Some things just shouldn’t be tolerated.

A few days ago a story broke about a Fort Lupton-area family who could light their tap water on fire. The reason … pollution from a nearby natural gas well.

Could you imagine if the water you depended on every day to drink, bathe, and garden was filled with enough natural gas to light on fire? In fact, CBS 4 News reported that the Fort Lupton’s garden hose turned into a blowtorch when they attempted to put out a grassfire.

Drilling is dangerous; there are no bones about it. The Fort Lupton family’s story is not an isolated incident. There have been more than 24 reported cases over the last decade. I’ve personally spoke to landowners in Southern Colorado who are fearful of explosions in their own homes from nearby gas drilling operations.

These kinds of conditions are simply unacceptable, especially when we can prevent much of the impacts of drilling.

The Senate will vote twice in the next two days on common sense protections for Colorado’s air, water, land, and communities from the impacts of oil and gas drilling.

This has been one tough fight. The oil and gas industry has run high pressure ads against legislators, bused out employees from across the state, and framed these protections as “job killing rules.” It’s unfortunate that industry couldn’t have an honest public debate. The new protections are essential to Colorado’s health, and we can see the evidence that the new protections won’t harm industry one iota. The reason for the drilling slow down is simple – an international economic crises and recession and a dramatic drop in the price of oil and natural gas.

Despite the current economic climate – and the assumed adoption of these new protections – oil and gas companies such as ExxonMobil and Williams Companies have announced plans to ramp up production in Colorado.

We cannot afford to fail to pass these new protections. Drilling will be back with a vengeance the moment prices rebound. Before that happens, we must put in place safeguards that will protect the long-term health of our state and minimize the impacts of drilling.