The next well pad in the Lowry Ranch fracking plan is open to public comment through late August, Arapahoe County officials announced Wednesday.

Until 11:59 p.m. on Aug. 25, the public can submit comments via this web form on the State Wetterhorn-Handies oil and gas facility. If approved, the well pad would go up on State Land Board property about two miles south of East Quincy Avenue and three miles west of Tom Bay Road.

The State Wetterhorn-Handies well pad would include 20 wells to be drilled on a gravel pad 350 feet by 1,500 feet, according to Arapahoe County.

Arapahoe County’s Public Works and Development Department is reviewing the Civitas application based on the county’s land development code, which was amended last year with more stringent setback and air and water quality monitoring rules.

The county’s oil and gas regulations are the strictest in the state, county officials said.

The well site application is part of the Lowry Ranch Comprehensive Area Plan from oil and gas company Civitas. Colorado’s regulatory Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission voted in August to green light the fracking plan, which includes 32,000 acres of proposed subsurface mineral development with eight locations and 166 new wells. The approval came after days of testimony and years of controversy.

Part of the plan includes drilling about 7,000 feet under the Aurora Reservoir and on land surrounding the reservoir, which drew opposition from the community and sparked the creation of Save the Aurora Reservoir (STAR) — a nonprofit formed to protect the reservoir from oil and gas operations.

While the overall plan was approved by the commission, Civitas still has to submit an oil and gas development plan (OGDP) application for each of its proposed well sites before moving forward.

Each application has to be approved by both the ECMC and Arapahoe County before Civitas drills hit the ground.

Several other well pads are in the process of being approved or have been, including the State Harvard-Yale pad, which is under review, the State La Plata South and State Sunlight-Long, which were both conditionally approved.

STAR and other members of the community have attempted to stop the overall plan from moving forward, and are now in the process of fighting each individual site application — citing concerns about health and safety, the project’s effect on the “climate crisis,” risks of water contamination and threats to local wildlife.

Civitas has countered that the project offers unequivocal benefits to the surrounding areas and to the county and it would would yield an estimated $235 million in tax revenue for Arapahoe County.

Company officials also promised to adopt a wide array of precautions, including building wells farther away from homes and adding air monitoring and sound barriers to protect residents and ensure the project does not negatively affect the area.

Civitas spent two years obtaining approval from the state for oil-and-gas drilling, finally getting it after a hearing that lasted three full days.

Earlier this year, STAR spokesperson Susan Doherty said the organization is continuing to fight the individual applications by contacting officials, showing up to public hearings and sharing their concerns.

More information about the well pad applications and the project can be found on Arapahoe County’s oil and gas website and Citivas’ project page.