Board of County Commissioners Business Meeting - Regular Meeting

Good morning. I'd like to call the July 28th, 2026 business meeting of the Arapahoe County Board of Commissioners to order. In attendance today are acting county attorney John Christopherson. And CUNY Saraceno, Administrator to the Board in the Clerk and Recorder's Office. Also joining us to facilitate remote public participation is Michelle Halstead, Director of the Commissioner's Office. Before we begin, we have made some changes and I'd like to highlight them at the very beginning. It's going to help us move forward with the business of the county and also though, and very, very importantly, support members of the public who wish to speak. We reduced our general public comment time to two minutes because we know we've got lots of folks coming today for each individual in order to maximize the number of people who have the opportunity to speak, both on the line and in the room. We will close public comment at noon, so we've got some time. Thank you for all of your patience, and now we will move into the meeting. Mr. Saraceno, will you please call the roll?

Commissioner Fields? Present. Commissioner Wong-Gully?

Here.

Commissioner Baker? Here. Commissioner Campbell? Present. And Commissioner Summey?

Here. Thank you. Now I would like to ask Commissioner Baker to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Please stand if you're able and join me. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very, very much. Are there any changes to the agenda as presented?

There are no changes this morning.

Okay, great. Well, then I'd like to have a motion to adopt the agenda, please. Madam Chair. Commissioner Campbell. I move that we adopt the agenda as presented. It has been moved by Commissioner Campbell and properly seconded by Commissioner Fields to adopt the agenda as presented. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The ayes have it. The motion is adopted. We have ten items on our consent agenda today. Does any commissioner wish to remove an item? Wonderful, then I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda, please. Madam Chair. Commissioner Campbell.

I move that we adopt the consent agenda as presented.

It has been moved by Commissioner Campbell and properly seconded by, because I was listening, by Commissioner Fields to adopt the consent agenda as presented. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The ayes have it. The motion is adopted. We have one general business item today on our agenda. It is consideration of the 2026-2027 funding recommendations for the scientific and cultural facilities district tier three awards. So I'm very excited. We have tier three awards. Our presenter is Daniela Villarreal, management analyst in the commissioner's office. And our attorney of record is Tiffany Blue, senior assistant county attorney. Ms. Blue, could you please set the foundation?

I can. This item was properly noticed and published as required. And you are cleared to proceed.

Thank you very, very much. Ms. Villarreal, would you please provide the presentation?

Happy to thank you and good morning to you all. My name is Daniela Villarreal and I serve as the Arapahoe County Cultural Council liaison. And today I'll briefly highlight the Cultural Council's recommendations for the 2026-2027 SEFD Tier 3 grant program. The full list of the recommended awards and supporting materials are included in your packet. First, I'd like to recognize the Cultural Council members who volunteered their time throughout this year's review process. The Cultural Council members spent countless hours reading, evaluating, and scoring applications before developing these funding recommendations. I'd also like to acknowledge Stephanie Spriggs, our chair of the Cultural Council, and Tim Murphy, SCFD liaison, who are here today and available for any questions. As a brief reminder, the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District, or SEFD, is funded through a one-tenth of a 1% regional sales tax across the seven-county Denver metro area. Tier 3 funding supports eligible arts, culture, science, and history organizations through a competitive application and review process. For the 2026-2027 funding cycle, Arapahoe County received $2,621,753.14 in SEFD Tier 3 funding. This year, the Cultural Council reviewed 108 eligible applications, an increase of 15 applications over the last year. The recommendations before you include 32 general operating support awards and 75 project support awards. These recommendations reflect the council's effort to invest in organizations that provide meaningful cultural, educational, and scientific opportunities for the benefit of Arapahoe County residents. On behalf of the Cultural Council, I respectfully recommend approval of the 2026-2027 SCFD Tier 3 funding recommendations as presented. Thank you for your time, for your continued support of the arts, culture, science, and history organizations that enrich our community. Myself, Stephanie, and Tim are available to answer any questions.

Thank you very, very much, Ms. Burial. Commissioners, are there any questions for staff? Okay, I will now open up this item for public comment. And we see you. Did you want to come up and say something? Okay, great. Thank you. Cause you know, I'm, I'm looking at it as a general business item. And so the applicant also presents so, but no, we don't have to do that. Thank you very, very much. So we are here for public comment on our general business item. Please press star three to enter the queue. If you're listening on the phone or come to the podium, if you're here in person. Please provide your name and your city or address for the record, and you'll have your two minutes for your comment. For those in the room, the lights will count down while I'll tell those on the phone when they have 30 seconds left. So do we have any public comment on this item, Mr. Saraceno? No one? Okay. And Michelle, do we have anyone online for this item?

commissioners. There's no one in the queue at this time.

All right. Thank you very much. Now I'd like to ask, is there any commissioner discussion at this time? Commissioner Warren Gully.

Thank you, Madam chair. I just, um, wanted to say thank you to the cultural council because this is one of our most heavily intensive committees that we have. They review the 115 applications that we talked about and, They look at each and every one of them. As you heard, there was about a million dollars more requested than we actually had. So they had to come up with a matrix and figure out how they were going to disperse those funds and support all of the wonderful organizations. So just a shout out to say thank you to you all. Also, if you don't mind, I'd like to mention that SCFD is going through communities now. to talk about the reauthorization of this program, because it does get sunsetted. So anybody who's interested in attending those, you can go to their website. And they did just have one in Littleton. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend, but they're having them all over the city and the state. Or not the state, but the city, because that's who's included. So thank you again, y'all. Thank you very much. Any other comments, commissioners?

Commissioner Campbell?

Just very quickly, just wanted to talk about a little bit of the importance of this work. I think we have a lot of really grave things happening in our world and in our country right now, and it's easy to feel like arts and culture are not important, but those are the fabric of life. That is social sustainability. That is how we remember who we are, how we celebrate who we are, and so it's always an honor to go through the list in our study sessions and see just the number of different programs across culture, across and I am glad that we as a region have dedicated these funds to this program, and it's great to see the vibrance as the most diverse county in the state, the vibrance of culture that we have in our county. So thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Any other Commissioner comments? Well, thank you very, very much. I'm very, very excited as we know that the arts are very important to me And even so much more exciting to have science in there too. And so I'm very excited and grateful that we were able to have some little piece of the arts community in Arapahoe County. So we appreciate that and we're so excited about the work that you do. Very, very excited. So, may I have a motion please? Commissioner Campbell.

You're not on. I move to approve the recommendations of the Arapahoe County Cultural Council for the distribution of $2.2621,753.14 in 2026-2027 Scientific and Cultural Facilities District Tier 3 grant funding.

Second. It has been moved by Commissioner Campbell and properly seconded by Commissioner Baker. I'm going to add to the discussion. There's going to be a problem if we try to do this in cash because there are four pennies in that equation. Oh, my goodness. So, all in favor. It's been moved and properly seconded. All in favor of the motion, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? The ayes have it. The motion passes. Thank you very, very much. Daniela, thank you to our cultural council. I'm so glad you came to join us today. Thank you. All right. We're making a change. There's a change. Musical chairs of the attorneys. So now. First thing I want to say is it was a joy to hear our national anthem, our Pledge of Allegiance spoken by so many in the room. We don't usually have that many people. And so that was, as one of the two military veterans up here, it was nice to hear. Did you notice that, how full that was?

That was very good.

That's great. So next is our public comment period. You are invited to speak to the commissioners about any topic that is not on the agenda for general business. For those on the line who'd like to get in the queue to speak, please press star three at this time. And as a reminder, only press it once to get in the queue. If you press it multiple times, it will remove you from the queue. Those in the room wishing to speak should approach the podium when your name is called. And as a reminder, each person has one two-minute time period for comments, which will begin after you state your name and your address for the record. And public comments will conclude at noon, as we hope, as I said earlier, as we hope to hear from as many as possible before that. As usual, while the board does not respond to individual comments, During this section of our agenda, please note that we do listen to these concerns and take note of the issues for resolution and follow up as appropriate. And so here we go. We would like to start with Randy Willard.

Good morning, commissioners.

Good morning. I'm Randy Willard. I'm a constituent in Arapahoe County, and I'm president of Save the Aurora Reservoir. Recently, this board held a meeting centered around the idea of making good for the residents you serve. I want to acknowledge that commitment because public service is built on your promises to listen, represent constituents, and serve the long-term interests of our communities. And that brings us to the question many of us are asking today. Are we truly making good on the promise Colorado made when it reformed its oil and gas permitting system? Or have we created a process where communities are invited to participate, but not empowered to meaningfully influence decisions? My concern is not about the intentions of individual public servants. I've met many dedicated people who are working hard to fulfill their responsibilities in good faith. My concern is with the system that, despite years of reform and unprecedented public engagement, has left communities questioning whether their participation truly matters. The reason so many of us committed years of our lives to this work is because Colorado promised something different with Senate Bill 19-181, which represented a significant shift in how oil and gas development would be evaluated, placing greater emphasis on protecting public health, safety, welfare, the environment, and wildlife. But laws only matter when they're carried out in a way that reflects the people that they serve. That is why the sunlight long application matters. This is not simply about one permit. It is about whether residents had a meaningful opportunity to participate in a decision that will affect our community for years to come. Over the last several years, many of us have dedicated countless hours to learning, researching, and engaging because we believed our voices mattered. We are not professional advocates or policy experts. We are residents who stepped forward because we believed participation could make a difference. But we've lost trust in the process. Partnership requires more than an opportunity to speak. It requires trust that we are truly heard and that our input can meaningfully influence decisions. This application was approved administratively without a public hearing or vote by our elected representatives, you all. We're asking you to reopen the Sunlight Long application, hold a public hearing, and create a transparent process where residents can be heard. Making good on a promise does not mean everyone gets the outcome they want. Reasonable people can disagree. But making good does mean that when communities are invited to participate, their participation must matter.

Thank you, Mr. Willard.

So I ask this board to step forward. I'm taking her time. Mr. Willard. Mr. Willard.

