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Department of Community Development
Reference: Injection Well Moratorium Research
To: Mayor Kenneth J. Kreutzer and Members of City Council
Through: Philip A. Rodriguez - City Manager
Marv Falconburg, AICP - Assistant City Manager
Holly Prather, AICP - Community Development Director
Prepared By: Matthew Sura, Esq. and Joshua Tetzlaff, AICP - Senior Planner
Date Prepared: August 19, 2018
This memo is to describe Class II Waste Water Injection Facilities and the possible impacts they could have on the City of Brighton in order to give the Brighton City Council the information it needs to determine whether to update the way injection wells are regulated in the Land Use and Development Code.
WHAT ARE CLASS II INJECTION WELLS?
Class II waste injection wells are used only to dispose of "produced water" associated with oil and natural gas production. "Produced water" is a general term used to refer to water that flows from oil and gas wells, which may include used hydraulic fracturing fluids as well as natural waters from the formation.1 The produced water contains chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing fluid, salts, petrochemicals, and other naturally occurring organic and inorganic compounds that are mobilized from the formation during drilling and hydraulic fracturing activity. In Colorado, permanently disposing of this contaminated water is considered less expensive than treating the water for possible re-use.
In Weld County alone there are currently 47 injection well facilities and nine more facilities with pending applications with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC).2 (See Exhibit A) These facilities include "Commercial Disposal Well Facilities" that dispose of Class II waste from third parties for financial profit and "Centralized E&P Waste Management Facilities" that dispose of waste for one Operator or for multiple Opera...
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