A couple years after Emily Baer bought her house in the Colorado town of Erie, about 15 miles east of Boulder, her son, then seven, got sick. After several months of tests, doctors appointments, and specialist visits trying to determine the cause of his gastrointestinal issues, which included constant nausea and cyclical vomiting, during an emergency room visit, a nurse said she’d seen similar issues before. “How close is your nearest fracking pad?” she asked.
Baer’s family lived in a golf course community about 2,500 feet from a natural gas drilling site that started operation a couple years after they moved, around the time their son got sick. When a second oil and gas operator used a legal loophole to harvest oil and gas below their property without her family’s consent, Baer decided whatever state law allowed this was unjust.
“After we figured out it was likely exposure illness making our son sick, I really dove headfirst down the rabbit hole and tried to understand the regulations,” says Baer, now 46 and a stay-at-home mom. (She’s also an Erie town council member, but she is not speaking on behalf of the town.)
Baer began testifying in the Colorado state legislature about her experiences. She advocated for the passage of a new state law that would prioritize protecting public and environmental health when issuing oil and gas permits, amending previous regulations that fostered oil and gas development. In 2019, the new law—Senate Bill 19-181—received the governor’s signature and a revamped agency—Colorado’s Energy and Carbon Management Commission—began regulating permits.
“When my kiddo was ill, I was reaching out to operators to try and understand why he was sick, what we were exposed to, and what’s being used, and I was told often and frequently that there’s nothing you can do about it except to ask for best management practices,” says Baer. “That kept me up at night because I thought this can’t be the way we live.”
In January, another permit came up for a second oil and gas drill site called Coyote Trail in Baer’s neighborhood. The Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC) had authority to refuse a permit if the 2,000-foot circumference around the drill site included private homes. Since the oil and gas operator—Extraction Oil and Gas—had first received a permit to drill the Coyote Trail well pad in 2017, 186 new homes were built nearby, according to a commission meeting reported by the Colorado Sun. Within a mile, there are schools, a preschool, and a senior center. Just over a mile away is the Children’s Hospital Colorado, where Baer had taken her son over and over when he was sick.
In January, regulators rejected the Coyote Trail pad, claiming it was too close to people, along with a second well pad owned by Summit Oil and Gas in Erie’s Weld County, claiming it was too close to remote pronghorn and mule deer habitat. In total, the rejections included 34 wells, and marked the second and third rejections of oil and gas permits since Senate Bill 181’s passage in 2019.
“The denial to drill more wells in close proximity to families is a win for Colorado and sets a shining example of what is possible for communities across the country,” says Shaina Oliver, Moms’ Colorado Field Organizer. “We know firsthand that these victories are not easy, but they shed light on what is possible when the most impacted residents are informed and engaged.”
Baer affirmed that such victories are due to the strong connections between the community and environmental groups. Other families facing problems with oil and gas development should find allies through environmental groups and mentors at the state legislature, she said.
“You’re not alone in wanting to have better regulations,” she advises parents, caregivers, and residents in similar situations. “So find the people doing the work and don’t give up.”