Longmont approves $3M deal to end oil and gas surface drilling in city

Longmont's City Council members voted 6-1 on Tuesday night to give final approval to the city's $3 million agreement with TOP Operating and Cub Creek Energy that officials have said will end oil and gas drilling from the surfaces of properties within the city, as well as city-owned properties east of Longmont.

Dissenting from the majority vote was Councilwoman Joan Peck, who said she did not want any hydraulic fracturing to free up oil and gas deposits deep underneath Union Reservoir — even if that and the drilling to follow is done directionally and horizontally from private properties away from the reservoir.

Peck said she thought that allowing fracking underneath Union "is criminal."

Her six council colleagues, however, defended the agreement as the best the city could do, given the constraints of state laws and a 2016 Colorado Supreme Court decision that overturned Longmont's voter-approved ban on fracking.

Read more: http://www.timescall.com/longmont-local-news/ci_31896398/longmont-city-council-approves-oil-gas-agreement