Letter from Kathleen Curry
Water – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
Dear Editor,
Recently, Representative Ray Rose [a Montrose Republican] published an article regarding legislation I carried earlier this year regarding protecting the rights of surface users when oil and gas is developed on their property. I would like to set the record straight regarding what actually occurred, and, what I think we should do next to address this critical issue.
As we all know, underlying our state are bountiful deposits of natural gas. These supplies are now economical to develop, and the energy industry is aggressively pursuing extraction in many of our backyards, literally.
My overarching goal is to pass legislation that creates incentives for the industry to negotiate agreements with surface users up front, before the heavy equipment moves in.
These agreements need to address two major issues at a minimum — the location of the proposed waste pits, roads, and well pads, and, compensation for the damages to the property caused by the drilling activities. The law as currently written does not create incentives to do the job right.
For the record, Representative Rose stated previously that during the legislative process the final rewrite of the bill had the support of the majority of members sitting on the House Committee on Agriculture. In fact, this final rewrite, which was crafted by the coalition supporting the bill, including the Colorado Farm Bureau, Colorado Corn Growers, Colorado Home Builders, Colorado Realtors, and the conservation community did not enjoy majority support.
I reached this conclusion based on one-on-one conversations I had with each member of the committee prior to the final vote on the bill. Representative Rose was one of the members of the committee that did not support the final rewrite, the previous amended version, or, the introduced version of the bill. This meant that the votes were not there in committee to pass the rewrite OR the introduced version of the bill out to the full House floor.
Representative Rose alleges that the steps I took were based on party politics. In truth, there was simply a lack of adequate votes in committee for any of the versions of the bill. There is clearly more work to do if we are going to move forward on this issue.
I will bring legislation again next year and want to extend an invitation to Representative Rose to add his name as a co-sponsor on the bill. Those of us that represent districts that are struggling with surface use issues owe it to our voters to work together to find solutions, not just point fingers.
Kathleen Curry
Representative, House District 61
