Permit applications of sites within the PUD acquired from Ursa will no longer be pursued

Garfield County’s oil and gas liaison Kirby Wynn announced that Terra Energy Partners LLC intends to abandon all pending permits for oil and gas wells within Battlement Mesa’s Planned Unit Development (PUD).

Mr. Wynn made the statement during a public meeting of the Battlement Mesa Service Association, the quasi-governmental authority that manages the affairs of the unincorporated community. Included in this announcement is A Pad, a prospective gas well pad location that has drawn ire from local citizens groups for years.

“The development of the A Pad was a bad idea from the start,” said Betsy Leonard, a resident of Battlement Mesa and a member of Western Colorado Alliance’s board of directors. “The location was ill-chosen being 900 feet from the Colorado River, and 600 feet from the water supply for Battlement Mesa. But most grievous was the mere 500 feet that separated the location from the homes of low-income residents.”

Last November, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) finalized new rules for the state’s oil and gas industry. The new measures, stemming from Colorado’s Senate Bill 19-181, seek to regulate oil and gas development in a manner that protects public health, safety, welfare, the environment and wildlife resources. These rules require most newly permitted wells to be set back at least 2,000 feet away from homes and schools.

Larry Forman, chairman of Battlement Concerned Citizens, expressed his appreciation of Terra’s decision. “Residents of Battlement Mesa are grateful that this operator has chosen to conduct their business in a manner that respects the people who live in this community, and the spirit of the new protections specified by the COGCC.”

Because the new rules only apply to future permit applications, A Pad’s approval would have fallen under the previous setback rules, which allowed wells to be drilled as close as 500 feet from homes. Despite the objections of residents in Battlement Mesa, Garfield County’s Board of County Commissioners gave the site their blessing.

“It’s unconscionable,” said Leslie Robinson, chairwoman of Grand Valley Citizens Alliance. “For years, members of this community have been asking their county’s leadership to step in and protect them from this disastrous proposal, and for years their pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Pad A represents one of the last vestiges of rules that failed to recognize that people deserve to be safe in their own homes from the health impacts of industrial development.”

Battlement Concerned Citizens and Grand Valley Citizens Alliance sought to prevent A Pad from being developed, an effort which culminated in a lawsuit aided by students serving in DU’s Sturm College of Law clinic. Presently the litigation is subject to appeal after the citizens groups’ case was dismissed in district court.

“This is an unmitigated victory for our community,” said Dave Devanney, the previous chairman of Battlement Concerned Citizens. “It just goes to show that when passionate people organize and work together to solve a common problem, anything is possible.”