Garfield County Commissioners will soon take up a controversial drilling proposal in the Parachute area. Many residents in Battlement Mesa are worried about the effects of possibly more than fifty wells within the housing development.
It’s a cloudy, windy day in this unincorporated town of about five thousand. Across the Colorado River and I-70 from Parachute, Battlement Mesa has about a dozen neighborhoods. Bill and Sue deWinter are giving a tour of their home, which they bought in 1994. Their favorite spot is the sunroom, with views all day of the mountains and wildlife. They especially love the sunsets.
“The decision was easy for us,” says Sue deWinter, about buying their home. “We loved the house, everything. When we first walked in we thought— whoa, this feels good.” The house is near the entrance to the Battlement Mesa development. Before buying, they were in Glenwood Springs. “It was very, very quiet in this subdivision,” muses Bill deWinter. “We like the fact that it was a ranch style home, so that there aren’t any stairs.”
Sue describes how they were especially won over by all the activities, including golf and tennis. And that’s how the neighborhood was sold to many other retirees. A promotional video for Battlement Mesa spends six minutes talking about all the amenities, including the golf course, raquetball and tennis courts, Colorado River, and more.
But for the last year, the deWinters and many of their neighbors have been anxiously attending a long list of meetings about a proposal by Denver-based Ursa Resources. It has two phases of development. The first would have a pipeline and two well pads within the formal boundaries of the residential area, with a combined total of more than fifty wells. Bill deWinter estimates the pads would be about 1400 feet away from their home, and much closer to their neighbors. Denver-based Ursa Resources needs a special use permit from Garfield County to put those in. Planning officials gave the initial approval in October. The deWinters and others in the community are opposed to the development, saying the ensuing noise, truck traffic and air pollution would mean the quality of life in Battlement is about to go down the toilet.
Eric Schmela is President of Battlement Mesa Company, and oversees “some 1500 rental properties, the golf course, all of our raw land, and about 100,000 square feet commercial space.” He’s been with the business for about ten years, and explains how the community came to be. “Battlement Mesa was built by Exxon to house approximately 25,000 employees and staff members for the oil shale development,” he says. “In 1982 Black Sunday devastated all that … and in 1989 is when Battlement Mesa Partners purchased Battlement Mesa from Exxon.”
But Exxon retained the drilling rights for the minerals underneath. Schmela and others have said that history is one reason homeowners like the deWinters should have known there could be drilling inside the development some day.
Schmela says he knew about the split estate arrangement, but it became an issue earlier than he expected. Soon after he took the job as president, he got a phone call. That was in late 2005 or early 2006, “and it was Antero Resources, and the phone call went that they have an agreement in place to lease the minerals lease from Exxon, and they needed to discuss provisions of the surface use agreement.” An SUA is a document that details where drilling will take place on the property. “Nonetheless, our legal opinion at the time was, and still is, that we had to honor that existing SUA,” continues Schmela. “And respect the mutual rights of both parties. Both the mineral owners and us, the surface owner.”
A series of companies have since bought those oil and gas rights, with Schmela negotiating with each to reduce the impact of drilling in Battlement Mesa. He says his goal has been to make sure it’s still “a wonderful place to live,” and says he convinced the companies to drop the number of well pads from 14 to 5, and put money towards extensive landscaping and design to hide future rigs.
“No one would have believed, that this would actually happen,” says Sue deWinter, back at her home in Battlement Mesa. She and her husband, Bill, say they understand Ursa has legal access to the natural gas beneath their home. But as for drilling-- that just never seemed realistic, even to attorneys they consulted before buying their home. “Whether [our neighbors] would have had something in their title work or not, no one would have believed that somebody would allow this.”
The deWinters and many other residents say they didn’t get a clear heads up about the potential for drilling there, whether they bought in the early 1990s or even within the last few years. As the proposal goes before County Commissioners, the deWinters plan to write them several letters to voice their concerns, about that lack of transparency and the potential effects of drilling near their home.
Editor’s note: Next week we’ll hear more on the concerns about proposed drilling in Battlement Mesa, including a gap in legal documents disclosing the oil and gas agreement.
