Board of County Commissioners Business Meeting - Regular Meeting

Good morning. I'd like to call the August 11th, 2026 business meeting of the Arapahoe County Board of Commissioners to order. In attendance today are Acting County Attorney John Christofferson and Cooney Saraceno, Administrator to the Board and the Clerk and Recorder's Office. Also joining us to facilitate remote public participation is Michelle Halstead, Director of the Commissioner's Office. Mr. Saraceno, will you please call the roll?

Commissioner Fields. Present. Commissioner Warren-Gully.

Here.

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

Here. Thank you very, very much. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. Are there any changes to the agenda as presented?

There are no changes this morning.

Okay, great. I'll take a motion to adopt the agenda. Yes, Commissioner Warren-Gulley. I move to adopt the agenda as presented. Second. It has been moved by Commissioner Warren-Gulley and properly seconded by Commissioner Campbell to adopt the agenda as presented. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Wonderful. The ayes have it and the motion is adopted. Next is our public comment period. You're invited to speak to the commissioners about any topic that's 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 3 at this time. Star 3 at this time. As a reminder, please only press that star 3 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 while the board does not respond to individual comments during the 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. Let's get started. Jamie West.

Good morning commissioners. I appreciate the opportunity to address you with my concerns candidly and truthfully regarding our elections. My name is Jamie West and I have been a resident in Arapahoe County for the past 37 years. I've lived at the same residence during this time. I remember back to the early years of voting in person at our local clubhouse, which was within walking distance, how convenient and easy it was to vote. I have great concerns about the validity of our elections today. I present many other friends and neighbors as I come before you that have the same sentiments. I've been a precinct leader for the past five years and have enjoyed getting to know my neighbors, educating them on our candidates and initiatives on the upcoming ballot. As a precinct leader, I've had access to the voter database, and I am appalled at the neglect and the mismanagement. I want to share a few instances in my precinct and in two nearby precincts. So my son, Trenton Joshua West, he graduated from high school in 2006. He attended the Air Force Academy, graduated from there in 2010. He had never returned home to reside with us after his education at the Air Force Academy. Trenton is still listed as an inactive voter on our voter roll. It was documented that he sent in one mail-in ballot in 2007. He was sent absentee ballots from 2008 to 2012. Trenton did his pilot training in Texas, in Wichita Falls, Texas, and had registered to vote there. Since then, he's been in the Air Force as a pilot. He's lived in England, Hawaii, and now he's in Germany. And he is still on our inactive voter roll, even though he has not resided at our house since 2010. And as I believe, when you move out of state, after two years, federal elections, you're supposed to be taken off of the voter rolls. So that is something that I'm wondering, why is he still on after, what, 20, 20, 14 years? Okay, 24 years. No, 14 years, sorry. Okay, another example is I have a friend in a nearby precinct that her daughter moved out in 2014. She got married, went to college, and she is still on our active voter roll. She has not voted since 2014. She's still as an active voter, and her mother, my friend, continues to get... mail-in ballots every year or every election year for her daughter. Her daughter had moved to Kansas, Wichita, Kansas, and she's voted there three different times.

Thank you. Your time's up. Oh, gosh. Okay. Thank you very much. Linda Curry.

