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ECMC Data Integrity Update Transcript

The following is a transcript of the virtual meeting held by the ECMC Commissioners on Friday, December 13 to address the falsified laboratory data reports made to the ECMC. Where appropriate, we have edited the transcript for clarity and brevity, and added emphasis to improve readability.

Julie Murphy: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Commissioners, and thanks to folks who are tuning in early this morning.

My name is Julie Murphy, and I’m the director of the Energy and Carbon Management Commission. I am, of course, disappointed by the circumstances that lead to today’s hearing, yet I’m grateful for the opportunity to share more information that members of the public, that each of you, that the press, and our local government partners have been curious about.

The purpose of the hearing is for me to provide an update about our ongoing investigation. I would remind us all this is an active ongoing investigation, and we are balancing transparency and accountability in our enforcement process.

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Can You Dig It? An Analysis of Soils Excavated From Spills

Someone recently asked, “How much of Erie’s soil has been and will be hauled away?” The short answer is 8,722 cubic yards of contaminated soils have been excavated from Erie since the ECMC started making this data available in 2014. This is equivalent to 632 dump truck loads, each carrying 14 cubic yards. Of these 18 spills, 16 reported an “unknown” volume of oil spilled, and 13 reported an “unkown” volume of condensate spilled.

Here’s the breakout for each year:

YearNumber of SpillsTotal Soil Excavated (Cubic Yards)
2014––
201511,200
2016160
201734,413
2018––
2019––
202031,975
2021––
20223685
20235350
2024239

When we expand our search to the entire State of Colorado, there are 2,292 spills that required soil excavation, with an average of 165 cubic yards excavated for a total of
687,513 cubic yards excavated. The distribution of these data is shown in the chart below:

This chart shows the distribution of number of cubic yards of soil excavated for the 2,292 spills reported to the ECMC where some volume of soil was excavated.

Interested in where these spills occur? See them visualized on the Weld County Oil Spills Map.

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Opening Pandora’s Box: The Draco Debacle

After 8 hours of testimony and deliberations over two days last week, the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC) voted unanimously on Friday to indefinitely stay a decision on the Draco Oil & Gas Development Plan (OGDP) in unincorporated Weld County, less than 500 feet outside of the Town of Erie.

The proposed Draco wellbores extend over 5 miles west through Erie and into Boulder County, and will hydraulically fracture and extract minerals underneath 4,500 homes. These wellbores also threaten 72 existing wells in the drilling & spacing unit (DSU) and many more nearby, prompting concern, outrage, and action from local residents. The Draco stay decision is cause to celebrate … right? Right?

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Extreme Reach Wellbores Require Extreme Water Use

Or, the march to the first billion gallon frac pad in Colorado

To understand the massive quantities of water that may be consumed to hydraulically fracture the 26 extreme reach wellbores at Draco, let’s look at the water used by the 394 hydraulic fracturing treatments logged thus far in 2024 to FracFocus, courtesy of the data wizards at Open FF who have made extensive inroads to sanitize and extend the FracFocus data.

Actual Water Use is Twice Estimated for Extreme Reach Wellbores

A detail view of the main graph below showing the hydraulic fracturing treatments at the Blue and Sky Ranch pads in Adams and Arapahoe Counties, respectively. The median wellbore length for these data is 5.43 miles, with a median 44.79 MM gallons of water consumed.

Let’s start with the upper extremes, as shown in the graph above. From the Cumulative Impacts analysis for the Blue Pad in Adams County, Crestone estimated they would consume between 102.9 and 147 million gallons of water to frac the 7 wells at Blue.

Crestone Peak Resources used a median of 47.7 million gallons of water per well and permanently poisoned 304 million gallons of water, more than twice their upper estimate!

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My, how you’ve grown! An investigation of wellbore lengths.

In the face of unprecedented 5 mile laterals proposed by Extraction for the Draco Pad, it’s an appropriate time to analyze the maximum measured depths as reported to the ECMC for wells in Colorado to answer the question, “Have 5 mile laterals ever been drilled in Colorado before?” Let’s not bury the lead; according to the data reported to the ECMC, the answer is a resounding NO!

The longest laterals we’ve ever seen in Colorado are 4 miles long; the vast majority are less than 3 miles. The 5 mile laterals proposed at Draco are 25% longer than the longest laterals ever drilled in Colorado, and the proposed wellbores are 70% longer than any wells completed before 2024.

Christiaan van Woudenberg, Erie Protectors
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Draco OGDP Cumulative Impacts Analysis

Now that the Draco OGDP application has been deemed complete by the ECMC, the documents submitted with the application are available to view/download. Here, we’re taking an opportunity to analyze the submitted Form 2B Cumulative Impacts Data Identification Form and share some new information.

  • Extraction plans to spend 9 weeks constructing the location, 18 weeks to drill the wells, and 23 weeks to complete the wells for Draco, for a total of 50 weeks of pre-production activities, assuming two concurrent electric drilling rigs will be used. The wells will be in production for 20 years.
  • The operator estimates 158,125 diesel vehicle miles will be driven before the wells are put into production to deliver sand, pipe, and other materials to the site.
  • The project will use 3.27 million pounds of proppant/sand during completions activities.
  • They plan to use 12,885,000 barrels of water to frack the 26 wells at Draco, for a total of 541 million gallons of water and an average of 20.8 million gallons per well.
  • They will not be recycling produced water because “the infrastructure necessary to reuse or recycle water does not exist in this area.”
  • Extraction plans to plug and abandon 22 wells at 18 locations, as well as removing 24 oil tanks and 13 produced water tanks.
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Draco OGDP Information Session

Thank you for joining us at the Erie Community Library on June 12th from 5:00 to 7:00 for an information and question & answer session about the Draco Oil & Gas Development Plan (OGDP). We had over 50 people attend! Community activists, local elected officials, and other knowledgeable experts were on hand to answer your questions about this large-scale oil & gas development plan that affects neighborhoods in Erie, Colorado.

Calls to Action

Quick Links

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New Bills in the Colorado Legislature

The following climate-related bills have been introduced in the Colorado Legislature for the Spring 2024 term:

  • HB24-1330: Air Quality Permitting
    Concerning modifications of processes to obtain permits for activities that impact air quality. This bill closes a loophole where oil & gas operators can currently apply for an air quality permit for each emitting source instead of considering the cumulative impact of all the infrastructure at a single pad.
  • SB24-159: Mod to Energy & Carbon Management Processes
    Concerning modifications to processes to further protect public health in energy and carbon management. This bill would phase out permitting for new oil & gas wells by 2030, and is scheduled to be heard in the Agriculture & Natural Resources committee on March 14th, 2024. See this fact sheet for more information.
  • SB24-165: Air Quality Improvements
    Concerning measures to reduce emissions of air pollutants that negatively impact air quality. This bill would limit nitrogen oxide emissions (a major contributor to our regional ozone problems), up to and including a prohibition on oil & gas preproduction activities during ozone season.
  • SB24-166: Air Quality Enforcement
    Concerning measures to increase the enforcement of violations that impact the environment. This bill increases the fines and penalties for repeat air quality violators.
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