Commerce City’s environmental staff delivered the city’s January oil-and-gas update at the Jan. 13 City Council legislative committee meeting, reporting there were no active new oil-and-gas applications in the city but noting recent rigging operations tied to plugging-and-abandoning a well at the TR Ranch site and five reported air-quality exceedances for the mid-October to mid-November period.

Libby Church, the city’s environmental planner, said the city received notices of preparatory rigging work on Dec. 20 and a three-day workover rig beginning Jan. 8 at a well located inside the TR Ranch planned-unit development site near E‑470. Church described the notices as the operator’s required communications for plugging or abandonment activity and told council members that, "plugging and abandonment is a good thing, especially with the new rules."

The nut graf: City staff used the monthly update to summarize operator activity, local inspections data and county and state-level developments — including an ongoing review by federal regulators of a major local refinery permit — and to surface council questions about fire risk, setbacks and emergency planning around oil-and-gas infrastructure.

Church said the city is also receiving monthly regional updates from Adams County. She reported five exceedances during the mid‑October to mid‑November window involving emissions tied to a refinery flare, a fluid catalytic cracker unit and a hydrodesulfurization piece of equipment.

Council members pressed staff on a separate, higher-profile item: whether the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had objected to a recent Title V air permit for Suncor. City staff said they were evaluating reports and would report back. The city attorney said staff is preparing a short summary for council and offered this description of EPA’s action: "EPA has gone back to CDPHE and said, you need to either rethink your decision on approval of this permit or need to provide an additional explanation as to why you're supportive of it." The city attorney said the summary will be emailed to council members because the Clean Air Act materials are complex.

Council members raised emergency-preparedness and wildfire concerns related to oil-and-gas infrastructure. Staff reminded the council that Commerce City participates in Adams County’s five-year hazard mitigation plan — a prerequisite for FEMA funding — and said county consultants had previously included chemical and wildfire risks in the plan. Several council members also urged staff to seek additional land-development tools, such as larger buffers or easements around plugged-and-abandoned well sites. Staff noted Commerce City’s land development regulations already include setbacks for active rigs and for structures near oil-and-gas features; for plugged-and-abandoned wells staff said the city has a 50-foot structural setback but that other jurisdictions have broader approaches (Adams County was cited for a 300-foot treatment in some contexts).

Staff discussed concerns about right-of-way and vacant land in older parts of the city — tall weeds, unsecured alleyways and railroad corridors — that council members said increase fire risk near houses and pipelines. The committee asked staff to continue coordinating with Adams County emergency management (Kirk Dominic was named as the county point person) and to return with options, including examples from neighboring municipalities that have adopted wider setbacks or easements.

The city’s environmental division said it will continue to check with Tri-County Health, Adams County and CDPHE on permit and emissions developments; staff likewise said it had reached out to the refinery operator and to county officials to request briefings. The city attorney said she will send a simplified synopsis of the EPA order and the Title V matter to council members.