Thank you, Mr. Willard. We appreciate your comments, but I do need to say at this moment right now, what we are doing is entirely optional for us. I am happy, happy to hear every comment. We have adjusted our time to make sure that for the next almost two hours, a little over two hours, we're here for you. But I need you to pay attention. We actually did a whole other clock to make sure that from one of our members who comes to join us, we put it up on the screen. We cannot start with disrespect here. So we have got to stick to the time. Otherwise, we're going to get to the end of our noon. And whoever is last is going to be very upset because they didn't get to say what they needed to say. So we appreciate it, but we've got to stay on our time. One of the reasons why we rushed through our general business item. So now we have Julie Conrad. Julie Conrad. Nope, you've got to come to the microphone because we want to make sure that everyone who is listening and everyone who would go online at any time has the opportunity to hear what you want to share with us.

Thank you. Mine is just a very brief. It's more of a question. What's your name? My name is Julie Conrad.

And what city do you live in?

I'm in Aurora.

Thank you very much. Go ahead. Time starts now.

Thank you. Arapahoe County residents and especially Aurora residents have been asked to reduce their water consumption substantially. In Aurora, we have also recently seen watchdog monitors added to our water lines to make sure that we are mindful of our water consumption. And from, if the water usage For a single well, it's estimated at 25 million gallons of water for each of these wells. How does it make sense that Arapaho residents and Aurora residents are told not to use water, not to consume more water, and we can allow more of this drilling? And that would be my question. All of Colorado is experiencing a drought. Apparently, Sunlight Long has said that their water comes from a different source. Excuse me. I don't know what that source is. But if there is another source of water, why is that not made available to all the citizens of the county, Arapaho, or the state of Colorado?

Thank you. Thank you very much for your comment, Ms. Conrad. Steven Chen.

Good morning. My name's Jason. Steven is my father-in-law. I hope the commissioners find it okay if I speak on his behalf. Steven, is it okay if I speak on your behalf? My comments are about three minutes and 30 seconds. I am actually the subsequent speaker after him.

This is going to be a challenge, and let me tell you. So we'll go with that this time, but we also really need to keep mindful, to be mindful of the time. Thank you. So if it's 3.30 and you're doing both of you and you're both standing right there, that's cool. Well, also I'll be doing Noah. Yeah, well, pick. Listen, Noah is the most important one. Hi, Noah.

And I actually taught him, Noah, do you have anything to say? He can say, I concede my time.

Thank you very much. We appreciate that. All right.

Thank you. Thank you. There are three minutes and 30 seconds. I appreciate it. Okay. Thank you, guys. Okay. So Noah here is two years old. We recently welcomed our second son, August, who is about four weeks old at home today. Unfortunately, with neighborhood fracking, they will now run at least double the risk of getting childhood cancer. But it's more than about just our family. It's about achieving the right balance between economic development, health risk, and giving people a say in what happens in their community. Most people think that fracking is always an economic win. But factor in what the county pays in infrastructure, declining home values, and medical costs that get passed on to all of us, and the picture is not so clear. In the 80016 area code, there are roughly 24,000 single-family homes. Let's assume a round number of 800,000 if there were no fracking. Let's say a quarter of those homes lost 5% of their value, the ones closest to the drilling. That would be $240 million in value loss. Thank you, guys.

You guys can take a seat. Thank you.

That would be $240 million in value lost. And it's not just those homes. Homes farther away, their prices would become under pressure, too, in neighboring areas. $240 million is more than 20 times the county's property tax revenue from oil and gas in the year 2022. Jason. It's me.

I didn't ask this question before. One of the reasons why I made an assumption, is there a language barrier with your dad?

Yes. Okay. Decent amount.

Yeah, okay. I was like, wait a minute. If there's a language barrier, then absolutely we want our folks to speak to make sure that they get everything out, but Okay, and just because we're used to timing, if you talk a little faster, we would have gotten this in in two minutes. Go ahead, go do your thing.

Go do your thing, sir. Thank you, thank you very much. These are real costs that residents pay. And while it's not really about the dollars and cents, it is about whether or not the county is making decisions that are in the best interest of their citizens. Let me ask you, how do we know what level of volatile organic compounds are safe in terms of childhood cancer? The answer is we don't. EPA limits, which a lot of people cite, were set in 2016 based on best industrial practices at the time, but have nothing to do with long-term cancer risk. Animals, like mice, provide a model for acute and chronic toxicity, but don't speak to persistent background levels that are below the limits of detection. The only evidence that we have to stand on are epidemiological studies showing that living close to fracking greatly increases the risk of developing childhood cancer. But this evidence was not considered by the health department in their approval. They cited outdated research from 2019 and 2021, relying on what for these purposes are irrelevant emission limits and computational models that don't reflect reality. Critical evidence was ignored and approval was expedited. There was little, if any, opportunity for public input and deliberation. What is that? What is that if not a miscarriage of administration and justice? I don't suggest this was done intentionally. In fact, I think it appropriate to assume that the commissioners and the county are doing the best they can with what they've got. But here, we have an opportunity for them to do even better by requiring a re-review of what was a significantly altered plan by allowing public deliberation to tease out what the health risks may be so that we don't look back years from now and say, well, wish we would have known then.

Thank you, Jason.

Thank you.

We appreciate it. Eliza Hamrick.

Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Eliza Hamrick, and I have the honor of representing the families and neighborhoods near the Aurora Reservoir, the same residents who will live with the consequences of your decision on the proposed sunlight-long oil and gas development plan. Let me be clear. My constituents are frightened, frustrated, and feeling unheard. The Aurora Reservoir is not just a map coordinate. It's their community's drinking water. a place of recreation, a cornerstone of the economy. My constituents are already living in an ozone nonattainment area. Residents struggle with asthma, air quality alerts, and the cumulative stress of pollution. Adding a 24-hour-a-day industrial operation, diesel trucks' noise emissions only deepens the burden on families, children, and seniors who are already at risk. And while the company touts economic benefits, it has not provided a full cost benefit or health impact analysis. Once again, that leaves the public holding the risk. If our air, water, or land are damaged, taxpayers and families, not shareholders, will bear the cost. As a lawmaker, I respect the complex role of this commission, but I also believe that your statutory duty under Senate Bill 181 is clear. Protect public health, safety, and the environment first. And this project does not meet that test. So today I'm urging you on behalf of my constituents to reopen the consideration and ensure that community of impacts, environmental justice and public trust are fully considered. My community deserves transparency, genuine engagement and decisions that reflect not just industry timelines, but the health and safety of Colorado residents. I urge this commission to reconsider the project, not to delay progress, but to protect the people you serve. Our communities deserve transparency, accountability, and a future where clean air and safe water are non-negotiable. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Ava Brindle.

You can go ahead.

Regarding the Sunlight Loan Project. What's your name?

Ava Brindle. I live in Summer Valley, Aurora. Thank you. Regarding the Sunlight Loan Project, at this moment, 97% of the state is in severe, extreme, and exceptional drought, and about 170,000 acres are actively on fire. We were hardly given adequate notice or opportunity to intervene, except this extremely accessible 9.30 a.m. on a Tuesday comment, as the board arbitrarily decided to choose the absolute worst possible location for fracking, an already widely locally hated activity that shouldn't be happening anywhere at all, let alone within the legally mandated 2,000-foot buffer zone between residential areas and drinking water sources with extraction to be done within 1400 feet of our reservoir, our beloved public recreational area and drinking water source for upwards of 400,000 people, including myself and my family. The Polis Appointed Commission reportedly did not even begin to attempt to consider the numerous other proposed fracking pad locations, begging the question of why they would be so eager to mishandle the resources. We do not believe that Crestone Peak resources back there have shown adequate acceptable due diligence in environmental and safety concerns, and the CECM Commission's flippant dismissal of public outrage is exhausting, insulting, and only stokes angry opposition. We do appreciate those, we really do, who truly work in good faith. But I believe the Appalachian tradition of publicly confronting politicians and corporate management to demand they drink the water they are helping to pollute is an excellent start. And ultimately, Colorado is no better than West Virginia or Kentucky or Ohio. Lots of our officials are ultimately just not doing their jobs across this crumbling country's withering veneer, and we all end up suffering. We are increasingly fed up by the day with malicious mismanagement and weak goofing off, and we deserve public officials who are careful and responsible with our vital and threatened resources in times that are genuinely apocalyptic and who don't climb to the top just to treat their constituents and fellow humans badly. Please make the right decisions to reopen the application, or the public will find other ways to seek accountability. Thank you.

Thank you, Ava. That was good. Melissa Garland.

Hi. Good morning. Good morning. I'm Melissa Garland and I live in Greenwood Village. As a community organizer, I am struck by the number of oil and gas executives who live in my neighborhood. far from the consequences of the work they do. I ask that you take a stand for the health and safety and welfare of members of our county and hold a public hearing. This decision calls for leadership and bravery. Money is a factor, but it's not the only one. It's not the most important one. What else is involved? Public health, clean land, clean water, clean air. The people of Colorado have spoken on this issue. They want our leaders to weigh the health, safety, and welfare of the people and wildlife in all oil and gas decisions. Please reopen the application and hold a public hearing. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Christy Douglas.

I would have climbed over, but I don't think I would have made it.

That's okay. That would have taken more time. Yeah, that's true. Thank you very much.

Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Christy Douglas, and I hail from Commerce City. Remember that you are not the only county who is doing this. Right now in Commerce City, it's actually a rural zip code of Commerce City. It's in unincorporated Adams County. I have friends and neighbors who are facing fracking of 32 wells right in their backyard. And then the planning commission the other night also recommended that they approve a huge substation to be built 400 feet from a residence. So not only are they facing the 32 wells of the Connor Wakeman pads, but they're also having to contend with a substation that will be there for further development One of the neighbors moved from the Suncor neighborhood, Adams Heights, in Karma City, to what she thought was going to be a beautiful rural setting. That was 25 years ago. She had no idea that she would be facing this now, and she is one of the only fighters who keeps showing up because the rest are going, hey, apathy is easier. Than having to put some kind of speech together that I feel like I don't even know what I'm talking about. And so they're going to do it anyway. And so they don't show up. That can't happen here. Please reopen. Listen to your constituents. I have been fighting the climate crisis, which is getting worse and worse for almost 25 years now. I can't keep it up. Thank you. Thank you very, very much.

Rachel Lehman. No problem.