Good morning, my name is Lindy Curry and I reside in Englewood, Colorado. I became precinct leader two years ago and upon examining my precinct 111, I noticed that my daughter, Shannon Curry, registered to vote in 2016 but failed to vote. She has been inactive ever since, which has been 10 years. By law, she should be taken off the voter roll after two general election cycles, which is about four years. The record shows she filed national change of address, and her ballots were undeliverable every election. Don't we believe in following the law? Upon further examination of the voter roll in my precinct, I noticed seven people labeled as inactive and undeliverable ballots. They all have either filed NCOA or have undeliverable ballots. Mail ballots are an extreme waste of our money. A conservative estimate of the cost of printing, mailing, and processing ballots is $10 per ballot. Multiply every undeveloped... deliverable returned and failed to vote ballot by $10 and you have a large dollar amount. If we vote in person at our precincts on election day holiday with photo ID, we would save millions of dollars statewide. We should also use the tried and true counting of ballots by humans with checks and balances. No use of expensive voting machines that are hackable by foreign entities. The following is a report on the rejected and uncured ballots. In November 2024 general election reported by Arapahoe County of the 5,829 records, 64% of the ballots were rejected. $37,640 were wasted. November of 2025 coordinated election report by Arundel County of the 1700 records, 73% of the ballots were rejected. So that's about $12,430 wasted. With this rate of rejected and uncured ballots, mail ballots do not encourage voting. Multiply those dollars by 64 counties statewide, and you see how much our state is wasting on mail-in ballots. This means our county could potentially cut their budget by about 30%. Candidates like you running for county offices who print and mail campaign literature could cut their costs by 30%. Thank you for your attention. And if you want documentation, I have some charts.

Thank you very much. If you have anything that you'd like to leave for us, you can give it to Mr. Saraceno. Thank you. Mila Schusterman.

Good morning, commissioners. My name is Mila Schusterman. I live in Centennial, Colorado. I've been here multiple times. I have kept you in the loop, and I hope you have been able to follow my experience with risk-limited audit in Arapaho County. For the sake of time, I will not repeat it here because you probably read all my emails, I hope. I sent my concerns to the Clerk and Recorder's Office. I was told that they were too busy preparing for the general election to address my questions. And I was referred to the Secretary of State. After extensive research of all the statutes, rules, and everything else, I just didn't I identified seven specific concerns, which I also sent to the Secretary of State. I received confirmation that my email was received, but I have received no response. The Secretary of State has not responded to any of my messages or emails in the past five years, any. So commissioners, please, I am asking you directly, who is going to review my concerns and provide answers? I am asking you as an official member of an audit board to the Risk Limited Audit in Arapahoe County. If you ask me, it looks like 1776 all over again. Taxation without representation. The founders demanded a government that was accountable to the people. If citizens do not have control over their election, they are not free. They are slaves to a government that is no longer accountable to the people. Where is a government by the people, of the people, for the people? We cannot have a constitutional republic if citizens cannot verifiably ensure that the results of the elections are accurate. We have an opportunity to do this differently than in 1776 and do it peacefully. Let's work together. Let's investigate these concerns and fix whatever needs to be fixed before the next November election. Please. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms. Schusterman.

Susan Scheibel.

Good morning, commissioners. Thank you for this opportunity to talk. I'm a longtime resident of Littleton. I've lived in two different- What's your name? Susan Scheibel.

And you said your city is? Littleton. Thank you very much. We needed that for the record.

Thank you.

I know you can tell I don't come here often and do this, but I'm grateful for this opportunity and I appreciate starting out with the Pledge of Allegiance. I have lived in Littleton for 40 years on the east side and then on the west side, so I have known a lot of people. I also am a retired Littleton Public Schools teacher. I am proud of all Littleton and our community and our county and our state on some levels. The more, as a retired teacher, and I have time to talk to more people, and I guess I come to you today with more questions than answers. And especially at this time, about the elections that are going on here. If this is really true, that our election rules are not corrected, that we have some issues. The last time I was here was for a land issue near my home. And when I look at decision making, I just need to know Who and why and how is this happening? And how can we make it better? Are we facing the issues of this time? And who is and who isn't? I'd love to talk to someone about it and see if you have a task force or someone, some people, some group that can take this on. I just don't think that we can wait any longer if our integrity is at stake. And we pledge allegiance to this flag. And we celebrate 250 years of freedom in our country. We're on the edge of something that we don't want to be involved with. I mean, how do we improve this? I guess I'd like to challenge you. You can call me. I'd work with anyone. How do we make a difference? It's time. It's way past time. Thank you very much.

Thank you very, very much, Ms. Scheibel. Candace Rutledge.

