The Lafayette City Council is dedicated to protecting the health, safety, and welfare of residents from the potential impacts of oil and gas operations, and are exploring many fronts to address the pending 8 North LLC applications. Staff has recently received updates on the following;
February 19, 2018 update:
Updated Oil and Gas Development Regulations to be considered by City Council on February 20
The City’s existing zoning and land use regulations that pertain to oil and gas operations are in need of an update in order to better protect the health, safety, and welfare of citizens, and address current development practices.
At their February 20 meeting, City Council will be presented with a set of updated oil and gas regulations for consideration. These proposed land use policies are modeled after regulations currently in place and utilized by Boulder County. Because an area being considered for development straddles Lafayette and Boulder County Open Space, staff feels it beneficial to regulate these type of operations collaboratively with Boulder County.
Flowline Rules finalized by the COGCC on February 13
In response to the 2017 flowline explosion and tragedy in Firestone, ten (10) local governmental agencies aligned to provide the COGCC with direction on proposed oil and gas flowline rulemaking (see the January 12 Oil and Gas update). On February 13, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) completed their rulemaking process and approved the following final rules;
- Geospacial data for new flowlines installed after May 1, 2018 will be required upon installation.
- Geospacial data for existing flowlines that are known or can be acquired by operators’ records, will be required to be provided by October 31, 2019.
- By October 31, 2019, operators must register known domestic taps that were installed prior to May 1, 2018.
- New domestic taps, or newly discovered existing taps, must be registered within 30 days of the installation or discovery.
- Higher frequency testing and inspections of flowlines for leak and rupture detection will be performed.
- Notification of reportable safety events will be provided to local governments.
- A stakeholder panel will be assembled with local governments, COGCC staff, operators, and industry representatives to examine current and developing technologies and processes that may be better able to detect and prevent flowline leaks and spills. The group’s progress will be reported quarterly to the COGCC with a final report and recommendations due within a year.
View additional details about the COGCC flowline rulemaking hearing on their website: http://cogcc.state.co.us/reg.html#/rules/flowlinerulemaking
The City's Oil and Gas Information and Resources webpage provides a number of resources for residents looking to gather information including;
* A timeline of actions being taken by Lafayette City Council to address potential oil and gas issues in Lafayette
* Oil and gas FAQs
* Lafayette well maps
* Public participation at the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC)
* Also included on this page is a link to the Boulder County Oil and Gas Development webpage.