Fracking Arapahoe County

The story of one community's fight against oil & gas fracking under homes, a superfund site, and the Aurora Reservoir.

The "Lowry Ranch" drilling plan from Civitas

APRIL 2024 — The  Lowry Ranch Comprehensive Area Plan  (CAP) proposes 166 oil and gas fracking wells on 10 pads across south east Aurora — with the Aurora Reservoir right in the middle. Owner and operator Crestone Peak Resources, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Civitas Resources, is currently seeking approval from both state ( ECMC ) and Arapahoe County officials to proceed with drilling, followed by 25+ years of extraction operations.


Submit Comments on the Lowry Ranch CAP to Colorado's Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC) now through May 3rd, 2024.


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Above is a map of the Lowry Ranch and Box Elder CAP boundaries — threatening Aurora residents with acute exposure to toxic chemicals and Front Range residents with chronic summer ozone.


Alarmingly, the Aurora Reservoir lies right at the center of the (proposed) Lowry Ranch CAP.

As the 4th CAP to be considered for the Front Range, and the 2nd threatening Aurora and Arapahoe County residents after the Box Elder CAP (37,520 acres) was approved in late 2022 — local residents are fed up and raising the alarm.

With enough public outcry, we can persuade ECMC and Arapahoe County Commissioners that the cumulative impacts of the Lowry Ranch CAP on our air, water, and wildlife are just too great — and to deny this dirty fracking deal.


This is the map  supplied to state regulators  by fracking giant Civitas. The small dark red polygons within the Lowry Ranch CAP boundary are the proposed well pads.

Despite friendly sounding names like "Beaver" and "State Harvard", the 8+ fracking pads of the Lowry Ranch CAP are not a neighbor that anyone should want to move in next door. The pollution and health impacts are simply too great to ignore.

— Dr. Brent Goodlet of climate movement co.,


The entire Box Elder drainage basin that flows through the Lowry Ranch CAP is already designated as severely impaired, per the Colorado  Water Quality Control Division (WQCD) .

303(d) waters

Flowing downstream from south to north, from south of the Aurora Reservoir, north past the Lowry Landfill Superfund Site (LLSS), Murphy Creek (Homes), Buckley Spaceforce Base, crossing Colfax Ave, then into Sand Creek.


Fracking-induced fluid flow can occur along vertical boreholes that penetrate the relatively shallow Denver Basin Aquifer, as they reach towards oil and gas-bearing formation some 7,000 feet below the surface — risking contamination of drinking water supplies for millions of Coloradans across the Front Range..

Picture of a new Crestone Peak Resources (Civitas) fracking pad just east of a residential area of Aurora.


While air pollution from fracking has lead the Front Range to be in "Severe nonattainment" for Ozone, for the last 16 years.

The Denver Metro/North Front Range (or DMNFR for short) is a Federally designated ozone nonattainment area for the 2005 & 2015 8-hour ozone standard.

Thanks to oil and gas drilling and fracking — the Denver Metro North Front Range (DMNFR) has been in nonattainment for the 8-hour Ozone standard since 2005.

Fracking is the single largest contributor to Ozone pollution across the Front Range.

Per 2022 Regional Air Quality Council (RAQC) air pollution modeling results.

The RAQC is the lead planning agency with responsibility to ensure the DMNFR meets Clean Air Act standards.

As one of the  6 criteria pollutants  for which EPA has health-based standards for allowable concentrations in the ambient air, ozone gas is highly reactive and damages anything it comes into contact with... including plants, animals, and the lungs of over 4 million DMNFR residents.


Fracking beneth the Aurora Reservoir, the Lowry Landfill Superfund Site (LLSS), and the many communities caught in fracking giant Civitas' crosshairs.

New name, same old dirty tricks.

Crestone Peak (now Civitas) sign in front of a new fracking megapad on the eastern edge of the metro area.

Civitas Resources Inc. was formed through the merger of Bonanza Creek Energy, Extraction Oil & Gas, and the purchase of Crestone Peak Resources to create a multi-billion dollar fracking behemoth with a concentration on the lands of Aurora, unincorporated Arapahoe County, and all along the eastern edge of the Denver metro area.


And wouldn't you know, oil and gas drilling and fracking is the single largest contributor to ground-level ozone that is created locally.

You sure wouldn't know this was the case if all you listened to was state and local officials, and Governor Polis' administration and appointees. For some reason (money, greed, power) they all seem to toe the government line and parrot talking points about how Ozone is our fault and simply a problem of personal responsibility. State entities like the Regional Air Quality Council issue "Ozone Action Alert Days" almost daily during the summer and ALL of those alerts talk about how YOU can lower your pollution footprint by carpooling more, by filling up your car's gas tank after 5pm, and by not mowing your lawn with a gas powered lawn mower. Sure, all of these are good suggestions, but they completely miss the point about the root causes and who is responsible for fixing the problem. Short answer is: ozone is a problem first and foremost because of oil and gas drilling and fracking along the front range— and it is the responsibility of the Governor and his appointees at state agencies to regulate them in the public's interest. Folks like the Air Quality Control Commission (AQCC), the Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC), and the Air Pollution Control Division — all state agencies run in part by appointees of the Governor.

Civitas Greenwashing - A case study

No scope 3 emissions is BS.

Scope 3 emissions are...

Un-fun Fact: Did you know Colorado also ignores its scope 3 emissions as regular practice for the state's GHG pollution reduction roadmap?

Fracking under places like the Aurora Reservoir and a superfund site — what could possibly go wrong? Not-fun-fact: the old Lowry landfill was constructed without an impermeable liner beneath, relying solely on geologic formations to defend against migration of the toxic chemicals buried within.

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Copied from Coyote Gulch Blog:

However, the EPA is not sure that shallow and deep groundwater is safe from contamination, and directed the WSDs to commission their own studies of possible contamination. Two years ago, the agency declined to say in a multi-year study and report whether the site was adequately protecting the public.

The possible contamination of aquifers is a huge concern for Pivonka and Rader.

Two aquifers, the Denver and Dawson, overlap just north of the site where the plume is contaminating surface waters. The Dawson formation lies above the Denver, a 3,000-square mile table of water, separated by a leaky barrier of earth.

Both are important sources of drinking water for the dry Front Range. Serious contamination would threaten a key resource that scientists believe will become more scarce in the decades to come.

The EPA also acknowledges the existence of the surface water plume in the review but said the WSDs need to conduct more studies before it creates a plan.

Produced water injection and water contamination

Colorado's Fresh Water Use for Hydraulic Fracturing and Injection Well Locations

And thes tanks leak. The wells with the most leaks per volume of gas produced are low producing stripper wells.

Chart of well output

Arapahoe County Denver Metro Alluvium\

This is the map  supplied to state regulators  by fracking giant Civitas. The small dark red polygons within the Lowry Ranch CAP boundary are the proposed well pads.

Picture of a new Crestone Peak Resources (Civitas) fracking pad just east of a residential area of Aurora.

Crestone Peak (now Civitas) sign in front of a new fracking megapad on the eastern edge of the metro area.