Can you hear me? Hi, my name is Candace Rutledge and I'm a street cat from here in Littleton. Today I want to talk about some disconnection between the government and people who really need their help. I believe I wrote a note about this, but I don't know if I ever spoke about it at municipal courts and the Justice Department of the county. They always assume you have a vehicle or a home if you show up with all your stuff. Last time I was there, and it's been a while, so if that's changed, I'm sorry that I'm bringing it up again, but there's nowhere to put your stuff and they expect you to either leave it outside somewhere and hide it, which is kind of sketchy because somebody could just go take it while you're in the building or go through security. If we have a right to be secure in our belongings, We should have like a locker system or something where you can just push a cart into a hole and lock it up like the bike lockers at the RTD station. And I think that would be helpful because that would people they get there and they're like, well, what do I do? Or they just don't show up because they are attached to everything that they built. Everything that belongs to them is attached to them. So that's been a problem in the past. And something else. I know I'm always here talking about energy strikes. The libraries at Bemis and Englewood were closed on the 3rd. It was Monday. And that evening I went to the Englewood library. business meeting their city council meeting and I felt dizzy after their study session and before the big meeting and I saw that one of their sound engineers was in a cast when he rolled into the sound room And I know I've noticed at Bemis that there are a couple of people in leg braces. So I'm beginning to wonder if there was some kind of energy anomaly. So I've written a letter about that and I gave it to Neil out here as well as the clerks at the Englewood. And hopefully they'll look into it and see what's going on there. Anyway, Human Services of Arapaho over the years, I've walked in and said, hey, is there a way I can get help offline? And I said I need an analog option because I've been through cyber terror and I know there's salt typhoon plus COVID era systems access to CBMS. I even had access to that when I worked for Jefferson County Human Services IT a long time ago. And I'm just not convinced in my specific scenario. And that putting anything about what I'm doing online is going to be helpful toward me, even if it helps me like with resources. So that's been frustrating for me. I've gone at least four times into the office and asked and then left because I didn't feel like signing up. Back when I had food stamps people would follow me and show up at the places where I would be when I had a smartphone and then They had to talk to me about my purchases and stuff in the line and it's just creepy because whoever has access to all that can do that kind of thing and Anyway in the new well, that's the end of my time. So thanks Thank You Candace Karen talent ire

Karen Tallentire, Littleton. And I just found out last week that there's another group that's setting up hand count demos this Saturday in Boulder County and Fremont County. And I sent you all an email with the invitation, and I hope you go see what hand counting is all about. And some of us will probably go and see if we can tell them to come do a demo here, too. That's another group.

Thank you, Ms. Talentire. Annette Budd.

Good morning. I'm Annette Budd from Centennial. There's a very famous quote, all it takes for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing. And most people, when they think about their self and they're asked, are you a good person? Most people would say, yeah, I'm a good person. I'm a little different than that because I know that inside me, there's nothing good that naturally comes. Anything good, it's because I've submitted myself to God. But I assume that most of you think that you're good people, like most like most people do. I came before you two weeks ago and talked about the audit that was performed after the primary election. And nothing was done. What happened, just to review, Mila was the person who was on the audit board. She showed up. She went to, and the law says, which I read to you last time, talks about the importance of conducting an examination. She was not allowed to do that. She showed up, and then when it came time to compare the results with what the Secretary of State said, The Secretary of State didn't have it provided. Mila said, call me back. I'll come back. No one ever called her. And then the Secretary of State posted on her website that since 2017, there's not been one discrepancy in an audit. That's a problem. She's covering up. If an audit wasn't performed, how can there be no discrepancies? Two of you had primary opponents in this last election, Commissioner Summey and Commissioner Campbell. I want to know how your opponents will feel when they know an audit wasn't... didn't happen at this election, and no one stood up and said anything, no one made a statement, no one responded to the seven issues in Mila's email to you, she shared that with me. And there's nothing but silence. Our elections are really important. They are what keeps our society peaceful. And when there's no transparency, when things just stay in hiding, when audits don't happen and then the whole public is told they happen, that's a problem. If we don't want evil to prevail, it's time for you five to stand up and say... This audit didn't happen, and we need to follow the law. Silence is not an option. And I trust that you guys will do the right thing. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. I will accept your applause. Thank you. Bruce Peterson. Thank you.

