Eighteen-wheelers kick up gravel at all hours of the day as they rumble down rural roads to drop off supplies at oil and gas extraction sites. Nearby homes sometimes shudder, as excess gases at the well pads are burned in a process called “flaring,” which creates a clamor similar to that of a jet engine.
Scores of residents living in the wide-open and gas-rich plains east of Boulder complain noise, emissions and traffic are harming their quality of life and oil and gas exploration is despoiling the landscape.
Industrialization has come to where city dwellers used to go to get away from it all.
“If you would have talked to me two years ago, I wouldn't have known what unconventional oil and gas extraction was about. I've got quite an education over the last two years,” said Rod Brueske, who lives on a three-acre farm with his wife and two children in southeastern Boulder County.
There are three well pads within a half-mile of Brueske's farm, which he purchased for $195,000 from Boulder County Open Space in May 2011, and even more a short drive away down East County Line Road. The wells are in Weld County, which has fewer regulations and a lot more drilling than Boulder.
Over the last several months, Brueske has called the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to report noise, dust and a peculiar odor that left a metallic taste in his mouth that he believes stems from hydraulic fracturing — a process in which huge volumes of water and sand, along with some chemicals, are flushed into the ground to release oil and gas from underground shale formations.
“When they first came in, it was like an army of trucks. In one hour, I counted 45 dump trucks,” said Brueske, noting that the heavy trucks appear to be carving deep ruts into East County Line Road. “Then when they started drilling the well, our house was actually shaking and vibrating.”
Another man who recently bought a home not too far away, just outside of Longmont, said the new house he bought is “almost untenable” now that a nearby drilling site is regularly burning excess gases to relieve the pressure of a well that is being “fracked” for natural gas.
“They started drilling, then capped it off with a vent stack and when it flares — on the hour, minimum, 24/7 — the rumbling is the equivalent of a small earthquake. It is easily felt and heard,” he said.
The man didn't want his name used publicly because he worries it might hurt his property's resale value.
Could fracking drive down property prices?
The impact Colorado's oil and gas boom might have on property values is hard to determine.
When U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., met with concerned constituents last spring to discuss fracking, the congressman from Boulder predicted Brueske's farm is "probably worth a lot less now, on resale.”
The Colorado Association of Realtors says it doesn't keep data on how oil and gas drilling might impact property values but a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation report last year stated natural gas development there “would have an overall regional effect of increasing property values” as workers moved to the area and paid for goods and services. But the report also said New York residences that are near new gas wells “would likely see some downward pressure on price.”
Real estate agent Nanner Fisher, who has lived in Boulder since 1983, is concerned the oil and gas industry is hurting her business: Selling properties near drilling operations is difficult, she said.
“For the most part if there is a well that's visible when you show a property, [the prospective buyer] will ask to look for something else. A lot of it is the visual effect of the well site,” she said. “And, they think if you can see it, it's gotta be close enough that it's not healthy. It's the same thing that's been going on with electrical lines for years. People don't want to live under power lines, either.”
Fisher knows from experience how gas drilling can ruin rural living. She lives in eastern Boulder County, off of Niwot Road, where Encana Oil and Gas Inc. recently began a new noisy operation.
“I used to have unobstructed mountain views. Now I have a well to look at,” she said.
Her neighbor, a Boulder orthodontist whose house is even closer to the well, became so bothered by the raucous, he filed a complaint with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission last week.
But while there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that properties located near oil or gas sites can come with a host of headaches, the assessed value of residential property in heavily drilled Weld County went up 1 percent this year compared to the year before, according to county assessor Christopher Woodruff.
The total assessed value of all property in Weld County went up 20 percent in 2012 compared to 2011 “and a good chunk of that was in oil and gas valuation,” he said. Total assessed value of all property in Weld County in 2011 was $5.4 billion, according to Woodruff, and this year the total is $6.5 billion with about $3.4 billion of that coming from the assessed value of the county's oil and gas production.
Property owners willing to put up with the impacts can also negotiate a lease with energy companies if there is oil or gas beneath their land. In those cases, the property owners may receive royalty checks.
A matter of health
Economics, however, aren't the main concern for many homeowners fretting over fracking.
“My biggest concern lies with my family and children,” Brueske said.
A recent University of Colorado-Denver School of Public Health analysis showed that residents within a half-mile of fracking operations were exposed to air pollutants far above federal hazard standards.
“What [the oil and gas industry is] giving you is sublethal doses of neurotoxins so the effects take time,” Brueske said. “Part of what the industry is counting on is they are in and out of these [oil and gas lands] and then they are gone. Proving you got cancer from oil and gas drilling is very, very difficult.”
Industry representatives contend their opponents are overstating the case. Safety, they say, comes first.
“Oil and gas industry employees live, work, and raise their families in the communities within which we operate,” Doug Flanders, director of policy and external affairs for the Colorado Oil & Gas Association wrote in an email to the BoulderiJournal. “Air quality is of paramount importance, and we know that oil and gas operations must be protective of public health and the environment. Fortunately for Colorado citizens, our state is one of the most aggressive states in regard to air emission regulations and controls of the oil and gas industry. COGA supported the new EPA rule in senate testimony earlier this year, much of which was based on innovative oil and gas industry practices in Colorado.”
State laws require drilling operations to be at least 350 feet from residential properties. Congressman Polis, environmental organizations and citizens groups are pushing for setbacks of 1,000 feet.
'We are heavily regulated and we should be'
Some local governments such as Boulder County have enacted a moratorium on new oil and gas permits. At a meeting last week, the Boulder County Planning Commission recommended that the area's moratorium be extended another three to six months beyond its scheduled Feb. 4 expiration date.
“We are committed to working with Boulder County and have met with them and we will meet with them again,” said Wendy Wiedenbeck, a community relations advisor for Encana. “It's our hope that we can impress upon them the importance of understanding how our operations are impacted by those proposed regulations. More importantly, we want them to understand what is already regulated.”
She added: “We have a responsibility to listen and consider their opinions and concerns. I think we've demonstrated that approach, dating back to 2006. We have a good record of responding to neighbor concerns and we will take that approach going forward. We are heavily regulated and we should be.”
Voters in Longmont, meanwhile, will decide in November whether to ban fracking in their city limits.
"Longmont is really going to benefit from this," Brueske said. "Their property values are going to go up."
For its part, COGA endorses the state's “local government designee” system that is designed to facilitate communications and alleviate concerns between city and county stakeholders and the industry. Private agreements between companies and local jurisdictions are another option to solve problems.
“For decades, cities and counties across Colorado have been wrestling with their role in oil and gas oversight, and it’s an important conversation to have,” Flounders said. “For the sake of encouraging investment and regulatory certainty across Colorado, we hope jurisdictions with oil and gas development will work to improve the state process, not work outside of it.”
But for residents like Brueske, a resolution to Colorado's drilling debate can't come soon enough. He is frustrated with oil and gas operators who break the rules, and with what he believes is the lax policing of the industry. The state doesn't employ enough inspectors to keep gas companies honest, he laments, and lobbyists have pushed through legislation that exempts the industry from key environmental laws.
“I moved out of the city for the easy life and to avoid the petty crimes in exchange for life in the country where crimes are committed by multinational corporations aided and abetted by our state and federal government,” Brueske said.
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