Hi, I'm Rachel Lehman, and I serve as the program assistant for the PSR Colorado Physicians for Social Responsibility, and we really do advocate for health, period. Denver and the surrounding nine counties are in severe non-attainment for ozone. We just had record breaking heat for the last weekend. Temperatures that haven't been seen since, you know, 100 years ago. Our physical, mental, environmental health is compromised daily by the consequences of the oil and gas operations. And I don't know if you feel it, if you have any active kind of pathology going on in your bodies. But I will tell you, a lot of people can't put their finger on it, but they just don't feel well. They don't know if it's like a little bit of fog. They don't maybe understand why they have a headache. They don't understand why their bodies aren't quite moving the way that they should. They don't understand just having depression. They don't understand why. But I could tell you the reason why is because there are so many pollutants in the air, it is hard to actually function as a human body. By continuing to expand on oil and gas operations, we are doubling down on a destructive industry. Solar power is cheap, is cheaper than oil and gas, and it continues to get cheaper by the day. So why are we doubling down on a destructive industry? Now, I will tell you, people can handle when you tell them the truth. They can handle when you actually explain things to them, and they can handle transparency. What they can't handle is an unfair process that hasn't engaged them at all about their entire life, their entire house, their homes, and their families. They need transparency, and they need to be able to participate. Thank you.

Thank you. Bill Kresser. Bill Kresser. Oh, there you are.

Good morning, Commissioner Summey.

There's more than one of us here, but good morning, Constituent Kresser.

I want to say thank you for all the things you've explained about the county since I moved here. My name is Bill Kresser. I live in Aurora. I came from the east where I spent 40 years being an expert consultant for industry to help them be able to operate the way they wanted to operate, but without harming the neighbors. And we did it. Took years, but we did it. And I come here and we talk about severe non-attainment. That was something that just wasn't possible in the East. You know, we had a one year of slight non-attainment, but we fixed it. And so I found myself about half the time supporting industry and saying, yeah, they've got it right here. And the other half of the time, I was supporting the public against the industry, saying, look, they've got a really good point. You've got to see that. So I come out here, and people apply to FRAC. So we go to the geologists, and they say, okay, here's what you'll find when you get down there. we go to the engineers and say, how much will leak? And they give us an estimate of how much will leak. And then we go to the toxicologists and say, okay, this amount of stuff will be in this neighborhood. What do you think will happen? They do tests with the rats and they tell us. All these are estimates. What we've now got is the gold standard of epidemiology, and not just that they've done epidemiological studies, as the physicians of social responsibility have, but now, since 2019, we've had epidemiological studies in the front range, in neighborhoods just like the ones we're talking about here, and the evidence is absolutely clear. Reviews of those things are the most outstanding of science that comes along. And they're saying there's some really serious questions that have to be answered.

Thank you, Mr. Kresser. We appreciate it. David Anderson.

Good morning. David Anderson. I live in Aurora, as does my son, his wife, and my two grandchildren. I've been at multiple hearings throughout this process. Heard all the things that are going to be said this morning about safety, the environment, health. The one thing that's been kind of eye-opening to me is I think I've had one person at at least five meetings I've been at say they're in favor of this fracking. And they presented to various boards, including the EMC, whatever, Environmental Protection. One of their first things in your first charter is stewardship, public safety, and health. It doesn't work out. They always vote for the oil companies, always for the oil companies. Who did they represent? You guys are supposed to represent the people, not the companies. You can look at the East Coast, everywhere they've been. Texas, they destroy the environment. They leave a mess for everyone to clean up, if it's even able to be cleaned up. Bad things will happen. They have happened. There's no reason to do this. Right in our backyard, there's a lot of miles between where Aurora Reservoir is and the Kansas border. Go out there. But they might disturb some cows, so they're worried about that more than they're worried about people. Less than a mile from these fracking areas where they say they're going to get minerals, they're going to get oil. Hydrocarbons. They're going to put them in the air. They're going to put them in the ground. They're going to put them in the water. Hydrocarbons aren't minerals. They act like they're doing us a favor and we're going to get rich. This is crap. And I challenge you to support your people. Everyone here is going to say we don't want it in our backyard. They have given other sites, but it's going to be more expensive for the oil company. Thank you, Mr. Anderson. Do the right thing.

Jan Weipert.

Good morning, Jan Wipert, Englewood, Colorado, and I'm happy to be here this morning. Thank you all for being here. I signed up and said I was talking about water, and I am because I think at this point in time, The commission should look very carefully at what infrastructure is in our county and potentially put a hold on any permits for anything, including fracking, I'm hearing. But data centers use a huge amount of water and they're becoming popular. Building takes a huge amount of water. And it's not just that. I mean, we're seeing the crisis now we've been talking about. putting a hold on things in the past, but now it's right here in front of us. And it's not when things are right that we need to stop it. It's before it goes wrong. And I'm not saying all buildings should be stopped, but if you aren't looking at it, you should. I also want to talk really briefly about elections. I was in front of the council about a year ago, with some paperwork from Ed Solomon that showed that the elections were not right. And you acted on that, thank you. And you got the county to look at it, the clerk to look at it. And they re-sorted the election records and re-posted them. Sadly, if you would talk to Ed Solomon again, he'd say, it's still provable, they just re-sorted it. And that's never happened in the past before. So you're being taken to the cleaners still on election integrity. And I'm here to tell you the federal government is looking at Arapahoe County. They are looking at Colorado. And we need to wake up as people that want elections to be correct. If you want to be voted in with incorrect data, that's on you, not on me. Thank you. Thank you. Karen Talentire.

Current Hellentire Littleton talking about how we get real transparency with the people hand counting their own elections. Hand count myths. Myth one, it's illegal. If you take Jenna Griswold's word as law above the Constitution, then yes, hand counting is illegal. Actually, it is our current system, which is massively illegal, as I have explained in detail many times before. Myth two, it's slow. A state that just took nine days to count the primary without hand counting cannot complain about slowness. We plan to finish with double-checked final results and a physical, auditable record on election night because we are real people and we have other stuff to do for nine days. Myth three, it's inaccurate. This is really ironic as we are hearing 6,600 people who shouldn't have been on the rolls in New Jersey being explained as a software error. They say machines are more accurate because people make mistakes and machines don't. But the machines didn't program themselves. Programmers are imperfect and possibly foreign people. All humans, including programmers, make mistakes, but machines hide the mistakes while hand counting forces public fixing of mistakes. Myth four, a costalette. This is the funniest myth. We just need a few people, some paper, and some office supplies for one day. We could use public buildings, which are all over the place. Even if we rented rooms, that's just a few hundred a day in Littleton. And people volunteer. You tell me how we could possibly spend more than $700 per precinct. $700 per precinct times 400 precincts would be... 280,000 for Arapahoe County. You couldn't even mail out and return even regular envelopes for that, and mail-in ballots are small packages. And we just saved you the million dollar contract for machines. That's fine, we can't get that many people. Really, those who say it can't be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Thank you. Mila Schusterman.

Good morning, commissioners. My name is Mila Schusterman. I live in Centennial. I've been here many times, and I hope you received all my emails that I sent to Bill Maast. And I attended the Risk Limited Audit as a member of the Audit Board, I assume. I extensively read and researched the rules and everything, and there is a statute 17515 in Colorado that directs the Secretary of State to write the rules, and so she did. But the statue actually supersedes whatever she writes, right? So she writes the rules, and in one of the rules, 25.1.4, it says clearly that the audit board is supposed to compare the paper ballots to the tabulated results, which is CVRs, right? So we were not able to do that. That step was apparently performed by the Secretary of State. So in short, Secretary of State selects the ballots, paper ballots, for the audit, and then she compares them to the tabulated material. Where is the transparency here? I don't see any. I'm sorry. So my official statement, my concern is not simply who performed the comparison. My concern is transparency. The public's confidence in an audit depends on the ability to understand and verify the process. If the ballot-to-CVR comparison occurs through a system that participants cannot independently observe or verify, I would like to know what safeguards exist to provide that transparency and how public confidence is maintained. Thank you, Ms. Schusterman.

Ruth Pollack.

Good morning. I am Ruth Pollack. I live in Aurora. And what an honor to be able to be here and have my representatives, you know, to be able to speak to you. I feel what a powerful thing we have in this country to be able to elect and to, you know, our elections. It's one of the most important things we do. And here in Colorado, we do have what is known as the gold standard. I'd say prove it, okay? I want to feel confident every single time I vote that it is counted, that everybody is, it's accounted for, and that everybody gets one vote. That's a different story, sort of. But when I heard that my friend was going to do the audit, I went, yes, we can actually go and look at it, and we can say, there it is. Now, I firmly believe that we need a second, okay, which is also hand counting, because now there is your paper tally. If I go to the bank, they hand me money, the machine counts the money for me. First thing I do is count it, okay? I want to make sure that it's there. That is your record. That is your backup. So the audit... I was really concerned when she came back and she was like, wait, here's, they went, ta-da, here's the record. But yet, she didn't even get to see it. She didn't get to see what the ballots that they did compared to what was actually the cast records. And I was concerned, all right, as an American citizen who loves this country, wants to vote, wants everyone, I'm the biggest harasser there is, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, right, to all my kids who hate this. Anyway. But we need transparency, and we need to feel confident in our elections. And I'm sorry, I don't right this minute. I just don't, and I want to. And I appreciate what you guys do. I appreciate that you took the time to listen to us. But please, please, please. Oh, by the way, hand counting. We actually proved that we could do it very quickly from the GOP Assembly. We went and we did their votes. We counted it by hand quicker than the stupid machines had. Okay. And we got, when we ran back in the tallies, Oh, look what it was more accurate. All right. And we've proved this over and over. It can be done. It can be done quickly. And you have, all you gotta do is ask and you have volunteers.

Thank you very much. Annette Budd.

