Daily Activity Dashboard (DAD)

The 'pending permits' page on the Daily Activity Dashboard displays a map, chart, and tables of pending Forms 2As, grouped by county. The Form 2A is the Oil and Gas Location Assessment permit application. This is the application an operator must submit if they want to do extraction in Colorado. 

On this page, you can view permit applications that are within the public comment phase of the application. Clicking on the link icon for these records (in the table) will take you to ECMC's  Public Comments interface, where you can directly comment on the permit application. Read more about how to submit comments.

Also on this page you can view records for permit applications for which the public comment phase is closed. These are posted in red. Clicking on the link icon for these records (in the table) brings you to the permit application in our database where you can view all imaged documents.

Read more about the Form 2A and the ways in which ECMC's team of Location Assessment Specialists rigorously review each application prior to the application being heard by the Commissioners.

The 'Well Status' page on the Daily Activity Dashboard shows you the status of all wells in our ECMC database. 

Active Wells

Pre-production Wells

• Drilling (DG): A well that is being drilled (i.e. under construction) and is not yet reported as completed.
• Waiting on Completion (WO): a well that has been drilled but the operator has not submitted nor obtained 'completed' permitting status from ECMC engineers.

Production Wells

• Producing Well (PR): a well for which extraction is occurring.
  • Shut-in (SI): a shut-in well is completed and capable of production, yet no production is occurring.
• Injection Well (IJ): an injection well is a well used for waste disposal or secondary recovery.
  • Shut-in Injection Well (SI-IJ): an injection well that has been shut in.
• Temporarily Abandoned (TA): a well that is temporarily abandoned cannot produce without mechanical intervention. Said plainly, the operator has removed equipment from the well, which makes extraction not possible until that equipment has been returned. Abandoned means there is no chance the well will return to being a producing well. Despite its label, there is still an operator of record associated with the well.
• Active (AC): no extraction is actively occurring from active wells. Nor is anything being actively injected into an active well. Typically these wells are for gas storage or they are used as a monitoring well. 

Inactive Wells

• Plugged & Abandoned (PA): this type of well is not producing nor will it ever produce again. It is not only abandoned (see definition above), but also it is plugged. A plugged well is sealed with casing at the surface. Abandoned means there is no chance the well will return to being a producing well. Despite its label, there is still an operator of record associated with the well.

Other Well Status

• Abandoned location (AL): the location on which the well is proposed is vacated by the operator. No drilling occurs nor is even initiated. When an operator initiates drilling, the work is called spudding.
• Approved Permit (AP): the operator has obtained approval for its engineering permit but has not initiated drilled. When an operator initiates drilling, the work is called spudding.
• Expired Permit (EP): the previously approved engineering permit has expired. The operator cannot operate the well without re-applying for a new permit.
• Suspended Operations (SO): drilling/construction ceases before reaching planned depth.

View all terms and definitions.

The "Plugged Status" page on the Daily Activity Dashboard shows you the status of "plugged and abandoned" wells in our ECMC database. 

On this page you can view "plugged and abandoned" wells by county, operator, or other criteria. You can also view the wells that were PAed in the previous month.

What is a "plugged and abandoned' well?

"Plugged and abandoned" refers to the process of permanently sealing an oil or gas well at the end of its useful life to prevent leakage of fluids, gas, and other materials. This involves placing a series of cement plugs at specific intervals, removing wellhead equipment, and restoring the surface of the site. 

Per rule, ECMC defines a "plugged and abandoned" the removal of its associated production facilities, and the abandonment of its flowline(s). Subsequently, the operator must complete subsequent reclamation requirements.

Often "plugged and abandoned"  wells are referred to as "P.A.ed" wells.

The "Production" page on the Daily Activity Dashboard shows you the status of producing wells as reported by operators via the Form 7. Produced water data is reported by operators via the Form 47.

NOTE: generally production data lags three months. 

What is a producing well?

A producing well is a well from which extraction is actively occurring. View of a list of well status terms, or view tab 2 of the Daily Activity Dashboard.

Why does ECMC use "barrels" as the unit of measure?

The unit of measurement used to quantify raw production of oil and gas is called a barrel. (Historically, the term originates from the 1800s when operators used wooden barrels to contain and transport products.) Today and per rule, one barrel equals 42 (U.S.) gallons at 60° F. at atmospheric pressure.

