Aurora community invited to comment
Aurora, CO (Jan. 15, 2025) - The Colorado Energy & Carbon Management Commission (ECMC) invites community members to attend a local public hearing on Monday, Jan. 27, at Arapahoe Fairgrounds at which stakeholders can provide comments regarding the State La Plata South Oil & Gas Development Plan (OGDP).
The OGDP is posted on the ECMC permitting applications webpage. The hearing is for local community members to deliver public comments. The Commission will make no decisions nor hold deliberations.
Members of the public may offer comments in one of two ways: 1) speak at the event in-person. Walk-ins are welcome though people wishing to make comments are encouraged to register in advance. 2) Submit written comments using the ECMC efiling system (reference docket No. 240600148) .
The Commission will take these public comments into consideration during the adjudicated public hearing that will occur later this spring. Community members are welcome to attend that hearing as well.
Event details
- Who: Local community members and ECMC Commission.
- What: State La Plata South OGDP Rule 511 Local Public Hearing (Docket No. 240600148).
- When: Mon., Jan. 27, 2025, 5 - 8 p.m. Doors open at 4:30 p.m.
- Where: Arapahoe Fairgrounds, Main Hall 25690 E Quincy Avenue Aurora, CO 80016
- Services: Light snacks, Spanish interpretation, and a children’s play area.
What is a Comprehensive Area Plan (CAP) and what is an Oil and Gas Development Plan (OGDP)?
The Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC) is the state body that regulates oil and gas development in Colorado. A Comprehensive Area Plan (CAP) is a holistic, landscape-level, consultative process for planning and permitting locations for the production of oil and natural gas in Colorado. It precedes an Oil and Gas Development Plan (OGDP). An OGDP is a process that requires energy development operators to seek approval from ECMC for each proposed drilling location. ECMC’s mission is to regulate the development and production of oil and gas in a manner that protects public health, safety and welfare, including protection of the environment and wildlife resources. Because the CAP process supports this mission, ECMC encourages, and may require, oil and gas operators to submit CAPs for approval prior to OGDPs. A CAP can span two or more subsequent OGDPs. An OGDP can encompass a single well or up to several dozen wells or multiple locations.
What is the approval process for CAPs and OGDPs and how can the public provide feedback?
Obtaining ECMC’s approval for a CAP or an OGDP is an extensive, public process.
ECMC reviews CAP and OGDP application materials for compliance with all statutory and regulatory requirements. The operator’s application passes the objective ‘completeness’ phase upon an analysis that the CAP or OGDP complies with those statutory and regulatory requirements. No oil and gas development can occur in Colorado without passing the completeness phase. Obtaining completeness is an initial and necessary step in the regulatory and permitting review process.
Following the completeness phase, the 45-day public comment period begins. At the conclusion of the public comment phase, ECMC holds a public hearing at which the Commission decides to approve, deny, or stay a CAP or OGDP.
Only applications that have passed the objective completeness phase may come before the Commission. The seven-member Commission has the discretion to approve, deny, or stay CAPs and OGDPs. The Commission reviews the application materials and further takes into account additional, subjective factors, particularly qualitative inputs, such as stakeholder and public comments.
Commission hearings are public meetings and ECMC welcomes public comments in the following ways: stakeholder comments during the application phase, written comments from the public submitted during the 45-day public comment period, real-time comments during hearings, and comments at 511 Public Comment Hearings. More information about how to submit public comments or participate at hearings is available on ECMC’s website.
511 Local Public Hearings are non-adjudicative hearings with the sole purpose of providing community members the opportunity to share feedback with Commissioners directly. 511 hearings occur in-person and take place within the local community at which the CAP or OGDP is being proposed. In addition to ECMC’s regulatory authority at the state level, local counties also have permitting authority and approval for oil and gas development.
What is the Civitas Lowry Ranch CAP?
The Civitas Lowry Ranch Comprehensive Area Plan (CAP) is 33,440 acres of mineral estate spanning multiple owners.
Mineral ownership of the minerals within the CAP boundaries is split between federal minerals, state minerals, and privately owned minerals. ECMC approved the Civitas Lowry Ranch CAP in summer 2024 after a nearly two year review. The entire CAP documentation is posted publicly at https://ecmc.colorado.gov/regulation/tools-of-regulation/permitting/cap-applications
All surface locations within the Lowry CAP are located on the Lowry Ranch, which is a 26,000-acre trust land property owned by the Colorado State Land Board. Due to extraction technologies like horizontal drilling, oil and gas development extends to far more sub-surface mineral estate acreage than surface acreage. In this case and according to the operator’s lease terms with the landowner, a maximum of 650 acres of surface land can be disturbed at Lowry Ranch.
What OGDPs are anticipated as part of the Civitas Lowry Ranch CAP?
The approved CAP proposes up to 166 wells at eight oil and gas locations to be drilled through 2030. ECMC anticipates one to two oil and gas locations per OGDP for a total of up to eight OGDPs.
Each OGDP must comply with the terms of the CAP and each OGDP has additional regulatory requirements that are location-specific, such as wildfire mitigation plans and emergency response plans for the individual well pads.
On 12/19/24, the first OGDP post-CAP approval reached the application completeness phase. It is called the State La Plata South OGDP (docket #240600148).
Notably, oil and gas development has occurred on parts of the Lowry Ranch since the 1920s. More information about oil and gas development at the Lowry Ranch is posted online.
About the ECMC
The mission of the Colorado Energy & Carbon Management Commission (ECMC) is to regulate the development and production of the natural resources of oil and gas, deep geothermal resources, the capture and sequestration of carbon, and the underground storage of natural gas in a manner that protects public health, safety, welfare, the environment and wildlife resources. Visit the ECMC website for more information.