Hi, I'm Annette Budd from Centennial, and I want to talk about Mila Shusterman's experience with a risk-limiting audit. And I'm going to read a section of the law. It's actually a section of the Secretary of State's regulations, 1505-1, Rule 25.2.2. It says, the designated election official must appoint an audit board to conduct, I want to... Let's focus on that word, the risk-limiting audit. Under Rule 25.2.3, the Audit Board is responsible for retrieving, examining, examining is important, and reporting the results of the audited ballot cards. Mila was appointed to the Audit Board, but she was not allowed to participate in the completion of those required audit steps. Conduct means to direct, carry out, or perform an activity or process. If a member of the Audit Board is not allowed to conduct the crucial part of the audit, making sure the machine results match the actual ballot, the law was violated. An audit is not merely an observation of a process. An audit is an examination and verification process. The purpose of the risk-limiting audit is to examine the ballots and compare the human interpretation of those ballots with the reported voting system results. Mila was not allowed to do what the election law required her to do. Without question, this law was violated, but the issue is so much greater than a broken law. We live in a society where the fundamental issues of trust no longer exist. Where trust no longer exists, transparency becomes the necessary bridge between people. Without that bridge, the deterioration of our civic fabric happens even more rapidly. We can't have this. We can't have this hiding of A violation of the law. You guys have the authority to do what needs to be done to deal with what happened. And it's important for our society that we can trust each other. And the only way that can happen is through transparency.

Thank you. Ann Hussain. Ann Hussain. Oh, there you are.

Good morning, Commission. I wanted to thank you for opening up the session to give more opportunity for people to speak. Could you give us your name and your? Anne Hussain. And your city? And I live in South Shore Aurora. Okay. My home is 3,000 feet from Sunlight Lawn, as well as hundreds of other homes. The commission has the ability to deny a well pad, irregardless of the state laws because it's in your jurisdiction and you get to decide if it's going to be healthy for the people or unhealthy for the people. Why is sunlight long so different? In the entire state of Colorado, there is not a well pad this size so close to thousands of people. This is huge. There are so many children. There are so many schools that will be affected by sunlight long. You have... You're going and you're approving all the other seven well pads. We asked you for one well pad for safety, for our health. Why is this different? It's different because the health risks are so immense. There are no air monitors on my property. You have no idea what's leaving that well pad and coming into our homes. Also, there's a huge fire risk. I wanted to know how many of these commissioners have come to South Shore, have walked South Shore, have walked Beacon Point to see how will a fire truck get to this well pad if there's a fire. There's 26,000 acres of wild grass behind my home. There's one route to that well pad and they have to come off, at the best case scenario, 15 minutes. My home will be gone. And that is a fact. We met with the Aurora Fire Chief and he said, well, we'll go off road. How will you go off road? Will you crash through my backyard over a ridge? There's just so much here that I really want you to reconsider. Please open this well pad and let the people speak and see the real risks to our community. Thank you. Thank you.

Marsha Goldsmith-Kamen.

Hi, my name is Marcia Goldsmith-Kamen. I live in Centennial in Arapahoe County. I wanted to express my deep dismay over how sunlight long applications been reviewed and processed by this county. I've been concerned about this mega well pad ever since it first became known to the community years ago. It's just a tad over 3,000 feet from residential homes, as Ann just said, and the community We've provided data showing multiple public health reasons why this is too close to families living nearby. Many written comments were submitted, justifiably proven concerns. The director of public works checked all the boxes and approved the application. The community hasn't been given a public hearing. As we had anticipated, we asked about this one pad, sunlight long, and we were told it was going to be looked at differently than all the other well pads that have all been approved. Due to cumulative impacts and already experiencing firsthand the noise, light pollution, and truck traffic complaints just filed today, yesterday, about Secret Stash, we truly know what to expect from the development of Sunlight Long. The state tells us, come to the county and address these concerns with your local government authority. You guys know the environment better. You know the constituents as well. None of us expected that the county wouldn't allow residents to attend a public hearing to express their concerns directly. As a resident of this county, I'm extremely let down over this entire process. I've lost hope and faith in my local government. We expected more. Apparently, this is the way in which you treat the people you represent. You're supposed to represent our voices and the decision-making process for our home environment. Please restore my hope reopen sunlight long. So the people have a public hearing it's within your discretion to do so. And I thank you for your time. Thank you.

Diana Olson. Oh, there you are. Okay.

Good morning. Good morning. My name is Diana Olson and I live in Littleton. And I just want to express my concern as well about our elections. I have been following this for the last six years as have so many people. And we have so much overwhelming evidence that there's election fraud in every area of the process. It's not just the mail-in ballots. It's not just the machines. It's not just the bloated voter rolls. It's everything together. Excuse me, I'm not comfortable publicly speaking. But we can accept anything if we know that we really chose it. But we haven't really been choosing it. They've been choosing for us. And it's getting to the point where it's so critical that if we don't do something, we're not going to have a country left. So many things have happened and our country is the way it is because of all the election fraud that's gone on over the last 20 plus years. It's been 20 plus years and it is other countries who have interfered in our elections from China to Venezuela to Serbia through Cuba. And if you search it out, and if you listen to the people who have found this, you will see it too. And our news tries to gaslight everybody until it's not happening. These are all conspiracy theories. These people are crazy. I'm telling you, they have it all. They have all the evidence about all of it. I thank you for your time, and I thank you for your consideration.

Thank you very much. Lawrence Clinton Porter.

Good morning, Commissioners. This is my first opportunity to be in front of you. I'm Lawrence Clinton Porter, resident of the Copperleaf community, located in Southeast Centennial Aurora, unincorporated Arapahoe County. I am the Republican candidate for House District 40, and I'm coming to you as As a father, as a resident, and as a realtor who represents many of the homes in South Shore, Beacon Point, and Wheatlands, and in South Shore. And if you guys don't mind, I'd like to take off my coat for just a moment.

We're good.

Because I'd like to talk to you, not as a candidate. I'd like to talk to you and make a plea. As Superman. As a father. And if you want to call me Superman, that's absolutely fine. I have three little girls, and I did not come prepared for any type of speech or anything like that this morning, but I have three little girls. Those little girls paddleboard on Aurora Reservoir. They shop at Southlands. They literally are employed by Jimmy John's there in Southlands. And we are all, in a very bipartisan way, very concerned about what's going on with the fracking. I want to be thankful to S&M Energy for sponsoring our Arapahoe County Fair, because I know that they were one of the sponsors of our fair. However, we're in a situation right now where, as a real estate agent and as a father, you're about to give a sexually transmitted disease to every resident by allowing this fracking. And I want to put it to you that way, because that's what this is like. At the moment that you allow the non-intervention of any public commentary or comment, That truly was not disclosed to the residents and the people who built and who live in that area. At the moment that you allow this to take place within our backyard, you're giving every one of them a condition. And that condition is that their home is not worth what they believe their home is worth right now. To the people of Talon's Reach, to the people of Saddle Rock Ridge, to the entire Copperleaf community and all of the residents. You're allowing the money and the revenue to be able to provide justification for this. And in a nonpartisan way as a father, I'm just making an appeal to you as parents, as aunts, as uncles, to consider our children, to consider what you're doing, and to consider this situation. I also want to say, please consider election integrity. It's what we're passing on to the president that we're passing on to our children. Thank you.

Thank you. Pretty? Pretty P? Pretty? No. No. Unless there is a language barrier. Are you sure? Now, he can talk fast. Tell him what you want to add and have him talk fast. We can do that. Get all of that in there. Tom, are you next? Are you Tom? Yes, I'm Tom. Oh, you come on down, Tom. And Pretty, you talk about how you want to do that.

I'm going to be short. Okay. We all know what Pretty wants, and I think a lot of other people have already expressed that. I'm Tom Yeager. I'm from Broomfield. I am here today because poison knows no boundaries. What you guys do here in Arapahoe County affects me in Broomfield. It affects our entire planet. So I think you understand what your constituents, the people who voted you up there, are asking you to do. So what's the problem? Power and money from the oil and gas industry. You guys are afraid. Whoever has more power and money in America wins. We don't have the power. We don't have the money. But we have the votes. And we are authorizing you to fight these people. Please put your people over the industry profit. Thank you.

Thank you. Christine D? All right. There is no name. It's just initial D. Hi, commissioners.

My name is Christine Clapham-Dayton, and I live in Aurora County. Good morning. On June 16th, you said making good means helping people feel safe, that government works best in partnership with residents, and that you are committed to serving Arapahoe County. These were your words. Today I'm asking you to make good on that promise by reopening Sunlight Long with a public hearing and vote. My family moved here from South Carolina about a year ago because we were looking for a safe community with open spaces, great schools, and a place to build our future. And we found that in Aurora. Only after we moved here did I learn about the drilling near the reservoir. And I quickly realized this wasn't someone else's issue, it was my family's. Over the past year, thousands of your constituents attended meetings, submitted more than 2,000 public comments and spoke up about this. And they asked the board to hear us. We weren't asking you to agree with us, but we were asking you to listen before deciding. Instead, Sunlight Long was approved administratively without a public hearing or an opportunity for the people most affected to speak to you.

So what did these 2,000 comments mean?

If making good means helping people feel safe, then partnership requires more than collecting comments before issuing an administrative approval. It requires listening, transparency, and trust. Trust isn't built through videos or slogans about making good. It's built one decision at a time. Those are your words and I believe them. So I'm asking you today to reopen the sunlight long application, require and review the alternative location analysis and hold a public hearing, deliberate publicly, vote publicly. You are our representatives. Please, please do this for us. Show your constituents that when they participate in good faith, their government listens. Thank you. Show us that making good means being transparent. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Yvonne.

I'm here with my husband. He's the next speaker.

This is my son, Aston.

Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Yvonne Yap. Today I stand before you not only as an impacted resident and mother, but on behalf of more than 3,400 residents who signed the Protect Families from Neighbourhood Fracking petition that we are presenting to you today. Those signatures represent parents, grandparents, homeowners and neighbours. Please, people just like you, asking for something remarkably reasonable. Reconsider the Sunlight Long application, evaluate locations that are farther from home, schools and the Aurora Reservoir and allow this decision to be made through a public hearing and public vote. Today I also brought someone else with me, my little boy. He is my why. He is the reason I have dedicated the past year volunteering full-time with Save the Aurora Reservoir. He is the reason my family chose this neighbourhood and heartbreakingly, he is the reason we may one day have to leave it. Every day I fight for his health and well-being and for every child growing up in communities like ours. Every day I carry the guilt of bringing him into an environment where I worry about the air he breathes. And every day I carry the guilt of the time this fight takes away from him. Hours spent writing letters, organising neighbours, deciphering oil and gas applications and reading scientific research instead of simply being his mum. Despite what billion-dollar corporations and their lawyers continue to claim, science documented spill history and what we see and hear with our own eyes and ears tell a very different story. History has seen this before. This is our tobacco moment. Just as Big Tobacco spent decades insisting there was no proof that smoking caused cancer, the oil and gas industry continues to argue that studies cannot prove causation, but that is not how public health works. As epidemiologist, Megan Wisner explained to me, you cannot ethically.

