What is Initiative 97?

Initiative 97—the Fracking Distance Initiative—will be on the ballot this November, thanks to volunteers who collected the 98,942 signatures required to get it on the statewide ballot.

What does Initiative 97 entail? Currently, oil and gas wells that utilize hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, are allowed to be drilled 500 feet from homes and 1,000 feet from schools. If Initiative 97 passes in November, that distance will increase to 2,500 feet from any occupied structure, to also include drinking water sources, and other vulnerable areas such as parks and playgrounds.

Colorado Rising, the grassroots citizen group at the forefront of the effort, submitted over 171,000 signatures, in case any issues arose in the secretary of state’s office when verifying the petitions. Similar efforts to increase fracking distance have encountered trouble in the past related to petitions that were dismissed due to signature discrepancies, or local legislation overturned by courts.

Beginning in 2010, several Colorado communities, including the cities of Boulder and Longmont, as well as Boulder County, passed local ordinances to place moratoria or bans on fracking in their jurisdictions. In 2016, the Colorado Supreme Court overturned the Longmont ordinance, siding with the Colorado Oil and Gas Association’s assertion that state law preempts such local limitations on the location of wells.

The City of Boulder’s ban was on accepting new applications for drilling permits, which had enabled it to sidestep any potential legal action from parties seeking to employ fracking. However, in 2017, the Colorado Attorney General filed suit against the city, complaining that such long-term bans were illegal. The case was later dismissed by a Boulder District judge. While the City of Boulder hasn’t received an application for drilling in a decade, open space owned by Boulder does overlap with the Wattenberg Gas Field, which is now under heavy development.

The Boulder County ban expired in May 2017, and now two Denver-based drillers are attempting to develop large portions of land in the eastern part of the county. Open Space staff are working to determine where the city owns mineral rights. They may not always be able to deter drilling if the developer owns the parcels abuting those owned by the city or the county.

Often, mineral rights were severed from the land long before the land was purchased for open space use. Under state law, the owner of a lease for minerals under open space land cannot be prohibited from using the surface of that land to drill, but the owners of the land in question can require protections for agricultural, ecological, and recreational uses of those properties, which may include adjusting well site locations within the parcel of land.

According to its backers, Initiative 97 aims to protect over 7,000 acres of Boulder County Open Space that is currently targeted for fracking, in addition to helping all Colorado communities have a safe distance from the by-products and hazards produced by fracking wells. Colorado Rising reports that claims continue to mount about the potential health hazards experienced by those who live less than one-half mile from fracking sites.

Initiative backers state that the proposed 2,500-foot buffer zone is strategically based on public safety data regarding the impact zone for fires, leaks and explosions, such as the deadly 2017 Firestone explosion that killed two people, severely burned another and demolished the family home. Since then, they report that there have been 13 explosions and fires at Colorado oil and gas sites.

The Environmental Protection Agency has concluded in a 2016 study that fracking operations can contaminate drinking water under certain circumstances. Health studies, such as a Pennsylvania study published in December 2017, have shown negative effects on people living within one-half mile of fracking operations, such as cancer, low birth weights, birth defects and difficulty breathing.

Oil and gas industry groups have criticized such studies for a variety of reasons. Opponents of the proposed initiative claim it would have serious economic consequences for the state, in addition to causing widespread litigation. Four out of every five acres of non-federal land would be off-limits to new oil and gas drilling.

Protect Colorado, the committee established to oppose Initiative 97, states its purpose as “to support state and local ballot initiatives promoting responsible oil and natural gas development, and oppose state and local ballot initiatives attempting to limit or ban oil and natural gas development, including any ban or restriction on hydraulic fracturing.”

Protect Colorado was created by public relations firm Pac/West Communications, on behalf of the oil and gas industry, and has an eight million dollar war chest to campaign with until November. The Colorado Republican Party officially opposes Initiative 97.

While the initiative’s registered proponents are Anna Lee Foster and Suzanne Spiegel, Colorado Rising‘s core group is composed of Colorado residents who have been volunteering and working for years on the fracking issue. According to a Colorado Rising spokesperson, all funding comes from citizens and local environmental groups, such as 350 Colorado. Over 80 organizations and several Colorado politicians endorse the initiative, and the Colorado Democratic Party officially supports it.

There is an interactive map on the Colorado Rising site that shows where oil and gas wells are in relation to your home, office or school, courtesy of Denver Post Data. You can also visit http://www.corising.org or http://www.protectcolorado.com to further explore the opposing viewpoints about the issue.