Northern Colorado, home base to Colorado Clean Water Action in Fort Collins, is in the midst of the biggest frack-ing boom in the United States. Weld County, just east of Fort Collins, has more active oil and gas wells than any county in the U.S, with nearly 18,000 wells. As a geologic formation called the “Niobrara Shale” is drilled for oil and gas, 10,000 to 20,000 more wells could be added. The Niobrara is a deep shale rock layer that requires hydraulic fracking to get out the oil and gas. As is the case with shale gas fracking across the U.S., the issue is extremely controversial in northern Colo-rado. Recently, cities and counties up and down the Front Range have been dealing with the consequences of drilling and fracking.

Clean Water Action has serious concerns about drilling and fracking across the Front Range. Impacts include:

• Air pollution from drilling activities
• Noise and light impacts during the drilling phase
• Private property encroachment due to “split estate” legal issues (different ownership of land and the minerals or gas underneath it) and due to the closeness of wells to homes, school, and subdivisions.
• Water quality impacts such as:
• Fracking chemicals — some of which are carcinogenic and left in the ground
• Fracking chemicals — some are disposed of on the sur-face in evaporation pits
• Fracking and water disposal in nearby streams and municipal wastewater treatment plants  Water quantity: Fracking requires massive amounts of water, and Colorado is a dry state.
• Landscape damage and wildlife habitat impacts due to road building, the proliferation of drill pads, and intensive use of heavy trucks.

Colorado’s Governor, John Hickenlooper, has jumped into the controversy and is on record saying that he doesn’t believe fracking poses a threat to Colorado’s water. At the same time, however, he is proposing to require frackers to disclose the contents of their fracking fluids. Gov. Hickenlooper is also on record in the New York Times saying Colorado should “drill the living daylights” out of natural gas to help fuel Colorado’s economy.

The Governor recently launched an effort to expand the use of natural gas in automobiles across the state. It is not yet completely clear what direction the Governor will lead Colorado on drilling and fracking. He appointed new mem-bers to the powerful Colorado Oil and Gas Commission who have not yet made substantive changes (for better or worse)

to protect Colorado’s environment and property from drilling and fracking. In addition, the Governor’s proposed disclosure requirement for fracking fluids has a loophole which allows frackers to claim their chemicals are a “trade secret,” rather than disclose the full name of the chemical.

Homeowners across the Front Range Colorado are grappling with the threat of drilling and fracking in different ways. As noted in recent Denver Post articles, some communities are regulating drilling and fracking more strongly than the State. Strong talk of moratoriums and outright bans of fracking is commonplace during public comment at City Council and County Commission meetings across the Front Range. In the Eastern U.S., a few communities have successfully banned fracking and have outlawed drilling within their municipal boundaries. Here in Colorado, both extent of the impacts and regulations to address the threat remain moving targets.