He is your timer. He just, he's like, yes, he wants to speak, but he wants to switch now because it's dad's turn to go ahead. And it's time to switch over.

Can I speak for him so he can hold the baby?

I'll hold the baby.

Okay.

I'm very serious about that. I'll hold the baby. We got a process here. Bring them up. That'll be way more fun.

An epidemiologist, Megan Weiser, explained to me, you cannot actually expose children to the benzene to prove harm. Public hearing or public health decisions are made using the weight of scientific evidence. And the body of evidence is consistent and continues to grow. Dr. Lisa McKenzie in 2025 Colorado study found that the children living near oil and gas development faced an increased risk of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia and concluded that the current setback may not be sufficient to protect our children's health. Sorry. That's all right. Children are not small adults. They breathe faster, inhale more air for their bodies, and their developing bodies are uniquely vulnerable. These wells will operate for decades and pollute maintenance events and emissions continue throughout their lifetime. Today, this petition is more than a collection of signatures. It is a statement of thousands of constituents asking you to put people before process and checked boxes. Please reconsider the sunlight long application, require a full alternative location analysis, hold a public hearing, and hold a public vote. Because when a decision will shape our community's health and quality of life for the next 30 years, the people who live with these consequences deserve more than just the opportunity to submit written comments. We deserve a meaningful opportunity to influence the land use decision and will define our community for generations. Many of us choose to make Arapaho County our forever home because we believe it was a place where families could have tribe. Today, we are asking our elected leaders to demonstrate the courage to put public health, safety, and long-term well-being of your constituents first.

Thank you very, very much. Tell us your name because we didn't get your name for the record. My name is Otto, O-T-T-O. Oh, there you are. Yes, you are. You're next. Thank you very, very much. And we have a human timer. We watched how that... Who knew? Who knew? He was like, we're at five seconds. Let's go. That was precious. Thank you very, very much. We have Andrew P...

Good morning, Madam Chair and Arapahoe County Commissioners. My name is Andrew Pinkowitz and I live in Arapahoe County District 3 in East Centennial with my wife, Caroline, and my two and a half year old son, Eli. Here's a picture of my family. He is my why. Our home is just a few miles away from the proposed fracking site. Eli's daycare in Southeast Aurora is even closer to the proposed sunlight-long fracking location, presenting, as many other commenters have mentioned, a significant risk of negative health outcomes like asthma, childhood cancer, and heart disease. This risk is for Eli, his classmates, and all the kids who live in our county close to the Sunlight Long location. The scientific evidence is overwhelmingly clear about the public health risks presented by emissions of VOCs, or volatile organic compounds. While these are invisible to the human eye, these pollutants have been found far beyond the required setback. in the current rules. So when we hear SM Energy give us assurances of health, those ring hollow when we know that our families, our community, and our kids will suffer while fracking executives continue to enrich themselves at our community's detriment. Making good to the Arapahoe County community involves making tough decisions. It's hard to say no to an oil and gas company when big money is involved, especially when that same energy company sponsors the SM Energy Arena within the Arapahoe County Fairgrounds. This body was elected to serve the people over corporate profits. You have a responsibility to protect the most vulnerable members of our community. I implore this body to reopen Sunlight Long as new due to substantive material changes and grant a public hearing, not a closed door administrative approval. Thank you very much.

I have Diane M. My guess is that's Diane Mock. All right, let me write that down.

Good morning, Commissioners. Good morning. I'm here today to voice two points. What's your name? No, I said it, but you need to say it. My name is Diane Mock. And where do you live? I live in unincorporated Arapahoe County. Perfect. Thank you. You are my highest form of government. Please listen. I'm here today to voice two points regarding fracking, and I am in danger of it as well. I recently learned that 60 to 90% of oil produced from fracking in Colorado is sold outside Colorado to other domestic places and foreign buyers. It doesn't stay in Colorado to benefit us. Once I learned that information, it became apparent to me that fracking is a money-making proposition being done at public expense. Oil isn't being extracted in Colorado to make our country less dependent on foreign oil. It's being extracted and sold by oil and gas as a business venture to enrich them. They are making billions of dollars a year while citizens lose access to water, health. We need to be aware of the impact on our health and air quality but most importantly our health. One of the impacts the second thing I want to talk to you about today and is a fracking well exhaust is nosebleeds. I' ve heard this health threat The bloody nose health issue threat is true. I have vowed to keep the threat, the source of the following information confidential, so I will. A mother up in northern Colorado around Erie has reported that she sends her son to school with a roll of paper towels and a clean set of clothes in case his nose bleeds. It usually bleeds daily. Her son wasn't the victim of nosebleeds before fracking came to their neighborhood. Do we want this or worse for our children and ourselves? Save the Aurora Reservoir has collected over 3,000 petitions or 3,000 signatures, and I would like asking you to reopen and review fracking permits that have been issued to oil and gas to drill sunlight long and 99 other proposed fracking paths. I'm going to include that in there. Thank you, Diane. Can I present this to you?

Give that to Cooney, to Mr. Saraceno, and he will... Yes, to Mr. Saraceno. Thank you. Yeah, whatever you want to give us, you are welcome to give it to Cooney and he will pass them to us. Thank you very much. Steven C. We have a Steven. Oh, okay, sorry. And Noah. Wait. Wait. Okay, you all are on two different sheets. Okay, gotcha. Oh, see? All right, thank you very much. And hold on, let me compare this one. Candace Rutledge. Sorry. While I look through these. Okay. Can you hear me? You can.

Hello, my name is Candice Rutledge and I'm a street cat here in Littleton. I've been through a organized harassment campaign that has lasted for years and I've seen a lot. And I have a different perspective on a lot of things. We are in the middle of two wars, maybe more. And we need to think about the infrastructure that is going up around us. Data centers, fracking, all of that could be low key terrorism. And I want to make sure that people are aware of that. I also want to make sure that people know that there is fraud because of fee for service billing at hospitals. And I've been through the ringer myself. where people will set up scenarios to cause me to have to go to the hospital and then I or the insurance will get billed and the bills are just hundreds of dollars and it's not cool. And so I want to be sure that we are aware that hacking and confusion and other things can happen and we should ask the question, why are we convinced that fracking is necessary? And one of the reasons that I clapped really hard for the last lady who spoke before me was because I too have heard that we're selling our fuel. If we just drilled normally and didn't frack, maybe we'd be all right. So we need to find out if we're being economical with that. And then as far as election goes, I still think a key sort system with cards where you lift them and then you sort them and then you compare the stacks would be very efficient. It can still be a community event where everyone watches to make sure things are on the up and up. And I think that would be a better voting system than the black box computer systems and then counting them singularly. So thank you.

Thank you. And before we move on, I just want to give a reminder to folks who may be on the line who would like to get in the queue. If you would like to speak online, we need you to press star three at this time to get in the queue and only press it once because if you press it more than once, then you will be taken out of the queue. So if you'd like to speak, please press star three to get in the queue. And next we have Catherine. And you'll definitely have to give us, I have a whole list of names here with first names and initials. So please correct our record for us.

Good morning, commissioners. My name is Catherine, and I'm an Arapahoe County resident. I'm here because I care about protecting the Aurora Reservoir and the communities that surround it. This reservoir isn't just another piece of land. It's a source of drinking water, wildlife habitat, and one of the few places where families can enjoy the outdoors close to home. I moved to Colorado because I love the access to nature and the quality of life here. The Aurora Reservoir is a place that thousands of people use to recreate, enjoy wildlife and spend time with their families. I don't think we should take unnecessary risks with a resource that's so important to our community. Once industrial development like this moves forward, we can't simply undo the impacts. I urge you to put public health, water quality, and the long-term interests of our community ahead of short-term industrial development. These decisions deserve careful evaluation in a transparent public process. When it comes to protecting our water, it's far better to prevent harm than to try to fix it later. Let's get this right the first time. Please reconsider the sunlight long application. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I have Molly. Molly J. You don't have to run.

Thank you.

My name is Molly Jacobs, and I'm in Aurora, Colorado. Thank you. I'd like to thank each and every one of you for serving our community. I really appreciate it. Historically, Colorado has been a trailblazer of the nation, but lately we've been breaking the kinds of records we shouldn't want to break. We've had record temperature highs. Denver has the eighth worst air quality in the entire country, and we're in an emergency drought. The signs from Mother Nature are clear. We need to listen to her and heed her message. I believe that many of the world's problems could be solved with the simple action of caring about other people. Everyone here in this community deserves to be given care and thought and consideration for what their needs are. Pollution is not something that is caring. Pollution is the antithesis of caring. Please reopen the sunlight long application. Open it for public hearing. The people deserve to have a voice. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Fred Munger. Careful.

Yeah, hello. I'm Fred Munger from Littleton, Colorado.

Thank you.

And I would like to say the fossil fuel industry is the most destructive industry in the history of mankind. They make trillions of dollars in profit while they dump their pollution on the public. And eight and a half million people worldwide die from the effects of fossil fuel pollution like cancer, lung disease, stuff like that. 300,000 people in the United States die every single year from the effects of fossil fuel pollution. How many is that in Colorado? And while we're at it, the decisions you're making, how many people are gonna die because of the decisions you guys make when you put fossil fuel profits ahead of other things? Okay, renewable energy is the cheapest, cleanest, most job producing energy on the planet. Why don't people have a choice of renewable energy? But yet you make decisions that force fossil fuels onto people. And what are you gonna do when the Aurora Reservoir gets polluted? Fracking uses some of the most toxic chemicals known to mankind that dissolved bedrock Flush out oil and gas it pollutes the groundwater it pollutes the surface water it pollutes the air and Also Fossil fuels cause climate disaster and And the fossil fuel industry makes trillions, and they pay for none of this. They just dump it on the public. Why don't people have a choice of clean, renewable energy?