Good morning, Commissioners. Good morning. Thank you very much for giving citizens like myself the opportunity to express themselves. My name is Bruce Peterson. I live at 2161 South Alton Way, Commissioner District Number 4. My purpose in addressing you today is to seek your help with a traffic safety issue at the Colorado Muslim Society on Parker Road, and in particular, the use of a residentially zoned lot for parking. Our request is to meet with one of your departments to better understand how we can improve safety and land use issues. Unfortunately, at this time, they are unwilling to meet with us prior to a public hearing to answer our questions. I have met with the CMS president and facilities manager to see how we can jointly address this traffic problem, which we both acknowledge. Both groups have many questions which could be better addressed in a more informal department setting versus a public hearing like the Planning Commission. Previously, I represented our HOA during the rezoning phase of the Lugano project on ILIF. Michael Sheldon and I met several times with county staff to address topics of uncertainty, which enabled us to better focus on substantive issues at the Planning Commission hearings. We have no intentions of expressing our positions at this department meeting, but we need help so that when CMS files their application, it will be based upon county guidelines that have been understood by all of us. As an example, CMS assumed ownership of the land in 2025. They immediately turned this residential area into a parking lot. However, not until a pre-submittal meeting on June 1st 4th Did they understand some of the county requirements which we have been violated a meeting with the county staff can help both organizations? Appreciate requirements and the process as to how we get from one place to another This will cause us to be more respectful as to why the residential lot can now be used for commercial purposes and and what to expect prior to the license, prior to the December filing deadline. Let me emphasize that Caitlin and Ava in one of your departments have been extremely respectful and professional in dealing with me during the past year. I appreciate their attempts to reduce our exasperation. Your encouragement for a department to simultaneously meet with both groups prior to a public meeting to improve public safety will be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Peterson. Greg Sullivan.

Good morning.

Good morning.

board members, Greg Sullivan Littleton. Today I'm going to read 32 theses. I think you have it in front of you. Do you remember Martin Luther? Martin Luther.

Not personally.

95 theses he put on the church about the reformation of the Catholic Church made a big difference. I'm giving you 32 theses, okay? And this regards Costco's 32 gas pumps. It's a public declaration of environmental injustice. The Costco 32 pump fuel center 32 gasoline pumps near children, schools, child care facilities, and homes. Hundreds of mature trees have been removed. The facility will add fuel-related activity, vehicle traffic, and emissions to an area already serving children and families. Children and vulnerable people deserve protection from unnecessary environmental burdens. We, therefore, protest this development of 32 gas pumps, and we demand environmental justice, responsible development, and protection for children. Now the 32 theses. Children first. Protect our children. Children have no choice. Give them some. Children have no voice, no choice. Protect the vulnerable. Number five, schools and special places need to be special for children. Child care centers are special places as well. Young children deserve protection too. 32 pumps means scale. This is a major fuel facility. Proximity matters. Major fuel facilities should be further from children. More fueling, more activity. Traffic is an environmental burden. Gasoline is not harmless. Benzene matters. That's number 12, very important. Cancer, benzene. Cumulative impacts matter. Prevention matters. Number 15, children breathe the air. Asthma is not a choice, and I showed you the data on asthma attacks in your county for the last 11 years. The vulnerable must matter. Children must not pay the price. Number 19, trees are protection. 20, mature trees are not disposable. 21, saplings is not a mature tree. 22, nature has value. We have to value nature. Legal is not enough. Legal does not always mean responsible. Development has responsibilities. Economic gain does not erase community obligations. Corporate power has limits, number 25, very important. Costco does not own the air. They do not. 27, Costco does not own our children's future. Costco does not own our children's future, and property rights have limits. There are 32 of these, okay? The last one, 32. Environmental justice requires accountability. Children and vulnerable groups must not bear unnecessary environmental burden for benefit of others. Protect their children, protect the vulnerable, hold development accountable, environmental justice. Now, I've been talking to you for a year, a year I've been talking to you, and you know there's a problem. Please do something.

