Oil and gas company Civitas has completed its first application for a drilling site in the Lowry Ranch Drilling Project near the Aurora Reservoir.

A public comment period will be open until the beginning of February.

Colorado’s Energy and Carbon Management Commission voted in August to green light a fracking plan from Civitas near the reservoir after days of testimony and years of controversy.

The Lowry Ranch Comprehensive Area Plan from Civitas includes 32,000 acres of proposed subsurface mineral development with eight locations and a total of 166 new wells and 14 existing horizontal wells. Part of the plan includes drilling about 7,000 feet under the Aurora Reservoir.

Civitas spent two years obtaining approval from the state for oil and gas drilling, finally getting it after a hearing that lasted three full days.

While the overall plan was approved by the commission, Civitas still has to submit an oil and gas development plan (OGDP) application for each of its proposed well sites before moving forward. 

The Energy and Carbon Management Commission recently deemed the company’s first application complete for the State La Plata South OGDP, opening a 45-day public comment period that ends Feb. 2. 

Members of the public who wish to speak on the State La Plata OGDP can also attend a public hearing on Jan. 27 at the Arapahoe County Fairgrounds, 25690 E. Quincy Ave., in Aurora.

Doors will open at 4:30 p.m. and public comment will run from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Attendees are encouraged to register in advance.

Residents can also submit written comments online using the ECMC’s e-filing docket system and searching for State La Plata South OGDP docket number 240600148.

Save the Aurora Reservoir, a nonprofit formed to protect the reservoir from oil and gas operations, has attempted to stop the overall plan from moving forward. Other community members have joined the effort as well, citing concerns about health and safety, the project’s effect on the “climate crisis,” risks of water contamination and threats to local wildlife.

Marsha Goldsmith Kamin, president of Save the Aurora Reservoir, said she will be at the public hearing to express the organization’s concerns. 

“It is the first of eight well pads to be heard by ECMC and the first to go underneath the reservoir,” she said. “We are actively expressing our concerns about each and every well pad out there.”

Civitas has countered that the project offers benefits to the surrounding areas and the county, and will yield an estimated $235 million in tax revenue for Arapahoe County.

With the ECMC’s approval of the plan came a series of requirements for the project, including requiring all drilling and production be powered by electricity and encouraging Civitas to provide additional well site analyses with each OGDP application.