Thank you very, very much, Mr. Munger. Haley Snyder. That would not be good.

Hello, my name is Haley Snyder and I'm a resident of Aurora, Colorado. I'm here today to speak as someone who loves our community and cares deeply about its future. Like so many of my neighbors, I signed the Sunlight Long petition because this isn't just a political topic to me. It's about our daily life, our home values, and our health. The Aurora Reservoir is an essential centerpiece of our area. It's where our families gather, it's where our kids play, and where we turn for clean water and recreation. Allowing fracking in such close proximity introduces unnecessary and permanent risk to the water quality, air quality, and our local ecosystems. Industrial operations don't exist in a vacuum. The noise, increased traffic, potential service bills, and air emissions affect nearby residential neighborhoods directly, impacting everyone from our quiet enjoyment of our homes to our long-term property values. Thousands of community members have signed the petition. I think we quoted something like 3,400 people to raise this complaint. We signed it to demand proactive protection. Development decisions didn't happen at the expense of established, shouldn't happen at the expense of established neighborhoods and vital natural resources for our community. We have a responsibility to safeguard our local environment before irreversible harm occurs. I urge you to listen to the voices of those residents that are here today who live here, experience this every day, and support protective measures for the Aurora Reservoir. Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much. Nathan Lyon. Did I pronounce that correctly? Okay, great. Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Nathan Lyon. I'm an Arapahoe County and Aurora resident. Today, I want to make you aware that your staff has been inaccurately applying the oil and gas distance setback regulations you adopted in 2023 and 2024. Arapahoe County sets setback distances from the pad boundary, which is defined in the Arapahoe County Land Development Code as, quote, the outer limit of the disturbed ground. However, many applications and subsequent approvals, including Crestone's Sunlight Long application, simply use the working pad surface as the setback distance. These are not the same thing. This should cause you alarm as your regulations are not being accurately applied. and more disturbingly are being applied in a manner that is skewed towards operators and away from the strong protections the county touts. These errors could open Arapahoe County up to legal concerns, but they most certainly erode residents' trust. However, despite pointing out measurement problems and an abundance of changes made to the Sunlight Long site since the county's initial approval, Starr's letter and presentation were dismissed. Apparently your legal team is fine with approving applications that may not even meet your regulations. Nevermind the overwhelming community opposition and the lack of public hearings. you must do better. You can start by reopening the Sunlight Long application to reevaluate it with the new site plans, which apparently your staff has yet to see, as of two weeks ago, we were told, and this time with accuracy and with a public hearing. Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Giselle Arroyo.

Good morning commissioners. Thank you for having me today. My name is Giselle. I live in Littleton with my two children who are over there. Why I'm out of breath right now. It's okay. Been trying to keep them calm. Um, I'm here today asking you all to please, uh, consider reopening the sunlight long application and to listen to your cons to the people. who are asking you this of you. Regulators are studying health problems that are tied to oil and gas drilling. There is a recent article in the Denver Post that showed that a public health study found that Colorado children living within eight miles of an oil and gas well had an increased risk of developing leukemia. And the authors determined that current setbacks between well sites and houses are not enough to protect children. And so I'm asking you to please listen to the people because oil and gas development is tied to so many of the climate disasters that we're seeing. The past 11 years have been the hottest 11 years on record, and we're seeing wildfires raging through our communities, and this is all tied to the fossil fuel industry. And so I want to remind you all commissioners that you're all public servants and that you have to listen to these individuals and if you do not at the very least work with star or frontline communities that would deem you as complicit and it would be clear which side that you are on and that is the legacy that you would leave and so please again I ask you to listen We've been seeing since the 1800s that scientists have been ringing the alarm bells for climate change. And so please, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached 421 parts per million in 2022, the highest concentration in human history. Peter Tans, a senior NOAA scientist, said that we have known about this for half a century and we have failed to do anything meaningful about it. So please, let's do something about it.

Thank you, Giselle. Michael Rose? I think that's Rose. Is it Rose? Is it Rose? Well, I can't wait to hear what I missed.

Hi, it's Michael Rosen. Thank you. My fifth grade teacher asked me to try writing with my left hand. Obviously, I've worked it out since then.

It wasn't you. It was not you. All right.

Okay. I'm Michael Rosen from Denver, Colorado, down the block. And the community has spoken. They've spoken at a number of meetings today. The oil and gas industry said accept the risk to the Lowry Superfund site. The community said no. The oil and gas community company said accept the risk for childhood cancer. The community said no. The oil and gas industry said accept the risk to wildlife. The community said no. The oil and gas industry said, accept the risk to the Aurora Reservoir. The community, again, loudly said no. The oil and gas community companies said, accept the risk to property values and community. The community said no. They've said no, they've said no, they've said no. How many no's do we need? We have just one planet, and there is no planet B. Oil and gas threatens the whole world, the planet, all communities. And if we don't believe that, we can just ask ExxonMobil. They studied it. So today is July 28, 2026. I take my meds. I exercise. I try to stay healthy. Monday, July 28, 2036, I hope to be around then. Knock on wood. But also, we have all the Noah's and Ashley's and Julian's and kids out there, and I want them to be breathing clean air between now and then. Thank you. Please reopen this application.

Thank you. Thank you very much. I have a Melissa W. Is there a Melissa W.? Okay, and Michelle, did we get somebody in the queue online?

Commissioners, there's no one in the queue at this time.

Oh, well, okay. All right. Is there anybody in the room who did not wish to, or who wanted to speak but did not get their name on the thing? Okay. I want, we'll start over here. Who was first? Who had their hand up first? Oh, okay. Well, come on up. Come on up. No, there's not a Melissa H. There's a Melissa W. Okay.

Good morning or afternoon commissioners. My name is Melissa. I'm a mom and an impacted resident. I'm urging you to reopen and reconsider the sunlight long oil and gas application. This is my second time here. I'm supposed to be on vacation, but I'm here because this is important to me. Please look at alternative locations to make it safer for our community. restore our trust in this process by holding a public hearing and a public vote. As you can see, this is a nonpartisan issue. You have heard from people on both sides of the aisle. I live in a neighborhood with mixed political views and not one person in my direct neighborhood is for this. We have previously presented evidence showing increased risk associated with living near intensive oil and gas development. which increased the risk of cancer in children. My son said to me the other day, Mom, I don't want to have to move away from my friends. I like our neighborhood. This is not fair to our children. Our children's health and safety should be our top concern. I worked hard as a single mom to purchase my home in this community. I do not want to move again due to health concerns. 400,000 residents in the city of Aurora rely on this drinking water. There will be less water availability to our community. Our drinking water is worth protecting. Residents are asked to curtail their water use while the oil and gas projects get a free pass to use 20 to 25 million gallons of fresh water per well and then permanently contaminate it. Our children deserve clean air. We have already had 35 ozone action alert days so far this season since June 1st. Kids need to be outdoors, running, playing, and exercising. Prevention and precaution should come before industry profits. While oil and gas corporations are reporting record-breaking profits, we are left with the financial burden of health impacts. By far, the majority of oil and gas extracted is taken out of state to be sold. We do not see the benefits of lower energy costs, but as taxpayers, we are paying for the cleanup costs. Please do the courageous and honorable thing that is considered locations further away from home schools in the Aurora.

Thanks.

Okay, whoever the green shirt is pointing to. So you let us know who we get to hear from. I want everybody to get to speak, but I don't want to start any fights with, no, they were first.

Hello, commissioners. My name is Sally Ingen. I live a mile away from the proposed fracking site.

Stop just a second. We're going to not start yet. I didn't get your name, and you're not on my list, so I need to write it down. So could you say that slower for me?

Sure. Sally Ingen. Okay. Spell your last name. E-N-G-E-N.

Okay. Thank you. And city?

Unincorporated Arapahoe County. Yeah, okay. Thank you.

You're also my my people.

Thank you Last time I stood up here. I was telling you guys about a conversation. I was having with Martin Lohan We had emailed back and forth for about six months I was looking for the information that Arapahoe County used in their decision to approve this Sunday long The first thing he sent me was a couple articles from 2016 written by the industry, and when I pointed that out to him, that's a little biased, he sent me some more information, and one was a very large article that was studied in California, which when I read it, it said basically, we don't have enough information to use humans as lab rats. We need more information. So I was curious as to why on earth He, and I'm sure you guys probably didn't read it. You trusted him, whatever his title was at the time. But what I want to know, and I want to raise a hand, how many of us want to know what studies these guys are going to look at?

We can't hear you.

What kind of information, what kind of studies are you going to look at to make this decision, if you even look at it again? I'm hoping you do. But if there is an opening where you can look at this again, reopen it, look at it, I want to see, and I hope everyone else wants to see as well, what are you looking at? Because there are studies written by the oil and gas industry that are off the wall wrong when you look at medical studies by people who are independent. So I'm just, please, please, please, please be looking at the right kind of information. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you very much, Sally.

You coming? Come on up. But you are a sergeant at arms, so when you're done, you've got to go back and get the cue back there.

I can do that. Can you hear me all right?

Yeah, raise that just a little bit. There you go.

Okay.

My name is Jennifer Over, like over the rainbow. Okay. O-V-E-R. Please do address me by Joe, though, and my pronouns are they, them.

Joe.

Okay. I live in Central Aurora and I am a lifelong Colorado resident. I am a full-time seminary student and aspirant for ordination. I have no idea if my words today will make any difference. It has been disappointing being to several other hearings like this over the last year about fracking around the Aurora Reservoir and I have been disappointed each time to have the overwhelming outcry around these issues, the ones you're hearing today, completely denied and ignored by the decision makers. But I also know that I can't stay silent. I ask that you reopen and reconsider the sunlight long application and actually engage in an accessible and transparent way the community that this project will impact. The people in our community are already struggling to survive in the current political and economic climate. And I personally am facing my own struggles in our current times as well. The potential detrimental impacts of this project are yet another thing for me to worry about. And when they come to pass, they will come to pass. it will be a drain on my already limited resources. I know that this fracking will be detrimental to me, to my home, to my neighbors, to our community and to our state, everything is connected. Please continue to listen to us and please, please actually hear us. Let our concerns sink in and show us through your actions, not through a nice little... Please, through your actions, show us that you've heard us. Thank you. Thank you.

