FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Across from a glimmering lake with mountain views, near homes and businesses, sits an old oil and gas site. It’s one of roughly 50 wells operated by Prospect Energy in Northern Colorado.
For years, state regulators have fined Prospect Energy for repeated violations, including spills, leaks, air pollution and illegal flaring.
Now, an unusual agreement struck by the local governments – Larimer County and the City of Fort Collins – seeks to permanently shut down and clean up these well sites.
“We've been working directly with Prospect Energy to negotiate agreements that ensure that with the closure of those wells, the health and safety of our residents and our community members are as prioritized and protected as they possibly can be,” said Rebecca Everette, who works with Larimer County.
Currently, Prospect Energy owes the state a total of $1.7 million in fines. The deal struck with the local governments aims to suspend those fines, “so that they can instead put their resources towards safe closure of wells,” Everette said.
“It’s more important that the wells are properly shut in, and that all spills that are on the sites are properly cleaned up, rather than just penalizing the operator with fines,” she said.
Prospect Energy did not respond to Denver7's requests for comment.
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Although it’s taken many years for the local partnership to result in a way forward, Everette said “This is a win” for residents in Fort Collins and Larimer County.
The next step is up to Colorado’s oil and gas oversight agency, the Energy and Carbon Management Commission. The commission will hold hearings to decide how to resolve the pending fines, an agency spokesperson said.
Larimer County and Fort Collins hope the state will take away Prospect Energy’s license to operate in Colorado in exchange for eliminating the fines.
For those living close to the old well sites, this resolution is welcome, though they'd have liked to see it sooner.
“Five years later, it's done, which is great, but it should never have taken that long,” said Von Bortz who lives and works near one of the well sites known as Krause.
He knew about the oil and gas operations before moving in. He can see the site’s combustor from his living room window.
“I assumed that this was safe, and I was 1,000% wrong,” he said. “I started smelling this really rotten egg smell, which is H2S: hydrogen sulfide. And I started getting sick. I would get dizzy, I would get nauseous, I would get headaches.”
He stopped playing Frisbee outside with his dog in the evenings when the smell intensified. He stopped opening the windows of his home for fear that toxins and carcinogens might be pouring in.
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Bortz said when he started doing research on Prospect Energy, he found out the operator was facing multiple state violations.
“These guys are known polluters, and they blatantly just disregarded the rules,” he said. “They are not operating safely, and they are poisoning the community and the environment.”
That’s when Bortz started rallying his neighbors and teaming up with environmental groups, like Earthworks and the Sierra Club, to put pressure on local and state government agencies to take action.
Earthworks sent Andrew Klooster, who is trained to film emissions leaks with a specialized infrared camera. Klooster filmed leaks at the Krause well site multiple times since 2021.
“You just see in the video, [emissions] just pouring, gushing out,” Bortz said. “Everyone knew it was happening, but yet nothing was done. No one was listening to us.”
In the summer of 2021, Colorado's top public health agency ordered Prospect Energy to shut down Krause, citing "a unique situation that calls for extraordinary measures to ensure we are protecting public welfare." But later that year, the state allowed Prospect Energy to resume operations.
Problems also continued at other Prospect Energy operations in the area, such as in the Hearthfire neighborhood, where air pollution violations and a fire led Larimer County to file a complaint with the state in 2022.
After so many years of repeated issues, Bortz is thankful that the local governments are taking steps to strike a deal to shut down the operator. He hopes it will inspire other jurisdictions to take a similar strategy.
“It's scary knowing that there's places like this that are still just polluting,” across Colorado and in other states, he said. “Let's take faster and swifter action on this. That's what needs to happen."
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