Proposed plans for the Extraction Draco Oil and Gas Development, known as the Draco Pad, include drilling 26 horizontal wells using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, beneath the Town of Erie, with wellbores extending across the county line into Boulder County. This would mark the first drilling in Boulder County in more than 10 years. Because the drill pad would be located just outside Erie’s borders in unincorporated Weld County, Boulder County has no authority over permitting or operations, according to officials.
Instead, oversight and approval fall to Weld County and the state’s Energy and Carbon Management Commission. Weld County approved the pad in February. The commission’s decision, originally set for Nov. 6, has been postponed to Nov. 13. The public can still comment at the meeting but must register by noon on Nov. 12.
The proposed location for the Draco Pad is the Crestone Hub, northwest of County Roads 6 and 7 in unincorporated Weld County. Wellbores would reach depths of about 8,000 feet and run horizontally west for around five miles, extending up to two-and-a-half miles into Boulder County. According to Erie Protectors, an advocacy group opposing the project, five-mile laterals have not been drilled in Colorado before.
The drill pad would be within 2,000 feet — just under half a mile — of Erie’s Westerly neighborhood. The community of single-family and multifamily homes has been under development for seven years, compared to the Draco Pad’s one year, according to Erie’s director of environmental services, David Frank. Currently, five homes are within 2,000 feet of the pad, and Frank expects an additional 72 homes to be built within that distance over the next three years.
Colorado has a setback rule requiring oil and gas wells to be at least 2,000 feet from homes and schools, and so does the Town of Erie. In Weld County, however, the setback is only 500 feet, and local governments can set weaker requirements than the state. However, Extraction met one of the state’s conditions to bypass the stricter setback by obtaining the required five signatures of informed consent from residents within 2,000 feet of the well pad, energy commission public information officer Kristin Kemp told Boulder Reporting Lab.
Both Weld and Boulder counties sit atop the oil- and gas-rich Denver-Julesburg Basin. Weld County produces more oil and gas than any other Colorado county, while Boulder County has a long history of fighting oil and gas drilling. In 2012, the county passed its first drilling moratorium, which ended in 2016 when the Colorado Supreme Court struck down such local bans. The county enforces strict regulations on oil and gas development.
“There have not been any applications for new oil and gas development in unincorporated Boulder County for over a decade, and no new wells have been drilled in the county for longer than that,” Boulder County’s deputy planning director, Kim Sanchez, told Boulder Reporting Lab.
Sanchez said the county is concerned that Draco Pad operations will affect Boulder County residents and plans to comment at the Nov. 13 meeting. Recently commissioned county research indicates that oil and gas emissions are the largest single contributor to the county’s ground-level ozone, a public health threat across the Front Range. Ozone forms when volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other pollutants from oil and gas, vehicles and wildfires react with sunlight and is linked to respiratory issues, heart attacks and strokes.
“We have collected significant air monitoring data to demonstrate that our jurisdiction, along with the bulk of the Front Range, is heavily affected by air emissions from oil and gas operations in Weld County due to westerly winds,” Sanchez said in an email. “Each project approved adds to the cumulative impacts felt in the region.”
Civitas Resources, the parent company of Extraction Oil & Gas, operates in Adams, Arapahoe and Weld counties. Last year, Civitas indefinitely postponed plans to obtain mineral rights and drill wells in Boulder County. The company is also currently attempting to drill beneath the Aurora Reservoir.
A grassroots effort has emerged to block the Draco Pad project. The Flatiron Meadows Oil & Gas Monitoring Group, a volunteer organization of concerned residents, requested that the state energy commission hold a public community meeting to hear their concerns. The meeting took place on Oct. 29 and drew more than 100 attendees, including 40 registered speakers, mainly Erie residents from Weld and Boulder counties. Members of the state energy commission attended, though no Extraction representatives were present. Neither Extraction nor Weld County responded to requests for comment.
Fracking uses horizontal drilling and pressurized liquids to fracture underground rock, releasing oil and gas. Studies show that activities around these operations — including pad construction, drilling, fracking and flaring — can pollute the air with harmful substances like benzene, other VOCs, nitrogen oxides and naturally occurring radiation, and have contaminated drinking water sources. Peer-reviewed research links living near fracking sites to elevated health risks, including respiratory issues like asthma, increased odds of preterm births and low birth weights for pregnant women, and higher cancer risks in children exposed to toxins such as benzene. Communities also report heightened stress, anxiety, noise pollution and environmental disruptions.
Meeting attendees raised concerns about the health impacts of air and water pollution, as well as a general mistrust of Extraction’s intentions. Several said they moved to the area specifically to avoid living near oil and gas infrastructure. Some speakers also referred to the 2017 explosion in Firestone, where a severed gas line ignited, destroying a home and killing two people. They expressed fears that unknown interactions between underground operations and Erie’s legacy wells could pose similar risks. Only one speaker urged the commission to approve the Draco Pad, arguing benefits of gas for energy security and home comfort while also asking Civitas to minimize harm to residents.
Emily Miller, a resident on Erie’s Boulder County side, voiced concern about the impact of air pollution on her two children. “I call upon [the commission] to emphasize the health and safety portion of your mission and seriously evaluate the health implications of this project,” she said.
A 12-year-old speaker spoke up on behalf of people living with disabilities in Erie. “When the air quality has been bad, I spend days sick and exhausted in bed,” they said, also describing how noise from trucks and drilling triggers panic attacks.
Deborah Segaloff, a board member of the Colorado chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, expressed concern about health impacts reaching beyond immediate neighbors of the Draco Pad, citing research that links certain birth defects to the proximity of pregnant residents as far as six miles from drilling sites. “This distance translates to a very real health risk for Erie,” she said. Segaloff also voiced concerns that the operations could worsen ozone days.
Frank, Erie’s environmental services director, said he negotiated an agreement with the developers of the Westerly neighborhood to keep the homes closest to the drill pad vacant for three years and requested that Extraction complete its operations within that time frame. Frank also asked Extraction to dispose of the well pad’s non-hazardous solid waste at the nearest landfill and pave the road from the pad to the landfill to reduce emissions and dust.
Skylar Weitzel, a 20-year Erie resident, was among the first speakers at the meeting. He highlighted multiple oil and gas spill notifications in Erie coming from wells owned and operated by Civitas, causing his distrust of the company. He also criticized the project’s high water demands, noting that fracking requires large amounts of water to fracture rock and release the trapped oil and gas.
“We are in the middle of a drought in Colorado, and I can’t see any logical reason to allow the use and permanent destruction of at least half a billion gallons of water for this project,” Weitzel said.
Miller, the Boulder County resident, also called for the monitoring and repair of Erie’s legacy wells along any new horizontal drilling paths by Extraction. She urged Civitas to establish mitigation plans in case of spills or other issues caused by the new drilling activities. She emphasized the need for safety assurances for her family.
Looking directly at the state energy commissioners, she said, “We’re counting on you to protect us.”
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