{"id":3093,"date":"2012-08-29T09:07:58","date_gmt":"2012-08-29T16:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/2012\/08\/29\/o-g-regulation-task-force-mtg\/"},"modified":"2012-08-29T09:17:46","modified_gmt":"2012-08-29T16:17:46","slug":"o-g-regulation-task-force-mtg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/2012\/08\/o-g-regulation-task-force-mtg\/","title":{"rendered":"O & G Regulation Task Force mtg"},"content":{"rendered":"

OGR MOU Items for discussion with COGCC 8\/28\/2012<\/a><\/p>\n

Note, the above document is discussed in the accompanying video. Video<\/em> of Oil & Gas Zoning working group meeting 8\/28\/2012: http:\/\/bambuser.com\/v\/2941056 <\/a><\/p>\n

About the meeting<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Later in the second hour I asked the task force the question, “Is there any evidence from anywhere in the world where aquifers have been contaminated from the down-hole horizontal fracturing region of a well?”<\/p>\n

As you can see from the above pdf, the proposed water testing protocols over the horizontal tangent portions<\/em> of the wells — the fracturing zones — are extensive, and presumably expensive.\u00a0 In Elbert County geology, this fracturing zone is 10,000 feet deeper (roughly) than our deepest aquifer.\u00a0 Is it reasonable, or perhaps even remotely possible, that a fracture could penetrate 10,000 feet of rock to compromise an aquifer?<\/p>\n

Team members admitted that there was no evidence that such a contamination had ever occurred anywhere.\u00a0<\/em> They also admitted that these regulations were constructed as an experiment to gather data to prove or disprove the issue.\u00a0 They said that, absent data, they had to take the most conservative approach possible.<\/p>\n

Those are the bare facts behind this proposed law.\u00a0 This law is an experiment, plain and simple.\u00a0 Should zoning law be the proper forum to conduct geological experiments? \u00a0 Should property holders be forced to fund such experiments through zoning law?<\/p>\n

Like anthropogenic global warming, this is probably another example of what you get when you mix politics with science — something really expensive without scientific support.<\/p>\n

The other question this MOU begs, for me, is a procedural issue.<\/p>\n

This water testing protocol has been copied from the working draft of the OGRs.\u00a0 As zoning law, those proposed laws must go through public hearings before they can become law.\u00a0 It was noted in the meeting that for any elements of the draft OGR that get pulled into the MOU agreement with the COGCC, those elements will be removed from the OGR.<\/p>\n

The question is whether the MOU, as an intergovernmental agreement [IGA], is subject to the same public hearing and approval protocols as a proposed zoning law?\u00a0 If it is not, that is, if the MOU can be inked between Elbert County and the COGCC without a public hearing, then Elbert County CDS would be significantly impacting our property rights without broad public scrutiny.<\/p>\n

I hope this is not the case.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

B_Imperial<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OGR MOU Items for discussion with COGCC 8\/28\/2012 Note, the above document is discussed in the accompanying video. Video of Oil & Gas Zoning working group meeting 8\/28\/2012: http:\/\/bambuser.com\/v\/2941056 About the meeting: Later in the second hour I asked the task force the question, “Is there any evidence from anywhere in the world where aquifers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,86],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-water","7":"category-zoning","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3093\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}