Discussions between Broomfield officials and Extraction Oil & Gas Inc. took an unexpected and heated turn at Tuesday night's City Council meeting.
Representatives of the oil and gas operator came to discuss aspects of their Comprehensive Drilling Plan (CDP), but ended up walking out of the meeting in protest during questioning from Ward 4 Councilman Kevin Kreeger — the council member who raised his hand first during council comments, and the only one who was able to ask questions of Extraction.
The meeting was the first of a two-part review of the CDP before it was scheduled to be approved by Broomfield officials. The second review, so far, is set for the June 26 council meeting.
Before Eric Jacobsen, senior vice president of operations for Extraction, and a handful of other Extraction representatives walked out, Kreeger pushed for answers on the cause of a December rig accident in Windsor, truck traffic and the risk registry included in the CDP.
Other council members, including Ward 5 Councilwoman Guyleen Castriotta and Mayor Randy Ahrens, had questions for Extraction that went unanswered as the meeting devolved.
Castriotta backed up comments from Kreeger, including challenging an Extraction analogy comparing the safety of an oil and gas development to driving a car. The council members argued that someone makes a choice to drive a vehicle, compared to having a large-scale industrial site move into the neighborhood.
She also took issue with Extraction's assertions about its safety culture. Earlier in the meeting, Jacobsen said the company has drilled 71 wells with zero fatalities and zero spills leaving oil pads.
"Just because you say something's safe doesn't make it so," she said.
Ward 3 Councilman Deven Shaff also defended Kreeger, saying Jacobsen set the tone at the beginning of the agenda item by making "personal attacks" and "condescending statements."
One example was Extraction sending a letter to Broomfield last week requesting that "certain council members recuse themselves from that deliberation due to biases they have exhibited publicly against Extraction and its plan pursuant to the operator agreement."
The risk registry referenced by Kreeger originally was prepared by Charles Taylor Co. for Broomfield as a tool to register hazards associated with oil and gas operations. Broomfield officials asked Extraction to use the data to create a registry as part of the CDP that indicates the "likelihood" of each risk listed.
Kreeger said the number the company submitted in its CDP shows a 57 percent chance of a catastrophic fault over the lifetime of the project; Extraction representatives said that they reported figures based on what Broomfield provided.
Chris Moss, who developed the registry and who now works at Compass Risk Services LLC, has indicated that it is not intended to be used as a tool to calculate overall risk of a catastrophic incident at all well sites, but merely to register risks — the probability of the individual risk over the lifetime of the 84 wells, and to delineate mitigation measures that would reduce the probability of each risk.
Those risk percentages, which Jacobsen said were not assigned by Extraction but by a lone risk assessor, are elevated. He said the company is in full compliance with the risk management portion for the CDP and that percentages were not part of that.
"We believe the percentages included in the task force's registry are outlandishly too high," Jacobsen said.
While Extraction officials went back and forth with Kreeger, he announced that he was going to finish his comments, and that the Extraction representatives could "sit down." He then said "see ya" as they started to walk away.
"They chose to leave. I didn't tell them to leave," Kreeger said moments later.
"I am sorry that they left, Mike," Kreeger said, addressing Ward 2 Councilman Mike Shelton, who had raised his arms in a questioning gesture. "I truly am."
Concerning Windsor, Jacobsen had said the company conducted an internal analysis that was provided to the state, and that the regulatory body — the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission — was satisfied with Extraction's findings. Sending Broomfield a 14-point letter addressing the Windsor accident went "above and beyond" what was required of them, Extraction representatives said.
During his presentation, Jacobsen said Broomfield delaying approval of the CDP — beyond what was called for in its own municipal code — "was illustrative of concerning behavior."
"This is a document that should have been administratively approved by staff weeks, if not months, ago," Jacobsen said.
Extraction representatives were told by Broomfield staff that they were looking for consensus, or a "head nod," from the council before approving the plan.
Kreeger said he took "great exception" to the perception that Extraction is telling the council, and the public, that it is somehow holding up the process. He said plans, the first of which were submitted Dec. 17, contained hundreds of errors and even referenced incorrect pad sites.
"It was a piece of garbage," Kreeger said. "The idea we should have approved this weeks or months ago is ridiculous."
Ward 1 Councilwoman Elizabeth Law-Evans thanked Broomfield resident Lois Vanderkooi for her comments earlier in the evening about how human brains respond to bullying.
"I'm certainly not a mental health professional, but the thought just crossed my mind that, 'did we just see a textbook response of that just a few minutes ago?'" Law-Evans said, after Extraction representatives left the meeting.
She said she felt the meeting had turned into a conflict instead of a discussion.
"I think there's a lot of hostility. I think there's a lot of what my kids learn at school as 'othering' were you can stick the other side in a box and depersonalize them," she said. "You can call them nasty names and say mean things about them, and you don't have to worry about their feelings because they're the 'other.'"
Law-Evans said she was sad and upset about how the evening turned out because she wanted to have a substantive discussion about the issues — and instead Broomfield could be facing a lawsuit Wednesday morning. Law-Evans said she hopes the discussion continues leading up to the June 26 city council meeting.
"I don't like the idea of oil and gas — more development because we already have some. I don't like the idea of more of it coming to Broomfield more than anyone else," she said. "I don't like it at all. If I had authority to keep it out, I would. We just don't have that authority."
With regard to measure 301 — the ballot issue passed by voters in November that codifies placing the health and safety of Broomfield residents first in oil and gas matters — Law-Evans said she thinks Broomfield kept to the "spirit" of the ballot initiative. She said Broomfield officials used the power they had via a memorandum of understanding with Extraction to influence negotiations and come up with best-management practices. Broomfield staff took "tiny slivers" of leverage and through negotiations and persuasion, and turned them into more protections for Broomfield citizens.
"It's not a discussion anymore," she said. "I think we're heading in a brand new direction."
Broomfield currently has 96 wells, according to Tami Yellico, director of strategic initiatives, said in response to council questions.
Jeff Bybee, deputy chief of operations with North Metro Fire Rescue District, said he can only speak anecdotally, but that in the 36 years he's been with the district, he has seen only a handful of catastrophic events from existing wells. Some resulted in injury, he said, including one death. All were people working on oil and gas sites.
Law-Evans said using that 50 percent risk assessment, Broomfield should have seen 40 catastrophic events.
"It doesn't ring true," she said. "It doesn't make sense."
http://www.broomfieldenterprise.com/news/ci_31942288/heated-exchange-at-council-meeting-leads-oil-firm
