Last December, Western Colorado Alliance and allied organizations from across Colorado achieved another victory for clean air and healthy communities. In the latest of a series of historic decisions at the Air Quality Control Commission, Alliance members won the toughest protections in the country to limit methane and toxic emissions from oil and gas facilities in our region.

These new protections included increased leak detection and repair rates for oil and gas sites across the state, creating the nation’s toughest program to limit oil and gas facilities from leaking greenhouse gas and air toxics. We also prohibited the venting of these emissions during maintenance activities and secured greater protections for impacted communities living near gas wells.

The leak detection and repair rules going forward require oil and gas operators to conduct more frequent inspections, especially for low-producing wells, and make repairs when emissions are discovered. The largest facilities within disproportionately impacted communities and within 1,000 feet of homes will now be inspected monthly with optical gas imaging cameras. All new oil and gas facilities will also be inspected monthly.

“The Air Quality Control Commission’s vote to increase the rate of leak detection and repair inspections for all impacted communities is critically important for Western Colorado,” says Rodger Steen, chair of the Western Colorado Alliance’s Oil & Gas Committee. “All wells need to be inspected for leaks and all people deserve protections from toxic emissions, no matter where they live. These rules protect people, keep our air clean, and reduce methane emissions to help us limit the impacts of climate change.”

The final rules are designed to curb emissions of methane, ozone and other gasses from oil and gas facilities statewide. It is estimated these new rules will result in a 51% reduction in methane emissions from the oil and gas sector by 2030, helping Colorado meet its greenhouse gas reduction targets set by state law in 2019.

In addition to requiring more frequent inspections for leaks within 1,000 feet of disproportionately impacted communities, the new rules require yearly inspections of low-producing wells previously subject to just a single, once-in-a-lifetime leak detection inspection. There are thousands of low-producing wells in Colorado that have not been inspected since 2016.

Some of the Commissioners struggled with the broad definition of a disproportionately impacted community in HB21-1261, the state law that requires protections and mitigation for such communities that are the site of intensive oil and gas development, and often less prosperous and more racially diverse. Battlement Mesa in Garfield County and Commerce City outside Denver are examples of such communities. Ultimately, they recognized that disproportionately impacted communities across the state deserve greater protections.

“Everyone wants to breathe clean air free from pollution and industry should do the work to ensure people living next to these facilities are safe,” says Leslie Robinson, Chair of the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance. “These are commonsense rules, people on the Western Slope deserve
the same level of protection as people living on the Front Range.”

These new protections are important not only for Coloradans, but everyone in the country as they set a new bar for regulators to follow. As the Environmental Protection Agency seeks to strengthen nationwide emission standards for oil and gas development, the latest AQCC rule provides a strong benchmark for the agency to follow.

Thank you to all of the Alliance members who have rallied, testified and worked for this victory over the past ten years. It has been a long and winding road but we are now on the path to meeting Colorado’s greenhouse gas targets and protecting our communities.