines.
The current rules require reporting of accidents only when non-worker residents are hurt and fire causes damage that company officials deem significant.
A coalition of Front Range government and emergency officials contends state regulators must obtain and make available detailed maps of all underground lines. Local leaders also are demanding reports on all accidents, better inspections to detect leaks, surface setbacks and markers on pipelines, and local discretion to require removal of abandoned steel and plastic pipelines.
“I’m terrified because of what happened at Firestone,” Longmont resident Judith Blackburn, a retired teacher, said after addressing commissioners. “A lot of accidents like that could potentially happen in our community.”
She referred to pipeline safety tests Gov. John Hickenlooper ordered after the April 17 Firestone blast, which killed two men working inside a home and seriously injured a woman. More than 400 segments apparently had leaks.
“Even though that’s a small percentage, it is a large number,” Blackburn said. “And there’s no indication of where any of those leaking lines are. … It would be a lot more heartening to work toward what we want than to keep fighting this industry that inevitably will be replaced. Fossil fuels should stay in the ground. Civil disobedience is our next step.”
Industry leaders support the COGCC’s proposed rule changes.
“The proposed regulations call for more flow line testing, more reporting, more monitoring and more mapping — all of which are beneficial for Coloradans who live near oil and gas operations,” said Colorado Oil and Gas Association president Dan Haley. “If approved, there will be more attention and scrutiny on these flow lines than ever before, creating an even safer industry. This added regulatory oversight and burden is something our industry must bear, because it’s the right thing to do and it is in the best interest of Coloradans across the state.”
Yet cities and counties demanded more. They argued there’s no way to ensure environmental health and public safety with oil and gas flowing horizontally under communities, especially during a building boom, if nobody has comprehensive maps.
“These facilities have potential for dangerous failures if they are not handled correctly, but neither local governments nor Colorado residents can determine where they lie or if they have been constructed, tested and abandoned to the highest standards,” assistant Boulder County Attorney Kate Burke said. “This causes uncertainty, prevents the kind of land use and emergency planning that local governments conduct for other hazards, and makes it difficult or impossible for local governments, landowners and developers to ensure that they are building safely.”
La Plata County Commissioner Gwen Lachelt told commissioners the Firestone explosion exposed a huge problem. “We need a flowline mapping database that is accessible to local government and landowners. … Without this information, we cannot plan for growth.”
Fort Collins environmental planner Rebecca Everette testified that city officials seek clear maps. COGCC director Matt Lepore told her “Form 44s” submitted by companies are available on a COGCC website.
The problem, Everette said later in an interview, “is new development happening in the vicinity of oil and gas flow lines. We want to ensure our residents are protected. … We have very little understanding of what is underground now.” And hunting for scattered data on an agency website puts too much of a burden on local government, let alone first responders and residents, she said.
“We believe strongly in Fort Collins in open data and governmental transparency.”
This is the latest of multiple state-run “rule-makings” in recent years that have given Colorado carefully-worded documents meant to guide the oil and gas industry. Yet conflict over industrial operations inside communities has intensified.
COGCC staffers on Monday said no agreements have been made with federal and Public Utilities Commission officials for oversight of hundreds of miles of gathering lines.
State Sen. Matt Jones said requiring companies to provide precise maps of all underground lines “is a minimum” and challenged assertions industry representatives have made that public maps could lead to illegal tampering.
“Public safety way outweighs that,” Jones said, adding that sorting out oversight of gathering lines is essential. And in neighboring Utah, companies are required to report to state regulators any accidents that lead to injuries, Jones said.
Companies operating in Colorado “should have to report every accident. We should know what’s going on.”