The 'inspections' page on the Daily Activity Dashboard displays the number of inspections per month and provides links to view each inspection report.

Generally, staff at ECMC perform approximately 2,000-3,000 inspections per month. Staff enter inspection data into COGIS. 

NOTE: there may be up to a two month lag in inspection data.

What happens during an inspection?

ECMC has a team of expert Compliance Specialists who monitor oil and gas sites for compliance with ECMC's rules. They work throughout the state and inspect oil and gas locations on-site. Every well in Colorado is on an inspection schedule. Additionally, Compliance Specialists will inspect a site when an issue arises or if a community member uses ECMC's complaints for to request an investigation.

We strive for operator compliance with ECMC's protective rules and work with operators so that they met our standards. Compliance Specialists may request an operator to take actions to correct minor instances of non-compliance. Gaining compliance can come in the form of outreach training, voluntary compliance after the issuance of a corrective action and/or warning letter, or more formal actions related to a Notice of Alleged Violation (NOAV). Compliance Specialists may refer more serious alleged violations to the ECMC's Enforcement Unit for subsequent action.

The Compliance Specialists also partner with ECMC's Environmental Specialists on inspections.

The 'enforcement' tab on the Daily Activity Dashboard displays number of rules allegedly violated as cited in Notices of Alleged Violations (NOAVs). 

The Commission has a robust enforcement program to ensure operator compliance. When an operator is alleged to be non-compliant with ECMC’s regulations, ECMC has the authority to investigate, impose penalties, and issue orders, including cease and desist orders.

In addition to issuing NOAVs, ECMC can require an operator to cease operations. Pursuant to Rule 901.a., whenever the Director has reasonable cause to determine that an Operator is impacting or threatening to impact public health, safety, welfare, the environment, or wildlife resources, the Director may require the Operator to take action to avoid, minimize, or mitigate the potential impacts to public health, safety, welfare, the environment, or wildlife resources. 

The "notifications" tab on the Daily Activity Dashboard displays the notifications submitted by operators to ECMC regarding the status of operations at a well/location. 

You can use this tab to find out timely information about activities that will soon be occurring or are occurring at a specific well location. The timeline/deadline to submit a notification varies per type of notification. 

The tab displays data on the following types of notifications:

• Blow out preventer test (BOP)
• Formation integrity test (FIT)
• Flowlines abandoned (FLO)
• Hydraulic fracturing treatment (HF)
• Mechanical integrity test (MIT)
• Mechanical integrity test - UIC (MITU)
• Starting of plugging operations (PA)
• Spud (SP)

The 'spills' tab on the Daily Activity Dashboard displays data regarding spills as reported by operators via the Form 19. 

Operators are required to control and contain spills. ECMC collects spill and remediation data from operators per our regulations. That data is publicly posted on our COGIS database upon review by ECMC's expert remediation inspectors. Once an Operator's Initial Spill/Release Report is approved by the ECMC, a unique Facility ID is assigned to track spill response and cleanup records; those IDs are included on this tab.

Terms used on the tab: "active" and "closed"

Form 19 refers to reported spills/releases as active or closed. This refers to the status of the submitted form. It does NOT reflect whether or not the spill/release is actively discharging.

• Active: designation that a spill/release facility ID has been reported to the ECMC and the Operator has yet to demonstrate successful cleanup. Again, this is not an indication that the incident is actively discharging.
• Closed: designation that a spill/release facility ID that a Spill/Release or Remediation Project has demonstrated compliance with ECMC Cleanup Standards and procedures

What is a spill/release?

A spill/release is any unauthorized discharge of Exploration & Production (E&P) waste -- crude oil, condensate, produced water, flowback water, drill cuttings, and more -- to the environment. Spills come in all shapes and sizes: from accumulations of drips from equipment to major events that you see on the news. Production facilities are constructed with secondary containment devices around potential sources of contamination, so one early assessment we make is to ask: did a spill occur inside of containment or not? What was released? What volume was released and is it contained or not?

Want to learn more? ECMC presented about spill reporting data at a webinar hosted by CO Rising on 6/18/25. Watch the recording.

Description coming soon.