Ordinance 2019-1783 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

WHEREAS, local governments throughout Colorado are struggling to address the potential adverse impacts of proliferating oil and gas activities in urban and suburban environments on their residents' health, safety, and welfare, and several local governments have enacted temporary moratoria to allow a period of time to evaluate those impacts in order to assess, determine, and adopt appropriate local regulations, and WHEREAS, several municipalities in the area surrounding the City with active oil and gas operations have begun to analyze their regulations in light of the additional authority conferred by SB 181 and are drafting amendments in order to best protect and safeguard the health, safety, and welfare of their citizens, and to safeguard the environment and wildlife resources, and WHEREAS, the City Council recognizes those communities with active oil and gas operations are better suited to assess the impacts of these operations on a local level, and desires to take into consideration the findings of those communities with regard to any amendments that may be necessary to the City's oil and gas regulations, and WHEREAS, the City Council further finds that, given the fast pace of technological changes and advancements in the oil and gas industry, if the City were to update its oil and gas regulations well in advance of receiving an application for oil and gas operations, it is likely the regulations would again be out of date and not adequately protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public to the extent they should by the time an application for oil and gas operations is filed in the future, and WHEREAS, by postponing any amendments to its oil and gas regulations as set forth in this ordinance, the City Council intends to position the City to employ best practices with regard to oil and gas regulations, while recognizing the correlative rights of the surface and mineral estate owners under the law at the time oil and gas operations are commenced, and WHEREAS, in order for the City Council to implement the provisions of this ordinance, oil and gas operators who intend to commence operations within the City will need to register and provide information about their intended operations, to enable the City Council to analyze, in light of the proposed operations, the adequacy of its regulations to protect the health, safety, and welfare of its citizens, and safeguarding the environment and wildlife resources as authorized by SB 181 and any subsequent legislation or case law, and ensure its regulations conform with then - current regulatory and best management practices, consistent with COGCC Rules, and reflect then -current technologies of the oil and gas exploration and extraction industry, and WHEREAS, the imposition of the temporary moratorium set forth herein, should the City receive a registration request from an oil and gas operator, is reasonable, necessary, and no longer in duration than would be needed to allow the City Council and staff to investigate the necessity and ability of the City to regulate the impacts upon the City and its residents by reason Ordinance No 1783, Series 2019 Page2of7