Reader TTS

Scofflawing is becoming a habit in the state. The legislature passes laws and many affected parties ignore them. The legislature passed SB19-181 in 2019 to protect the health and welfare of

us and the environment related to oil-and-gas extraction. We’re waiting for its full implementation and industry compliance. Then there’s HB22-1348, an auxiliary to SB19-181 that requires

oil-and-gas drillers and frackers to list the chemicals used in their drilling and fracking fluids. A report issued this week by Physicians for Social Responsibility, the Colorado Sierra

Club, and FracTracker Alliance exposes widespread non-compliance with HB22-1348, "Oversight of Chemicals Used in Oil and Gas", requiring drillers and frackers to document their use

of toxic chemicals. Of 1,114 active wells, reporting to ECMC has occurred on only 40%. The law doesn’t seem onerous. Oil-and-gas drillers and frackers use various dangerous chemicals to

ease drilling and perform high-pressure rock cracking that allows oil and gas to flow into the wellbore and up to the surface. Many of these chemicals have bad effects on human health.

HB22-1348 bans per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances known as PFAs or forever chemicals in fracking fluid. Allowable chemicals include hydrochloric acid, benzene, ethylene oxide, methanol,

sodium bisulfite, xylene, toluene and formaldehyde. Chevron through its subsidiaries PDC Energy and Noble Energy has not completed disclosures on 361 wells as of May 1. Crestone Peak

Resources has missed on 89 wells, Bayswater Oil and Gas on 70 wells, and Extraction Oil and Gas on 24 wells, among others. At a fine of $200 plus-per-day, these companies minimally owe up to

$37 million if ECMC decides, at last, to enforce HB22-1348 rules. _STAY UP TO SPEED: SIGN UP FOR DAILY OPINION IN YOUR INBOX MONDAY-FRIDAY_ Chevron claims fracking fluid manufacturers

should be the reporters of their chemical cocktails to ECMC. But surely Chevron knows the fluids are dangerous and they’re the user. ECMC hasn’t enforced compliance on HB22-1348 up to this

point, three years out. Based on this report’s findings, it’s impossible to know whether drillers and frackers are PFA-compliant and to what degree other chemicals used in drilling wells and

fracking may damage people and the environment. It is known these chemicals do have harmful effects. A perusal of public comments to ECMC on its commission’s rule-making reveals pleas from

citizens and local government entities for ECMC to tighten regulations. Often, however, their pleas are unheeded. Air and water pollution from fracking is of particular concern. The Town of

Paonia wrote the following in 2020: “There are areas of the State which because of their fragile environments, their organic agriculture businesses, their pristine environments which promote

economically beneficial tourism, just to name three, are unsuited to the major environmental disturbances created by oil and gas development. “As Mayor of the Town of Paonia, in the North

Fork Valley, I would include our Town and surrounding areas as one of those places. We are in the process of successfully transitioning our economy from one primarily undergirded by

extractive industries to one which relies on sustainable industries (organic agriculture and agritourism, arts and culture, wine making, outdoor recreation and hunting, small industries,

among others) to survive. The environmental consequences of oil-and-gas exploration and development in our Valley or in our water and airsheds could be disastrous to all the work we have

done.” Another plea came in from the East Cherry Creek Valley Water and Sanitation District that provides water and sewer services to 55,000 people in unincorporated eastern Arapahoe County

and Centennial. The district asked for protections for water they pull from the Beebe Draw Aquifer, “a unique, highly permeable, very shallow, alluvial aquifer with water levels often 10

feet or less from the ground surface. This makes the Beebe Draw Aquifer highly susceptible to contamination from surface and near surface releases.” Now, when 40% of drillers and operators

have to some degree identified the toxic chemicals used in fracking and 60% have not, local public entities must be more worried than ever. They surely get the gist of what toxic gunk is in

extraction fluids, the extent of law scoffing related to failure to report toxic gunk content to ECMC, and lack of enforcement by ECMC of the law that requires documentation of the toxic

gunk. The ECMC has just received the report so it cannot comment on its findings. Kristin Kemp, public information officer at ECMC, says, “there’s more work to be done regarding the

implementation and continuous assessment of the implementation (of HB22-1348). The paradigm shift in the state’s energy regulations can’t happen overnight.”  Lately, the state is seen as

over-reaching or insufficiently reaching in how it manages important policy. Ensuring industry compliance with rules listing toxic chemicals in fluids that go deep under ground and then come

right back up as wastewater for disposal seems straightforward. Even so, ECMC decided this week to require frackers to recycle only 4% of their wastewater in 2026. Currently, they dispose

of wastewater in evaporation pits or inject it down finished wells. Some frustrated individuals and organizations take this 4% wastewater recycling requirement as slow walking. That’s a

close relative to scofflawing. _PAULA NOONAN OWNS COLORADO CAPITOL WATCH, THE STATE’S PREMIER LEGISLATURE TRACKING PLATFORM._