Jay Vollmar
Audio By Carbonatix
I wouldn’t wish living next to an active frack site on my worst enemy. The low humming noise, bright lights and vibrations keep you up all night. The foul smells fill your home and your lungs. But worst of all, the constant worrying slowly consumes you. How will the proven health risks of industrial oil and gas operations manifest in my family? Will I develop asthma? Will this exacerbate my migraines? Will my child be eventually diagnosed with cancer? Every nose bleed, headache,or cough fills you with dread and anticipatory anxiety.
In 2021, just a few months after buying our first home in Erie, my husband and I learned that three sizable fracking sites had been approved just outside our new neighborhood. The sites, with a total of 28 wells, plus compressors, tanks and other equipment, were approved in 2017 and 2019. Over the next few months, we would join forces with other concerned neighbors and fight the seemingly inevitable. We protested next to the proposed frack site, grew tired of giving public comments at countless meetings, distributed flyers, organized petitions…and still we were fracked by Occidental Petroleum.
My efforts shifted to tracking our symptoms, advocating for air quality monitoring and, eventually, to guiding other communities fighting similar battles. I have since stood alongside countless Coloradans fighting oil and gas giants against all odds; seeing firsthand how regulatory failures perpetuate the collision between population density and fossil fuel extraction. Currently, I am leveraging my experience to help a community fighting to save the Aurora Reservoir from yet another fracking mega pad.
A group of committed and determined Aurora residents has put up a formidable fight against an oil and gas giant, Civitas. The STAR (Save the Aurora Reservoir) community group was formed in 2022 in response to the Lowry Ranch comprehensive area plan, a proposed fracking project encompassing the Aurora Reservoir and surrounding neighborhoods and recreation space. Since then, STAR has successfully advocated for greater distances between people and frack sites, identified and reached out to impacted residents, and organized hundreds of them to participate in town halls and public hearings.
At one, Sally Engen, a STAR member, shared: “I have two grandchildren that studies…show children are twice as likely to get ALL [acute lymphoblastic leukemia]… and I can’t possibly imagine myself saying to them ten years from now that I did nothing with the knowledge that I have now.”
STAR’s current focus is on convincing the ECMC (Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission) commissioners to deny the Sunlight-Long mega fracking pad. This proposed 32 well pad spans 35 acres and is located just 0.6 miles from homes and the Aurora Reservoir.
On December 10, the commission voted to delay the Sunlight-Long Oil and Gas Development Plan. The vote to delay the 32 proposed oil and gas wells near the Aurora Reservoir came after commissioners raised serious questions about the validity of alternative locations proposed by Civitas. STAR’s website states that “throughout this process, STAR remains ready to partner with industry and the ECMC to identify the most responsible and protective location for all.”
It is possible that this delay could still result in the approval of this dangerous proposal, one which would unequivocally endanger a beloved recreational area and precious water source. We must not let the ECMC approve yet another monstrous fracking operation. Especially since its stated mission is to “regulate the development and production of the natural resources of oil and gas in the state of Colorado in a manner that protects public health, safety, welfare, the environment and wildlife resources.” All eyes must remain on these commissioners and the potential harm they could prevent.
Whether the Sunlight-Long pad is approved or denied, our work as fellow impacted residents must continue until Coloradans are no longer threatened by the harms of fracking. We can and should continue to fight side by side until we stop the expansion of fracking in our state. To that end, I encourage all Coloradans to join me in signing the open letter at Safeandhealthyco.org. The letter, already signed by hundreds of organizations, businesses and private citizens, calls for a phase-out of new oil and gas permitting as soon as possible, but by no later than 2030.
It is past time that Colorado commits to a managed decline of fossil fuel extraction, one that doesn’t jeopardize the health and safety of its inhabitants, and it is my belief that it is up to impacted residents like me to lead the charge.
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