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VOLUME 120 | ISSUE 23
WEEK OF JUNE 8, 2023
THEY DID IT!
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Plugging orphaned oil wells County, Hickenlooper discuss sealing abandoned drilling sites BY SCOTT TAYLOR STAYLOR@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Beyond the rusting rigs and the pumps and tanks littered around the site, an abandoned oil well is pretty much indistinguishable from a working site. It’s what exists under that equipment that has county officials concerned. “Every oilfield looks different,” Adams County Commissioner Lynn Baca said May 25 standing at an orphaned well site about 11 miles due east from Brighton’s Barr Lake. “This particular one has some outbuildings and it can have lines in the ground. So mitigating that, cleaning it up, we estimate it will take about $150,000 per well to do that. So with 304 abandoned wells in Adams County, we can’t do that. It’s not fair to make the taxpayers carry that burden.” Adams County hosted a tour on May 25 of the well site in an unincorporated part of the county. Called the Greenmeier #9-30 site, it features a rusting wellhead and Brighton High School class of 2023 celebrates their graduation and the completion of high school May 25 at the 1stBank Center in PHOTO BY BELEN WARD Broomfield. See more photo from local graduations beginning on page 3.
VOICES: PAGE 6 |OBITUARIES: PAGE 7 | LIFE: PAGE 8 |CLASSIFIEDS: PAGE 11
SEE OIL WELLS, P2
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