Arapahoe County officials conditionally approved the next well pad in the Lowry Ranch fracking plan, allowing it to move forward as long as oil and gas company Civitas conducts a wildlife survey, controls dust and adheres to a list of other conditions.

State Wetterhorn-Handies, approved by Arapahoe County’s Public Works and Development department this week, meets or exceeds all of the required criteria, the county said in a news release Wednesday.

The approval conditions specify the following:

• The operator has to get county building permits before starting site or electrical work.
• The facility must follow all approved plans, best management practices, and environmental protections in the application.
• Before starting construction, the operator must do a wildlife survey and take steps to avoid or reduce harm to wildlife.
• Dust has to be controlled with water.
• The site must use electric power instead of diesel or gas.
• The operator must pay the county $455,581 in transportation impact fees before building permits are issued.
• The operator must provide financial guarantees to ensure it has the funds for cleanup and site restoration.

The Wetterhorn-Handies well pad will be located on State Land Board property about 2 miles south of East Quincy Avenue and about 3 miles west of Tom Bay Road.

It proposes 20 wells to be drilled on a gravel pad about 350 feet by 1,500 feet, the news release said.

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

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.