Joe, who's next? Okay, great. Thank you. Okay, we'll ask about that again. Okay, great. Thank you. Oh, look, staff told me that.

There was someone else on the line earlier at the 9.30 time who couldn't hang on long enough to be here, so she passed on her.

Oh, good. Okay. Just introduce yourself and tell us where you're from and read your statement. I'm good.

I'm Mark Goldsmith-Kammen. I live in Arapahoe County. This is from Heather Emmer. Also from South Shore Arapahoe County. Good morning. My name is Heather Emmer and I am speaking today as an affected party. I am a South Shore resident that backs up directly to the Lowry Ranch. My husband and I, along with our three school-aged children, have lived here and enjoy this beautiful community. for three years now. We have loved the beautiful land we are surrounded by and the animals that call it home. From pronghorn, deer, prairie dogs, coyotes, cows, and a multitude of different birds, including a bald eagle from time to time, it has been magical. But in early February of 2026, we started hearing a disturbing and disruptive humming, a humming that could penetrate our home and wake us up, wake us and keep us up. It was impossible to ignore once you heard it. When we started filing complaints with both the county and state boards, the resounding response we got was that this was all within regulations. That humming lasted every night from February through April. That humming was coming from the state La Plata South site that is three miles from our home. we got very little sleep for two months how's that okay how can the regulations be protective of the community when the community is going without sleep for that long i had daily headaches and took every bit of energy i had to function at a subpar level now secret status which is only one and a half miles from our home has started its pre-operation activities the humming is back and with the site's closer proximity to the very bright lights from the drill tower are now an added nuisance. Again we are told that this is perfectly within regulations. The current regulations are not protective of community health or quality of life. In fact it feels quite the opposite. It feels as though the regulations were made to protect the industry. you have a chance to reopen the summit long petition a massive well said that will be only one-half mile from our homes six times closer than state look at the south and three times closer than secret stash where once started there were There will be so many wells that we will be living with the humming and lights for more than two years. You have a chance now to do the right thing and protect the constituents that you were elected to represent. We are your priority, and we will be watching what you choose to do with your time in office.

Thank you, Martin. Appreciate it. Who's next? I see, I saw you. It's you. It's you. Bring the baby. Listen, we know how babies are. Come on up here. If you don't mind talking and you can hold a nurse at the same time, we are good. We are proponents. Okay, so my name is Martha Superjura Watanana of Aurora. And Joe can actually, if you have it written, yeah, Joe's holding it up for you. You go ahead.

So I'm a concerned citizen, a concerned mother and resident of Arapaho County from Aurora. And I'm just asking that you please reopen and re-review the Sunlight Long application and require a full transparent evaluation of alternative locations that would place this industrial site further from home, schools and childcare facilities. I know that you strive to be responsible and protective. So this is the time to step up once again in light of more and more studies arriving at the same conclusion. The current setbacks are not protective. People living and working too close to fricking sites have had their health significantly affected. You are supposed to represent the people. You are our alphas. You are in charge because we have faith that you will take care of us, protect us, as alphas do. Please step up and protect us. Having a mega well pad, the largest in the state, so close to us, to our water supply, is extremely unsafe for us. I'm sure you would not want to live in such close proximity to this fracking site. So please don't do this to us. The ECMC is not protecting us, although mandated to. They just let oil and gas do their thing. They are not interested in evolving in light of new information and adjusting their rules. They are not elected. There are no consequences for them. There is no accountability. So they just continue with reckless abandon. And oil and gas certainly don't care about harming the population. I'm from England, and before coming here, I thought Colorado was full of clean mountain air, but it's one of the worst polluted states in the country. There are frequent air quality alerts. I can't take my little one out. I worry for the vulnerable of the community, our elders, our young, our immunocompromised. My daughter, her grandparents, her cousins. Colorado's altitude and climate cannot accommodate so much oil and gas activity. Please don't let our state, your state, descend further into this polluted, life expectancy reducing, unhealthy hellscape. Thank you. You did it!

And Michelle, well, first let me take a, see if there are any other hands in the room. Okay, oh good, there are a couple other hands, three or four or five other hands in the room. But let me go to the comment online and then we will come back to the room. Michelle? Michelle?

Hi, Commissioner. Hi, Commissioner. We have a caller with the last four digits of 0043. Go ahead and state your name and city for the record. Your two minutes will begin after that. Go ahead. You're live with the Board of County Commissioners.

Hi, my name is Lauren Milam and I live in Centennial. Good morning, Chair Leslie Sumney and Arapahoe County Commissioners. I am Lauren Milam, a wife to Jason and a mom to three beautiful children. and I'm taking time during my vacation to speak to you today. That's how important this is to me. I came to the business meeting on May 12th, but you denied my right to speak then by only allowing four people total to speak during the couple of comments. I was really disappointed and frustrated that you changed the agenda without prior notice and without warning. But for all of those people that came today to speak to you, both on the phone, online, and in person, I really hope that you listen to them, that you take time to hear them and their words and think about what matters most. In 2025, the Sunlight Long application came across your desk. You didn't hold a public hearing. You also didn't hold a public vote. These are required by law for any major land use and development application. Instead, the Sunlight Long Megapad, the biggest in our state, was sent to your public works department, and one person from public works approved it. On June 16th, 2026, you held a state of the county continental breakfast. Your overarching theme this year was making good. On the county website, it states, making good wasn't just a theme of our state county event. It's a responsibility. It means making good on the trust people place in local government. It means making good on the decisions we make on behalf of taxpayers. How can you say that making good is a responsibility, your responsibility, when you pass this sunlight-long application off to public works? How can you say that you are making good on the decisions you make on behalf of taxpayers when you aren't the ones making any decisions? You said, our work is to make sure the things people count on are there when they need them. We need you. Where were you to hold a public hearing for State Sunlight Long? Are you there to hold a public vote? No. You said making good means helping people feel safe, supporting families, and showing up when neighbors need help. Are you making us feel safe by putting a massive 32 well, excuse me, now it's 24 well, fracking pad near our homes, our kids' schools, our reservoirs, and our community? Are you showing up when we need help? No. Your time is up.

Thank you very much. That was abrupt. I was not looking for abruptness, but that was time. Thank you for your comments, if you can still hear us. And also, please feel free to send your comment in to our e-mails if they're for the comments you were not allowed to make. We have how many more people in the room? Ian Tafoya, I see you. Come on up.

All right. Thank you, everybody. My name is Ian Thomas Tafoya, and I am the vice president of state programs for green Latinos, the national and state based environmental justice nonprofit. I'm also a former government worker staffing the Land Use and Transportation Committee for the city and county of Denver in the past, and I chaired the Colorado Environmental Justice Action Task Force authorized by the Colorado Environmental Justice Act that was voted on in 2021. And I sat with industry and communities and local governments to have a conversation about how do we not repeat the mistakes of the past, these conflicts that exist with underlying zoning codes that are at the source of so many of these problems. It is echoing in chambers like this and also in Colorado Springs just last week over a data center where we continue to see these land use decisions harm local communities and not take a precautionary principle. I want to say today that Green Latinos Who Has members all throughout this county is here with the people standing in self-defense. And I want to give it to the people here for saying, no, we won't accept this, that we will pursue every avenue possible to reverse decisions that we know are harmful for our community. It's not easy to do that. And it comes from the people who are most impacted, always, that seem to stand up. The State Land Board failed in this process. And they're in the middle of a process that Green Latinos has been tracking now. Do you know that the State Land Board has more protections for sage-grouse than they do for people or children? It's a fact that school districts have failed to honour their obligation to protect local communities. We've produced reports ever since the fracking wells were first drilled next to schools and Greeley is continuing to happen a decade later. The ECMC has failed to protect communities and we know that the public health impacts are real. The cumulative impacts are real. That the state of Colorado is investing resources to do this analysis. We are in non-attainment. We cannot lie about this. And that we are paying with our Medicaid dollars and county line budgets. That we're paying with our insurance premiums that are out of hand. What I can say is this administrative review, it's okay for you to check their work. It's okay. But here's what I'll lastly say. 3,000 signatures is enough to run for Congress or run for a county commission, so give them a fighting chance. Thank you.

Thank you.

And this lady back here, and then we'll go to you, and then we'll go to this side.

There's more?

Oh, I'm sorry. We'll do you first, then you, then you, and we'll go this way. So thank you for all the eyes that are making sure I get all the hands.

Thank you. I had not intended to speak today, but I feel like I really want to share my experience here as a non-resident of Arapahoe County. My name is Lori Anderson, and today I'm speaking as a resident who is directly impacted by fracking in Broomfield. I'm also a field organizer with Moms Clean Air Force and also, in another role, a council member in Broomfield. I live about a half mile from the Livingston site in a community that has been the subject of health studies, air quality monitoring, and years of uncertainty where many of us felt like guinea pigs. It is important to remember that when the Livingston project was approved, the law was different. It was permitted before SB 19-181 at a time when local governments lacked the authority they have today to prioritize public health, safety, and the environment. Had current protections been in place, including greater setbacks and more protective distances, our community's experience could have been very different. The results of the studies conducted in our neighborhood were clear. Residents living near oil and gas development faced higher risks of adverse health impacts. During pre-production activities, that's the drilling, the fracking, and the flow back phases, we saw a surge in health complaints, nosebleeds, respiratory issues, neurological symptoms, eye irritation, and persistent noise that contributed to anxiety and difficulty sleeping. These impacts were not occasional, they were 24-7. And Broomfield actually had a map of all of these different impacts. It was over a thousand different unique health impacts were actually reported during those phases. So this is not just a few residents, tons of people were highly impacted. I do not envy the difficult position you're in, but I urge you, do not repeat the mistakes of the past. The health of your community must remain paramount. Our children deserve a safe, healthy climate and a future where they are not asked to bear the burden of preventable harm. Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Take your time.

