[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: Testimony by Council Member Jones before the Oil & Gas Task Force

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Lewis, Alisa

In The following email and text was sent by Council Member Jones but did not convert properly in the Hotline System. I am sending the message again the body of this email.
 
Respectfully,
Alisa Lewis
City Clerk
 
Dear Colleagues--
 
As discussed at our last Council meeting, below is the testimony that I wrote and delivered to the Oil & Gas Task Force last night during the public comment period on behalf of the City of Boulder.  (My oral comments, since it was only
 two minutes, didn't get to the air pollution point, but I also submitted my written comments.)
 
Cheers,
Zan
 
Suzanne Jones
Boulder City Council
 
 
 
Testimony before the Oil & Gas Task Force
Suzanne Jones, Boulder City Council
November 20, 2014
 
 
My name is Suzanne Jones. I am a Boulder City Council member, and am speaking on behalf of the City of Boulder.
 
I thank you for the opportunity to address the Oil & Gas Task Force. We are very pleased that the Task Force is addressing the issue of local authority over oil and gas
 activities.
 
While Boulder is thankfully not in the middle of the “gas patch,” we have had some drilling historically, and the latest drilling
 boom associated with the Niobrara Formation is creeping ever closer to our northeastern border. For that reason, and because of pending public health studies on oil and gas impacts and because of pending lawsuits about the extent of local authority over oil
 and gas activities, the Boulder City Council adopted a year-long moratorium in June 2013 on processing any new permits for oil and gas exploration or development within the city limits or on our city open space. The council subsequently placed an initiative
 on the ballot to extend this moratorium until June 2018, which voters passed by over 78%.
 
The City of Boulder believes that local governments have both the right and responsibility to take action to protect the public
 health, safety and welfare of its residents as well as the environment. The city supports the state setting strong minimum standards and best management practices for the oil and gas industry, but also believes that local jurisdictions must be allowed to adopt
 stronger rules as needed or desired to address local concerns and conditions. 

 
To that end, the city strongly urges the Task Force to promote legislation that clarifies, makes explicit, and strengthens
 the authority of local governments to use our existing land use and zoning authorities to restrict, manage and tailor oil and gas activities within our borders—and specifically to prohibit oil & gas development within residential zones.

 
We note that local government has local land use authority, which is largely unchallenged, over every other industry. This
 local zoning authority even includes hard rock mining, which is another place-based industrial use involving subsurface property rights. The oil and gas industry alone is given special treatment.

 
Yet high-impact industrial development such as intensive oil and gas drilling—with its truck traffic, noise, dust, toxic air
 emissions, and potential risks for spills and water contamination—is an inappropriate use within residential zones. Communities must have the explicit authority to prevent and/or effectively manage such as dangerous and impactful industrial use—and have such
 authority be explicit enough that we are not routinely sued when we exercise such authority.

 
It is not good enough to maybe be able to negotiate an acceptable MOU with a particular oil and gas company. We need better
 and more powerful tools than that for those communities that want to use them.
 
While some communities may welcome oil and gas development as part of their economic development plan, others do not. The
 economic driver for Boulder is almost entirely based on preserving our high quality of life and the beauty of our surroundings to attract entrepreneurs, innovators, and tourists. We have invested heavily in developing economic sectors in high tech, outdoor
 recreation, renewable and clean energy, and natural food businesses. We have a successful economic model, and polluting and intensive industrial development would very much threaten this.

 
In addition to making local land use authority over oil and gas stronger and more explicit, we also urge the Task Force to
 adopt stronger measures to address drilling impacts. In particular, we ask you to better protect air quality at and near oil and gas operations to address release of toxic emissions and ozone precursors, as well as fugitive methane and other greenhouse gases.
 Specifically, we urge you to require state-of-the-art controls and leak detection to address fugitive emissions from oil and gas facilities, as well as require greater setbacks from occupied structures and residential zones—or make explicit that local governments
 can require such measures. 
 
More and more studies are pointing towards potentially significant public health impacts for those in proximity to these mega-oil
 and gas well pads. We believe the State needs to adopt stronger protections for those living near drilling operations, as well as to address our region’s falling into noncompliance for ozone and the return of the brown cloud. (We note that Boulder is downwind
 from Weld County, so emissions from their oil and gas drilling piles up against the Flatirons to the detriment of our air quality.) In addition, it is important that the Task Force promote measures clarifying that local governments be able to adopt stronger
 protections, such as greater setbacks, for their communities.  
 
Thank you again for the opportunity to provide input, and thank you for your service on this Task Force.

 
 
Suzanne Jones
Boulder City Council
joness at bouldercolorado.gov
 
 

 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: application/octet-stream
Size: 11348 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://list.ci.boulder.co.us/pipermail/bouldercouncilhotline/attachments/20141121/70f5dd9a/attachment.obj