DOUGLAS COUNTY:
Protect Your Property Rights and Values
What will you do when someone comes for your mineral rights?
Keep Douglas County Beautiful, Healthy, & Safe for Our Families
Know before you sign:
BE AWARE: Companies have been attempting to lease the mineral rights of northeast Douglas County property owners, which would allow equipment to access and extract oil and gas from their property.
BE INFORMED: A mineral lease is a legal document which transfers development rights for your property to a company for a number of years. Studies show that oil and gas development decreases property values, and releases toxic pollutants into the surrounding air.
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS: You have no obligation to respond to companies attempting to lease your minerals. Know and understand your rights and the impacts of oil and gas development before you sign. Agents may imply that you will be penalized for not signing, or use other aggressive or misleading tactics. Colorado oil and gas law changed in 2019. Be sure to refer to the updated state pooling information sheet here.
PROTECT YOUR PROPERTY AND HELP PREVENT FORCED POOLING: Please read and understand CURRENT state forced pooling information that reflects updates to the law passed in 2019. Consider seeking legal counsel if an operator claims that you are subject to pooling. If you do not lease your mineral rights, you still control your minerals. However, if 45% of the total acres within a Drilling and Spacing Unit (DSU) are leased, state rules may allow operators “force pool” the remaining 55% of the mineral interest and gain access to the minerals of “Non-Consenting Working Interest Owners.”
BE NEIGHBORLY: Because of the potential for forced pooling, signing a lease can undermine your neighbors’ property rights.
BE CONCERNED: If knowledge that signing a lease could undermine your neighbors’ property rights and reduce your property values is not enough to deter you from leasing, please read on to learn more about the impacts that oil and gas development have on your health and safety. You may also want to seek legal counsel before signing a lease or other documents to learn if the agreement is in your interest.
HEALTH AND SAFETY IMPACTS AND RISKS :
How will your health, safety and property values be affected when there are spills, leaks, blowouts, fires, explosions, emissions, and workplace accidents at the well-head or pipelines or transport vehicles?
These news stories describe some of the effects on Colorado residents:
“The Front Range is in violation of federal health standards for ozone pollution and according to the APDC, oil and gas is the largest human-made source of the two pollutants that combine to create ozone — accounting for 42% of the volatile organic chemical emissions in the air and 46% of the nitrogen oxides.”
From this article: “How Should Colorado Measure the Impact of Oil and Gas? ‘There Has to Be A Point Where the Glass Is Full.'” ARTICLE HERE
HEALTH EFFECTS OF OZONE:
- Ozone in the air we breathe can harm our health, especially on hot sunny days when ozone can reach unhealthy levels. Even relatively low levels of ozone can cause health effects.
- People most at risk from breathing air containing ozone include people with asthma, children, older adults, and people who are active outdoors, especially outdoor workers.
- Children are at greatest risk from exposure to ozone because their lungs are still developing and they are more likely to be active outdoors when ozone levels are high, which increases their exposure.
- Depending on the level of exposure, ozone can cause coughing, make the lungs more susceptible to infection, damage the airways, aggravate lung diseases, increase the frequency of asthma attacks.
- Some of these effects have been found even in healthy people, but effects can be more serious in people with lung diseases such as asthma. They may lead to increased school absences, medication use, visits to doctors and emergency rooms, and hospital admissions. (Content directly from EPA website here)
REGIONAL OZONE LEVELS NEAR SEVERE NON-COMPLIANCE IN 9-COUNTY DENVER METRO AREA:
“Air pollution hits children, older adults, and people who work outside the hardest, and the impacts fall disproportionately on disadvantaged areas, whose residents often lack the resources to move to cleaner neighborhoods.”
“Ozone is created when chemicals emitted into the atmosphere via vehicle exhaust, oil and gas development, and wildfires are baked by the sun. Ozone pollution that exceeds federal limits is a stubborn problem.”
“The Front Range has one of the worst ozone problems in the country. Last year, health officials in the counties east of the Rocky Mountains issued “ozone action day alerts” on 65 days from May 31 to Aug. 31, peak season for ozone. That’s the highest number since record-keeping began in 2011.”
“The EPA determined that over the three-year period from 2018 to 2020, average ozone levels over eight hours on the Front Range were 81 parts per billion. The federal limit set in 2008 was 75 ppb, but the current one, set in 2015, is 70 ppb. Under the proposal to change a nine-county area of the Front Range from a ‘serious’ to a ‘severe’ violator, the region would have to meet that standard by 2026. Air pollution researcher Crooks said that 70 ppb is a difficult goal to achieve and that it isn’t low enough to protect public health. Indeed, no level of ozone is safe, he said.”
“Air pollution near drilling and fracking operations is high enough in some Colorado communities to raise cancer risks, according to a 2018 study. A 2021 study found that the fracking boom in northeastern Colorado was a significant source of toxic and smog-making air pollutants, including benzene and toluene.”
From the summary: Compendium of the Risks and Harms of Fracking and Associated Gas and Oil Infrastructure (Ninth Edition October 2023, by Concerned Health Professionals of NY and Physicians for Social Responsibility)
TAKE ACTION:
CONTACT LOCAL GOVERNMENT:
- Douglas County Commissioners (SEND EMAIL)
- Castle Rock Town Council (SEND EMAIL)
- Highlands Ranch Metro Board (SEND EMAIL)
- Parker Town Council (SEND EMAIL)
- Your Colorado State Reps: (HERE)
- Your Colorado State Senators: (HERE)
- Colorado Governor (SEND EMAIL OR CALL)
FILE A COMPLAINT:
Share your concerns about current oil and gas activity with Colorado State O&G Regulators (ECMC). File a complaint about noise, smells, lights, operating hours, truck traffic, dust, vibrations, health issues etc.:
LEARN MORE ABOUT FRACKING:
Learn how fracking works, understand the terms, watch informative webinars. See how oil and gas operations impact air quality and communities’ heath & safety – even at great distances from well sites. Get informed about effects on our economy, home values, and environment.
AMPLIFY YOUR VOICE:
Writing a letter to the editor (LTE) of your local newspaper helps educate your neighbors… puts pressure on your elected officials… makes a bigger difference! Use our LTE Toolkit below for talking points, writing tips, submission guidelines etc. Then contact us if you want help proofreading your letter.
“Today it’s my neighborhood, but tomorrow it’s yours”
– Laura L
Harmful Air Quality in Douglas COunty:
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