Oil and Gas at Your Door? (2005 Edition) - Earthworks

Landowner Stories
people. Others are environmentalists, or just care about land and animals.
Shortly, there will be a huge natural gas explosion, but it won’t be pipelines or gas wells that
blow. The explosion will come from the average Westerner, who is tired of being used by the oil
and gas industry, with the help of state and federal officials.
Reprinted with permission from High Country News.
13. BELLFLOWER WELL
By Curt Swanson
Introduction:
My wife, Anne, and I moved to Colorado in 1997 to build our retirement home on property we
had purchased in the Bellflower Ranch subdivision northwest of Bayfield. This subdivision consists
of lots between 10 and 25 acres.
Like so many other newcomers, we knew nothing about gas wells or the impact they could have
on residents. In looking around we could see pumpjacks operating in open fields, but never
thought that they could put these things in subdivisions.
My story here is about the process our community went through in dealing with the drilling company.
We learned a lot about how gas companies operate and how to more effectively deal with
them. I would like to share with you some of the mitigation wins we managed to obtain and how
we achieved them.
The key to any success we had was EDUCATION. That is, educating ourselves on what can and
cannot be done and some of the options the drilling companies have that can make gas wells
more bearable to our community. We also learned that in the industry there are good guys and
bad guys. We managed to draw one of the bad guys.
History:
In March of 2000 the drilling company met with several neighbors to discuss mitigation of the
proposed well. We presented a list of what we wanted, and the Company verbally agreed to
most of our requests.
Two days after our meeting, we received a letter from the drilling company that they had already
submitted a drilling application the previous week. None of our critical mitigation requests had
been incorporated in the application. This was our first clue as to how this company operates
when it comes to dealing with landowners.
Subsequent to the application, there were several hearings with the La Plata County
Commissioners resulting in an agreement with the Company on the mitigation items required to
obtain a County permit. Included in this agreement was a low-profile pumping unit and the use of
electricity in place of gas to run any equipment after six months of operation. We all walked away
from the meetings feeling we had a satisfactory agreement and could co-exist with the gas well.
Two years later we were still waiting for the Company to replace the large, gas-driven pumpjack
they had installed. Instead of doing what they promised, they petitioned the County to waive the
requirement for a low-profile, electric-driven pumping unit. The County refused. The Company’s
response was to file a suit in court and to appeal to the COGCC to force the County to abandon
their requirement for a low-profile pumping unit. A comprise was finally reached between the
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