Colorado Forest Project In the News

DENVER – This is a story about an 11-hour day in the life of the Colorado House Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Natural Resources.

On Wednesday’s agenda were such weighty issues as oil and gas development regulations, augmentation rules for South Platte well users and state oversight of in-situ leach mining for uranium. 7:30 a.m. – Rep. Kathleen Curry, D-Gunnison, gaveled to order a joint meeting with the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Natural Resources and Energy for an update on new rules governing oil and gas exploration and production in Colorado.

Attendees included Telluride’s delegation to the General Assembly – Rep. Ray Rose, R-Montrose, and Sen. Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus.

Department of Natural Resources Director Harris Sherman and David Neslin, the acting director of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, briefed the joint committee on the status of draft rules implementing last year’s legislation that expanded the agency’s regulatory authority over energy development.

Sherman said the newly expanded and reconfigured commission, which he chairs, is committed to a comprehensive rulemaking process that will balance the needs of the industry with the mandate to protect Colorado’s public health, wildlife and environment.

“We are confident that Colorado will develop its world-class hydrocarbon resources while protecting Colorado’s world-class environment,” Sherman said.

Sherman and Neslin emphasized that the current round of public hearings is to collect public comments on a preliminary draft of the rules. The actual proposed rules will be subject to a five-day hearing before the commission in late June, Sherman said.

Neslin refuted criticism that the industry is being excluded from the rulemaking process.

“The industry has had the same opportunity to participate as all other interest groups and has been actively engaged in stakeholder meetings,” he said. “Half to two-thirds of the participants at public hearings are associated with the industry. We take their input seriously.”

Isgar was one of several lawmakers who sent a letter to Gov. Bill Ritter earlier this week expressing concern over the process. He told Sherman he thought the commission’s staff is directing too much of the process rather than commissioners themselves.

“We are satisfied that we are being well served by the staff,” Sherman said.

8:45 a.m. – After another hour of give and take between the lawmakers and the bureaucrats, Curry adjourned the joint committee so members could attend brief floor session in both the House and Senate.

During the House session, Rose voted against Curry’s House Bill 1969, which gives the state Division of Wildlife officers enforcement powers over off-highway vehicle operators on federal lands. The House passed the bill, 43-22, after putting in back in its original form, which allows OHV travel only on trails and routes that maps and signs show are open.

10 a.m. – Curry reconvened her committee for a hearing on the first of two bills from Rep. Mary Hodge, D-Brighton, that grew out of last summer’s task force on the South Platte River well users.

Lawyers for ditch companies lined up to oppose House Bill 1030, which would remove the requirement for augmenting water pumped from wells prior to 1974 when the new augmentation rules took effect. The ditch companies claimed surface water rights would be hurt by the bill because it would allow junior water right holders to pump out of priority to senior water rights.

Hodge, Denver Water and other supporters argued it is just one small tool to give some flexibility to the state engineer’s office in managing irrigation wells along the Platte, where hundreds of wells have been shut down because they don’t have the water rights to replace their depletions from the river.

12:15 p.m. – Curry recessed her committee for lunch.

1:30 p.m. – The committee came back to order and without further discussion, endorsed Hodge’s bill for full House debate on a 10-3 vote. Rose was one of the three “no” votes.

Hodge then presented House Bill 1044, which allows loans for excess augmentation credits between two decreed plans for agriculture on the same stream. The arguments for and against were much the same as in the previous bill.

Rose again voted no, but the committee advanced the measure to the full House on a 10-3 vote.

2:15 p.m. – Reps. Randy Fischer, D-Boulder, and John Kefalas, D-Fort Collins, explained their House Bill 1161, which would strengthen the state’s ability to protect groundwater in in-situ uranium mining operations.

The bill stemmed from opposition to Powertech Uranium Corp.’s plans to seek a permit for using the leaching process to recover about nine million pounds of uranium from a 5,000-acre site near Nunn, just east of Interstate-25 in western Weld County.

“We have a rare opportunity to put something in statutes that is going to be ahead of the technology curve of this new type of mining that is coming into Colorado.” Fischer said.

Chief among the bill’s provisions, Kafalas said, is “strong language regarding the requirement that for in-situ leach uranium mining, all affected groundwater must be restored to pre-mining quality.”

Matt Garrington of Environment Colorado said Colorado is unprepared for the uranium mining boom that is coming to the state. He noted published reports that uranium claims jumped from 120 in 2003 to more than 2,000 four years later and that the Dolores River Canyon already is being impacted by uranium mining.”

“We want to ensure that we do it right,” Garrington said. “We have a lot of other uses on private and public lands that we need to balance uranium mining with. We have a $10 billion outdoor recreation economy here in Colorado and that’s something that’s worth protecting.”

The mining industry is opposed to the bill, arguing current federal and state regulations are adequate to ensure public health and safety for in-situ leaching operations.

Curry warned Powertech attorney John Fognani of Denver to tone down his remarks after he called the bill “wrongheaded” and one that the committee should not be taking seriously.

“I’m not happy with you saying that,” Curry said. “You can have those personal opinions, but please handle that a little bit better.”

At which point, Fognani and several other Powertech and industry representatives called the bill unnecessary. They also complained the industry wasn’t invited to the table when the bill was being drafted – a point driven home by questioning from Rep. Rose.

Colorado Mining Association President Stuart Sanderson said the industry was actively involved in the 1993 negotiations that led to comprehensive reforms in the Mined Land Reclamation Act.

“That was the product of extensive discussion and compromise,” Sanderson said, noting the resulting bill unanimously passed the General Assembly. “This is an extremely complex piece of legislation that goes well beyond in-situ uranium and well beyond the even conventional and underground uranium.”

After more than four hours of testimony from more than two-dozen witnesses, Curry tabled the bill to give the sponsors time to work on amendments.

Kafalas made no promises to include the industry in discussions.

“There hasn’t been the best exchange with industry folks,” he said, “but where that is constructive we will look at that.”

6:30 p.m. – The third and final committee meeting of the day is adjourned.