Following state approval for oil and gas drilling operations in Arapahoe County, the process now moves to the local level, where individual well sites also need to get the green light.

State regulators also vowed to watch the operations very closely.

Commissioners said they would “closely review and ensure the actual proposed locations at the OGDP stage meet or exceed all state and commission requirements for avoiding, minimizing, and mitigating any potential impacts on human health or the environment,” said Kelsy Been, a spokesperson for the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission.

The approval of the Lowry Ranch Comprehensive Area Plan is the culmination of a two-year effort by Civitas — a Colorado-based oil and gas company whose fields can be found across northern and central Colorado, as well as in New Mexico and Texas — to obtain approval from the state in order to develop the area for oil and gas drilling.

The plan from Civitas included 32,000 acres of subsurface mineral development. The company is proposing eight locations with a total of 166 new wells and 14 existing horizontal wells. The development includes drilling about 7,000 feet under the Aurora Reservoir.

State commissioners approved the plan, noting it fulfilled all of the requirements, though they said it did not provide enough assurances against the cumulative impacts that oil and gas drilling will have on public health and the environment.

Activists and residents who live close to the proposed drilling sites are worried about the operations” impacts.

In addition to health worries, several people who testified at an earlier hearing made several claims, notably the project’s effect on the “climate crisis”; the risk of water contamination; the threat to local wildlife; the health of nearby residents; and, worries about public safety, including what might happen during natural disasters and what they described as the increased risk of earthquakes and fires as a result of hydraulic fracturing.

Civitas countered that the project offers unequivocal benefits to the surrounding areas and to the county and it would would yield an estimated $235 million in tax revenue for Arapahoe County. Company officials also promised to adopt a wide array of precautions, including building wells farther away from homes and adding air monitoring and sound barriers to protect residents and ensure the project does not negatively affect the area.

In approving the plan, the state commissioners required Civitas to only use electric equipment for all planned and future drilling.

Wednesday’s approval of the CAP only allowed for oil and gas operations on the land — Civitas must still gain approval for each proposed well site before it is allowed to move forward, according to Arapahoe County’s website.

“A CAP is a conceptual approval and does not include location approval for 7 of the 8 proposed locations — one location did receive preliminary siting approval,” Been said.

First, Civitas must submit well pad sites to Arapahoe County for review, and once it approves the sites, the proposals move on to ECMC in the form of an Oil and Gas Development Plan (OGDP) for state approval.

If an application meets the county’s criteria, Arapahoe must approve the well pad application or approve the well pad with conditions.

The county requires Civitas to conduct a neighborhood meeting prior to submitting any future pad application, according to Anders Nelson, a spokesperson for Arapahoe.

When the proposal moves on to the ECMC for approval, the latter will hold also public hearings for each oil and gas development application, where the public have opportunity to express concerns or support for well sites.

Arapahoe County has already received applications for four well pad sites within Lowry Ranch — Sate Sunlight-Long, State Wetterhorn-Handies, State Harvard-Yale, and State La Plata South 2 — and the local government sent review comments back to Civitas and is awaiting a resubmittal, according to Nelson.

“We do not know how long either review process will take,” Nelson told the Denver Gazette. “Arapahoe County’s review process depends on how responsive the applicant is to our technical comments.”

In the last few months, state regulators faced pressure from activists and a group called Save the Aurora Reservoir, which sought to stop the plan from moving forward.

The organization disagreed with the ECMC’s decision to approve the CAP, and STAR President Marsha Goldsmith Kamin told the Denver Gazette that STAR is already putting together a plan for the next phase of the Lowry Ranch project.

Kamin pointed to several well pads close to the Aurora Reservoir, nearby residential neighborhoods, and ones by the Lowry Landfill Superfund site. She said her group will focus on “establishing a reasonable setback” or buffer zone for those sites.

“We will continue to work with the County as well, to assure protection of the public health, welfare and safety,” Kamin said.

Despite a long road still ahead, Civitas welcomed the ECMC’s decision and is already looking ahead to future drilling operations.

“This CAP approval is the result of thorough work by the Civitas team and extensive stakeholder engagement to ensure the safe development of Colorado’s important natural resources, while protecting the environment and minimizing impacts to our communities,” said Civitas CEO Hodge Walker. “Watkins is a prolific development area within the DJ Basin, and we look forward to beginning drilling in the Lowry Ranch area next year.”