Hello. Hello. My name is Mark Davidson, and I live across the street from the reservoir, the Aurora Reservoir. Just as a side note, some people talk about things like cancers, blood cancers. I haven't been before you for the last two years because I'm fighting blood cancers. I take 19 pills a day every day. I am in remission at this very moment, but in reality, spent many months in hospitals, okay? And get my monthly infusions, my monthly injections, and my pills. Keeps me alive at the moment. Those blood cancers suck. I just give everyone fair and reasonable. The idea of kids having that, not a good thing. It makes me scared, all right? Item one. Item two, four billion gallons. That's the oil of water being used in the wells. I would love four billion gallons of water. I once said that that was enough before this group to put a 18-foot round pool, two of them, in the backyard of every single house in this county. So it's a lot of water. Imagine that. I just wish that it would not be in the dark. I want everyone to vote. I want everyone to be on record. I think I can count the number of votes. I really wish that it would be a public statement. That's all I want. I brought my grandkids to see what public... access to county is all about. It's critical. This is where decisions can and should be made for local. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it.

Thank you, Mark.

Hi, commissioners. My name is Sandra Dugan. I am an impacted resident who's been personally impacted by fracking and also an organizer with 350 Colorado. And I'm here on my day off, on my week off, which is why I don't have child care, because this is just so important. Where do you live? I live in Lakewood. Thank you. And I don't have a prepared statement, but I do want to mention the cumulative impacts that we're all experiencing because of oil and gas expansion in our state. And those are very real, especially for people who live with those who are most vulnerable to those impacts like children, the elderly, and the disabled. And I think we do a disservice to our community when we overlook those impacts as a whole. Colorado continues to approve fracking permits despite our non-attainment ozone. And we know that fracking is the leading cause of our poor air quality. And so we need to address that head on. And so I challenge you to look beyond just this fracking permit and to look at it as a whole, as a part of a big big piece of the pie, but a piece of the pie that is impacting all of us. And I want to thank you all for the opportunity to speak today and for taking the time to listen to our communities. And I hope that this isn't just a box checking for you all and that you really take into account the possibilities that you have to really be a hero for these community members. Thank you.

Thank you.

Anybody else in this section? Come on down.

Good morning, commissioners. I'm Brian Matisse of Aurora, Colorado. I have been asked by the League of Women Voters of Arapahoe and Douglas County to speak on the administrative process used in approving oil and gas sites, including Sunlight Long. The League supports citizen participation in democracy, including the opportunity for public hearings before elected public officials. During rulemaking hearings on the oil regulations, the League expressed concerns on the lack of opportunity for hearings during administrative decisions. We were led to believe by the BOCC that the BOCC would have the opportunity to review determinations that were not squarely within the regs. In the last two weeks, we have learned that decisions on Sunlight Long were made ex parte, without citizen input, before public comment was even submitted. In particular, there was a determination that the proposed pad for Sunlight Long was down gradient of the Aurora Reservoir, even though its elevation was higher than the reservoir. This was made by a county engineer based solely on information provided by the oil and gas industry before public comment was even received. We know the former public works director approved this and made this determination based on this county engineer's determination, which was once again ex parte without citizen participation. We also know that administrative waivers have been granted without the opportunity for public hearings before either the BOCC or the Planning Commission. And now we are learning the proposed oil and gas development plan submitted before the ECMC is materially different from what was previously considered by the county, and it's likely that administrators will routinely approve that again without the opportunity for public hearing. These flaws in the process that we recently just learned about justify the BOCC consideration of this issue after full public hearings. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good morning, commissioners. My name is Linda Templin. I live in Centennial, Colorado. My sister lives in Aurora and I'm here because I am concerned about the water quality in Aurora. I know that fracking It can leak, what are the odds? 3%, 16% depends on the actual infrastructure. But that's a lot to be gambling with. And those are the odds every year that the infrastructure would be up and running. So I think this is a big risk to take without having done the due diligence that is required. So I think this is a great opportunity for the commissioners to refer this for further study, because we don't know enough about what the health impacts are going to be. And if that is something that the county commissioners within their scope of protecting the people who live here, as part of a republic, I think you all could use some more facts. And I am taking time out from my day because I'm worried that my sister will be poisoned. So please bear that in mind. Many people feel this way. Many people are taking time out from their day. So I appreciate your time, and I know that you all have lots of different political pressures in the world, but we want to uphold you in doing this, okay? So thank you so much. Thank you very much.

All right. You and then you. There's a third one, okay. See, I'm short, so I couldn't see all the way over there.

Hi, commissioners. My name is Eric Gross. I'm actually from Golden, Colorado, but I live in a camper van, which means I am basically closer to the unhoused community than I am to any of you. I breathe the outdoor air all the time. That is what I sleep in. That is what I work in. And when I am in parts of Denver... I can wake up in the morning, there's a window and there's a fan. It draws in air and what is in the air drops and it drops onto my counter and I can wake up with soot and I have to clean it. And I know that there are certain parts of this community that are dirtier than others. And it's things that you might not see if you're at home, you have central air, you have a HEPA filter, you think you're good there. But if your kids go and play outside, they are in that all the time and if one of the considerations for a project like this is revenue or taxes to the county to the city whatever or profits for the company i have another idea because one of the problems with this pollution is you can't see it if you could see it none of you would ever vote for any of this and the people who ran these companies wouldn't either because the money that they put in their pocket isn't worth what they're breathing into their lungs but If you want to focus on money, I have another idea. And thank you for someone else just mentioning that this is a chance. You're taking a risk. It's like Russian roulette. So I have another idea. We make bullets in Colorado. We make guns in Colorado. I want to set up a carousel of guns that just randomly fire bullets into the air. And we're going to put it next to a playground. But it's going to make money for Colorado. So you can't say that it's bad for Colorado because it's going to bring in revenue. It's going to provide taxes. And if people get shot, they can't say it was us because, you know, there's bullets in the atmosphere sometimes. You can't say where it came from. And if it goes over the border, you're not going to blame us, okay? That is what every fracking pad is. I don't even care if it's one mile or two miles. I might be near it, and we're all going to suffer. That's it.

Thank you, Eric, for your comments.

Hi, my name is Taylor Ann Shattuck. I am a Denver and Arapahoe resident. Thank you guys for your time and holding this. I want to be very frank and honest. That's kind of who I am as a person. I haven't heard one person that is for a sunlight pad. Not one. As I see it, the only persons I'm aware of that are for the pad are sitting before us. And of course, big oil and gas. I'm not aware of all the pressures you guys hold outside and inside of what you guys deal with. However, there's been so much data presented. There's been so many public comments. And it's very simple and clear. It will pollute our water supply. It will destroy the reservoir. This pad will kill people in our community. It will. So this decision is very simple, but it's not easy. It's not easy to say no to big oil and gas. However, I am in the community is asking the people are asking you, the people that you represent are asking you guys to make the hard decision, the hard decision to reopen this application, hold a public hearing, vote publicly. I hope you stand firmly in the values I hold close to my heart Integrity, transparency, and accountability. Choose your people over profit. Thank you for your time.

Hello, my name is Lance Kelleher. I am a resident of Denver. I am also speaking out against the Sunlight Long project, but first let me zoom out so we can understand the moment that we're in. Our democratic institutions are collapsing and so are our ecosystems. We are on the precipice of climate tipping points that when we breach those thresholds, we're on track to pass by 2030. It will not matter if we reach net zero emissions or if we invent magic carbon capture technology. The planet will continue to warm, and there's nothing that our kids or their kids will be able to do about it. They'll experience megastorms that will wipe out cities beyond repair, novel diseases, apocalyptic wildfire seasons, sea level rise, and famines that will cause one billion climate refugees by 2050. That's when my four-year-old nephews will be my age. With the rise of nationalism, that will equate to bodies piling up on borders. To avoid that dark future, we need to stop extracting oil and gas immediately, starting by denying permits of new extraction sites like Sunlight Long. That will require a vast amount of community organizing and actual avenues of representative democracy to affect change on local levels across the globe. Commissioners like you hold a great responsibility. Our futures are in hands like yours. I've never seen community organizing on this scale against one fracking site. If the Sunlight Long project becomes operational despite thousands of people exercising their First Amendment right to oppose it, you will have demonstrated that your government body is nothing but performative. We are at a human tipping point where we will soon no longer allow the profits to overpower the people. If you don't do anything about this project, then the people will because we will not continue to allow companies like SM Energy to poison our children while our planet burns. Do your job, protect your constituents, and reopen the Sunlight Long application.

Thank you. Lance, before you go, Lance. Spell your name for me and give me your city again. I want to make sure I have it.

My last name is Kalahar, K-A-L-A-H-A-R, and I'm a resident of Denver.

Okay, thank you. That was a thank you. I appreciate that. Is there anybody else in the room? Anybody else in the room that did not get to make their comments or would like to make their comment? They've changed their mind and said, I do want to speak. Anybody else? Michelle, is there anybody online who was not able to give their comment? Commissioners, there's no one in the queue at this time. Thank you very, very much. Well, we appreciate it. First of all, I want to say congratulations. We made it through all of the comments that were on the list, online, in the room, and we have heard you. We appreciate every comment. We appreciate every comment. every call, and with that, we are not going to be talking on the dais about our thoughts, but we are going to take back your information, and we will move forward. I'm grateful too. Where is Representative Hamrick for being in the room? And know that we have so many folks that are engaging with our state legislators. We appreciate that. And with that, public comment is closed.

Protect our future.

Protect our children.

Protect our water. Protect our future.

Protect

Thank you very much for your comments

Thank you for your participation. We appreciate it very, very much. And with that, do we have any commissioner comments on anything? Yes. Oh, absolutely. So we have a commissioner comment from Commissioner Baker.

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. I would just like to recognize that we have Mayor Douglas in the room from Commerce City, who has served with me on Dr. Cogg and also on the E470 board. Thank you for being here this morning, Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor Douglas. And yet again, we have so many folks in the room who are elected. And so we have Mayor Douglas. We have your Board of County Commissioners. We have state representation. So this was an excellent, excellent meeting. And we had a couple of candidates. A couple of candidates. So we had an excellent, excellent meeting. Thank you all very much. And be there no other business before this board, we are adjourned.