New website maps fracking in Adams County

Environmental group Conservation Colorado unveiled a new website Thursday that maps all existing and planned fracking activity in Adams County.

The website, called “Coming Soon Adams County,” includes closeup maps of Brighton, Hunters Glen, Northglenn, Thornton and Westminster in addition to a countywide overview.

In vivid pinks and reds, the maps show existing wells, permits, mineral rights and recently filed oil and gas leases.

The site also includes a gallery of Adams County oil and gas facts, a link to a YouTube video of “fracking sounds,” and the contact information for relevant legislators.

Visitors to the site have the option to sign a petition that asserts, in part, that “oil and gas corporations should not be allowed to threaten our public health, safety and quality of life in pursuit of profit.”

Pete Maysmith, executive director of Conservation Colorado, hosted a teleconference Thursday to explain the purpose of the website and answer questions from the media. The call included Sen. Jessie Ulibarri and North Creek resident Stacy Lambright, who both spoke out against fracking near neighborhoods.

“Information is power, and that’s how we look at these maps,” said Maysmith. He explained that although the site was built using publicly available data, mapping everything took a combined 300 hours.

“I don’t ever think it should be that hard for residents to get information about their own communities,” Ulibarri said.

Also present on the call were Adams County commissioners Eva Henry and Jan Pawlowski, who voted respectively for and against a short, countywide fracking moratorium earlier this month.

“Oil and gas development in Adams County is bigger than anyone can imagine,” said Henry, noting that there are currently 20 wells within 500 feet of homes. “Citizens have to become their own advocates,” she said.

The Adams County website, located here, comes about a year after Conservation Colorado released a similar site for Arapahoe County.

Related: Adams County residents feel shut out of fracking conversation

Photo credit: Conservation Colorado

2 COMMENTS

  1. Missing from this article…

    http://www.FracFocus.org – info has been out there forever… CO Fracking is already transparent.

    Fracking has been going on in Colorado for nearly 70 years without ONE single incident affecting the environment or health of anyone.

    There are over 60,000 active wells in CO and 90% of them are fracked. In fact, the Oil & Gas industry brings in major revenues to schools. I know first hand from serving on a school board that schools are more concerned about funding education with money from Drugs and Gambling than fracking.

    More than $600 million goes to public schools and other public sector entities from the Oil and Gas Industry in Colorado. Over $1.6 Billion public money is generated in Colorado from oil and gas.

    Lest we forget the gas used by protestors to get them to the AdCo Comm meeting to ban fracking in Adams, or the products they use daily that come from the oil and gas industry (http://www.oilandgasinfo.ca/oil-gas-you/products/)

    Opponents to fracking will be held accountable in November for their actions against jobs, schools, families, and the working class.

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