A bill to focus and enhance reporting of oil and gas industry spills and accidents cleared the House Transportation and Energy Committee Wednesday over the objections of the oil and gas industry.

The bill, House Bill 1157, passed with the committee’s eight Democrats voting for it and the five Republicans opposing it. The legislation is a copy of the reporting rules for Utah, according to State Rep. KC Becker, D-Boulder, the bill’s sponsor.

Among the bill’s requirements is that oil and gas operators submit a detailed report to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) within five days that includes details of the accident or spill including specific cause, location, including relation to homes and sensitive areas, the amounts discharged and recovered, any injuries or deaths. Current rules require a report within 15 days.

The information would be filed and searchable in a database operated by the oil and gas commission.

During a public hearing, Doug Vilsack, the legislative liaison for the state Department of Natural Resources, said his department, which includes the COGCC, supports the bill. Vilsack said that the commission has already created an online dashboard to help the public access records and is looking to update the accident report. “We can always do better,” Vilsack said.

In the current spill reporting form that the COGCC asks for the location, the amount spilled uses leaves a blank space for the operator to add any additional details, Becker said.

Broomfield Mayor Randy Ahrens spoke in support of the bill saying the more data can aid local officials in “finding a balance between the risk and rewards” of oil and gas development.

With oil and gas drilling sites now accommodating large numbers of wells and tanks “the existing reporting statute is totally inadequate,” Boulder County Commissioner Cindy Domenico told the committee. “The problem is not going away and it isn’t getting any safer.

Oil and gas industry representatives said, however, much of the reporting the bill is seeking is already done, if not to the COGCC, than to other state and federal agencies.

“We don’t think that there is a demonstration that the current rules are insufficient,” said Tracee Bentley, executive director of the Colorado Petroleum Council.

Scott Prestige, a spokesman for the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, said “a high standard of reporting already exists through state and federal requirements.”

Becker said that one aim of the bill was to streamline and put all the information on one place so the public does not have to hunt through multiple databases and agencies. She also said that in some cases the information is only made available on an annual basis.

“I will take out anything duplicative,” Becker said.

In opposing the bill State Rep. Jon Becker, R-Fort Morgan, said that the state is already in the process of improving access to spill and accident reports and legislation is not needed. “What we are great doing here is we hit a tack with a sledge-hammer,” he said