The Colorado Energy & Carbon Management Commission (ECMC) has demanded deeper analysis of safer locations for fracking – locations farther from homes, schools, and the Aurora Reservoir.
Unfortunately, the Arapahoe County Commissioners DID NOT.
No public vote was taken. No elected official has taken accountability for decisions affecting the health, safety & welfare of their constituents or Aurora’s drinking water resource, the Aurora Reservoir.
We demand that the Sunlight-Long project be reconsidered by the Arapahoe Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) with a full Alternative Location Analysis (ALA) that prioritizes public health, safety, communities, wildlife, and the environment.
BACKGROUND AND SUPPORTING EVIDENCE
The record is clear.
On May 30, 2025, the Arapahoe County Public Works and Development Director issued a conditional approval of this project at the staff level. This mirrors the October 29, 2025 recommendation for conditional approval issued by the State’s Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC) Director.
However, the processes diverged in a critical and consequential way.
At the State level, that recommendation did not end the review. The application was elevated to the ECMC Commissioners for public hearing, deliberation, and a vote. On December 10, 2025, those Commissioners determined that the application was insufficient and formally stayed it, stating that the Alternative Location Analysis (ALA) was inadequate and that “a comprehensive analysis of alternative locations is necessary and reasonable” to determine compliance.
Even at final consideration, approval came only by a narrow vote, with two Commissioners seeking to stay the application again due to unresolved concerns.
In contrast, Arapahoe County never completed this essential step.
The application was not meaningfully elevated to the Board of County Commissioners for a public hearing, deliberation, or vote. No elected official was required to evaluate whether the record was complete. No vote was taken. No accountability was attached. Instead, the local level began and ended with an administrative determination by a single staff member. Arapahoe County residents reject the idea that this satisfies the County’s duty.
Under the County’s own Land Development Code, Section 5-3.6.E, the authority to deny an oil and gas application is explicitly tied to the evaluation of alternative locations:
“If an alternative location… is technically feasible… the application… may be denied.”
These provisions make clear that a meaningful Alternative Location Analysis is not optional—it is essential. Without it, the County cannot determine whether a less impactful, technically feasible location exists, and therefore cannot exercise its authority to deny a harmful project. Yet the County did not require a comprehensive ALA. Instead, the operator asserted that the site fell outside a one-mile threshold, and the County accepted that assertion without requiring the analysis that would have allowed a full evaluation of safer alternatives. This created a loophole through which the operator avoided scrutiny of other feasible locations—effectively neutralizing the very mechanism in the Code that allows denial.
When the ECMC later identified this deficiency and required a comprehensive ALA, that was the moment for the County to act. The County had authority and responsibility to request the same analysis to ensure that all technically feasible locations—especially those farther from homes, schools, and critical resources—were fully evaluated. It did not.
This failure resulted in an incomplete record and a decision-making process that fell short of the County’s obligation to its residents. We further reject the notion that avoiding legal risk justifies inaction. The County’s duty is to apply its Code and protect its people. Taking action to require additional analysis—or to reject a project that cannot risk or withstand the scrutiny of an alternative location analysis—is not a liability. It is the exercise of lawful authority. By refusing to elevate this project for a public hearing and vote, the Board of County Commissioners effectively removed itself from the decision-making process. To the public, this is indistinguishable from approval without accountability. We believe that a refusal to vote is, in effect, a decision—and in this case, it functioned as approval.
Meanwhile, even stakeholders within the operator’s own investor base have raised serious concerns. A formal letter from the AJL Foundation, a shareholder of SM Energy, outlines material risks to public health, drinking water, community well-being, and financial liability, underscoring that these concerns are real, foreseeable, and significant.
The contrast is stark.
State Commissioners—unelected appointees—identified deficiencies, demanded more information, and wrestled publicly with the decision.
County Commissioners—elected to represent and protect their constituents—did not take a vote.
This is not acceptable.
We call on the Arapahoe County Commissioners to:
- Acknowledge that the review process failed to fully exercise the County’s authority under its own Code
- Commit to requiring comprehensive Alternative Location Analyses in all future applicable cases, regardless of technical loopholes
- Ensure that projects of this magnitude are elevated to a full public hearing and vote by elected officials
- Agree to reconsider Sunlight-Long, and specifically fully consider alternative locations that are more protective. In doing so reaffirm their duty to prioritize public health, safety, welfare, the environment, and wildlife in all land use decisions
The people of Arapahoe County deserve transparent decision-making, accountability from elected officials, and leadership that fully exercises its authority to protect the community—not defers it.
Sources:
- “Exposures from Oil and Gas Development and Childhood Leukemia Risk in Colorado”: A Population-Based Case–Control Study Open Access,” May 02, 2025:
- AJL Foundation Shareholder Letter to SM Energy Leadership from AJL Foundation
- AJL Foundation Shareholder Letter to Colorado Energy & Carbon Management Commission
- Drilling site near Aurora Reservoir approved despite opposition, Colorado Sun 4/22/2026
- State regulators delay approval of 32 new oil and gas wells near the Aurora Reservoir, CPR 12/10/2025
- New study identifies health risks during unconventional oil and gas production for those living near wells, 05/01/2025
- Save The Aurora Reservoir
- Compendium of Scientific, Medical, and Media Findings, Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking and Associated Gas and Oil Infrastructure. By Concerned Health Professionals of New York and the Science and Environmental Health Network and Physicians for Social Responsibility
- Senate Bill 19-181 Protect Public Welfare Oil And Gas Operations
- Arapahoe County Land Development Code – Oil and Gas facilities