Dear Boulder County Commissioners,
Cindy Domenico, Deb Gardner, Elise Jones:
What can I say?
What can I say that I haven't already said for the last seven years of
my life to you, other commissioners, city councils, senators, governors, and
hundreds of thousands of Coloradans, media everywhere and the entire United
States? I have even told the fracking industry the facts on their oil and gas state
of failures.
I will now re-iterate.
I warned everyone an incident like Firestone would happen. The
probability exists that an oil and gas related catastrophe in residential
neighborhoods will happen when industry infrastructure and realistic setbacks
are not created. There is no doubt a
catastrophic tragedy will happen if Boulder County does not act immediately to
pass local laws that protect the “civil rights to safety” of Boulder County
citizens and that of the environment and
not favor the oil and gas industry.
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| Firestone, Colorado home exploded in fireball. Two men died. |
I have probably reviewed more than a half million Colorado Oil and Gas
documents, I have seen documents that illustrate explosive levels of methane
and other gases seeping into dozens of homes that had to be evacuated by the
COGCC. I have seen documents that show how the Laramie Fox-Hills Aquifer was
contaminated with methane and toluene (a fracking fluid) by a well casing leak.
Private water wells all over the state have been contaminated by oil and gas
operations. Methane and fluid migrations can travel over one mile in distance.
I have seen thousands of spill reports that showed 17.5% of all
fracking industry spills had already caused ground water contamination in a
statewide study. And a staggering 40% of
spills contaminated groundwater in Weld County, where Firestone is located. My
studies, which are nothing more than the COGCC’s own documents, were confirmed
accurate three years later by Matt Lepore, Director of the COGCC. If any
company had contaminated groundwater at a 40% rate they would no doubt be shut
down.
I have reviewed documents that illustrate numerous homes in Colorado
are build right on top of abandoned oil and gas wells and in a few cases, the
home exploded due to methane seepage into the basements. One person was taken to the burn center.
In 2011 the COGCC requested emergency funding in Florence, CO for
explosive levels of methane seeping into more than a dozen homes from an
abandoned well more than 1,000’ away. The homes had to be immediately
evacuated. For perspective, the home in
Firestone was 170’ away from an abandoned well.
According to a Cornell University Study: 60% of well-bores fail after
20 years. Meaning; the structural integrity of wellbores degrade, corrode,
crack and fall apart after twenty years.
There are six abandoned wells in Boulder City proper that are over 80
years old that appear to be in homeowner’s backyards or underneath or near
occupied homes. There are nearly one
dozen other abandoned wells that exist in the surrounding areas of the City of
Boulder.
There is an 80+ year old abandoned well under Valmont reservoir and two
abandoned wells the same age on the beaches of the Boulder Reservoir where,
>300,000 people visit annually. There is also an abandoned oil and gas well
from the 1930’s less than 200’ feet from Creekside Elementary School. Nearly
the same distance as the well in Firestone.
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| BOULDER, COLORADO |
On June 12, 2012 I attended a fracking study session in Loveland, Co where
I told the Mayor, planning and zoning commission they could create their own
setbacks from fracking industry oil and gas wells. I told them they should locate every active
and abandoned well in their city and outlining county and develop new homes
away from existing wells in order to protect public health, safety and welfare.
In 2012 I discovered a Setback Loophole and introduced a bill to close
it – but the unfortunately, the bill died. COGCC Rule 602(d) states: “Existing wells
are exempt from the provisions of these regulations as they relate to the
location of the well.” This Setback Loophole allows any ‘completed’ well to be
re-entered and re-drilled regardless of proximity to a structure. And home
developers are exempt from any state setbacks from oil and gas operations. This
appears to be reckless endangerment and must cease and desist immediately.
August 2012 I gave a formal presentation to the COGCC entitled “The
Failures of the State of Colorado to Prevent or Mitigate Adverse Impacts to its
Citizens and the Environment.”
LINK
The grand loophole of all exists in the COGCC Rules and Regulations.
The entirety of the COGCC’s regulations are nothing more than worthless words
due to a ‘Waiver Loophole’ that allows any operator to not abide by any rule or
regulation regarding oil and gas development and operations that causes them
‘undue financial burden.’
With a single sentence from the oil and gas industry that states
“abiding by this rule will cause XYZ Operator and its operations undue
financial burden” the industry then does not have to abide by the rule or pay
its expense to do so, and is then waived by a simple signature of COGCC Director Matt Lepore. This is the 'Comprehensive Waiver
Loophole.'
I lived in Firestone. It was not only a horrific inspiration to launch
a full state-wide resistance against the unregulated fracking industry and the
State agencies that gave them right of way over public health safety and
environment, but it forced me to move to a place that did not have any real
immediate danger. I could not protect myself from the inherent dangers of the
fracking industry.
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| FIRESTONE, CO - each red dot = +|- 52 active wells |
Our civil rights to safety have been stripped from us by federal
exemptions and enforced by state supremacy that is arbitrary and capricious, which
appears to recklessly endanger public health safety and environment.
As I've said for years now, this is not an anti-fracking issue, it's a
civil rights issue and every single human has the constitutional right to live
without obstruction to safety. Facts don’t lie, the oil and gas industry and
the COGCC do. I believe Firestone could have been prevented, and I tried like
hell to prevent it.
I don’t want to ever come back here and tell you what needs to be done
as far as moral and ethical obligations to the people and environment of
Boulder County. You know what to do to
protect the people and we are all counting on you to be as courageous as us.
Even if you battle the odds and lose, we will still support you for your courage. The
best option is to never allow fossil fuel extraction into Boulder County and we
are counting on you to protect us.
We are smarter than a fossil fuel and ‘We Are the Energy of Change.’
Shane Davis
May 1, 2017
Boulder County
Feel free to email the Boulder County Commissioners your thoughts or simply cut and paste the above information.
ADDITIONALLY: In this
anti-fracking/civil-right movement, or any other movement, I do not condone acts of violence, rhetoric
or any action that is not peaceful and safe. Any person who speaks of acts of
violence or conducts such acts, are not an associate of mine and should be held
accountable for their actions under the system of fair and just law.
...........