Thank you, Dr. Sullivan.

Thank you.

Is there anybody else in the room who would like to make a public comment that did not have an opportunity to put their name on the list? Is there, Michelle, is there anybody on the phone? Commissioners, there is no one in the queue at this time. All right, thank you very, very much. So with that, public comment is closed, and thank you for all of your comments. As a reminder, we don't respond to individual comments during this section of our agenda, but we do listen, and we do take note of the issues for resolution. We do follow up as appropriate. Again, we encourage you to email us at commissioners at arapahogov.com if we weren't able to hear your comments today. We have 10 items on our consent agenda today. Does any commissioner wish to remove an item? Then I will entertain a motion. Yes, Commissioner Warren-Gulley.

I move that we approve the consent agendas as presented. Second.

It has been moved by Commissioner Warren-Gulley and properly seconded by Commissioner Campbell to approve the consent agenda as presented. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion passes. The ayes have it. We have one item on our general business agenda today. It is a use by special review application for Remora Connections, case number UAS1. Is this I? Is this an I? Okay, I25-003. Our presenter is Martin Lowman, Energy Manager in Public Works and Development, and our attorney of record is Matt Hader, Senior Assistant County Attorney. Mr. Hader, could you please set the foundation?

Of course, with regard to the matter before the Board of County Commissioners at this time for public hearing, specifically case number UASI 25-003, the use by special review for the Mora Connection Pipeline. The record contains evidence consistent with the requirements of Chapter 5, Section 2 of the Arapahoe County Land Development Code, indicating that notice was timely provided via publication, signage, and mailing. The Board of County Commissioners has jurisdiction to proceed with the public hearing this morning.

Thank you very, very much. Mr. Lohman.

Good morning, sir. Thank you for the opportunity to present this. Oh, it came up. Great. This is regarding an application that came to us. It's DJ South Gathering, Rocky Mountain Midstream, for what you've, Remora Pipeline Project. The location, if you can look at the map there, the blue area, Rectangle is the actual pad where the oil and gas wells are being drilled. Currently, they're under construction. The pipeline goes from the Remora pad, goes north, south along I-70 to just the west side of Manila Road there, and then north under I-70 to connect up to the transportation hub for the oil and gas pipelines. So there's going to be two pipelines. One is going to be the six-inch oil pipeline and then a 12-inch natural gas pipeline in the same ditch. This project is, like I said, it's going to be added to the oil and gas pad project, AE24-006. The object of this pipeline is to transport Occidental's crude and gas production from the facility in our county to its interconnect in Adams County. We had no public comments for this application. We did have one, the Bennett Watkins Fire Department didn't have any comments, but they did want to make sure, because there's no water pipeline in the current plan, that if in fact in the future a produced water or any water line is installed near this facility, that the Bennett Watkins Fire Department wants to be made aware so they can possibly use it for infrastructure and fire hydrants, that kind of thing. The Division of Engineering Services of Arapahoe County did not have any comments, but they had a couple recommendations. The recommendations are the applicant agrees to address the DES comments and concerns. Utility easements for the pipelines are required. Obtain all permits prior to construction. And then one of the concerns was the construction and pipeline trench through the 100-year floodplain. Make sure that all the necessary major drainage ways prior to and after construction are restored to prior construction, so as-built restoration on the project. Let's see here. We have some recommendations from the CPW. And we can kind of review these really quickly. Time high noise construction. Incorporate the sound dampening within the facility's design and during the construction of the pipeline. Install perimeter sound walls. Now this is a little bit different because it's a pipeline. So it's not a normal pad where there's sound walls to control the sound from the, but they are gonna do everything to remediate any noise during the construction. Use of vegetation earth berms in order to restore the vegetation and incorporate the native evergreen and dense shrubs within the project. Arapahoe County had a couple comments prior to signature final copy of these plans. The applicant will address all public works development comments. The applicant shall provide a copy of all required state and federal approved permits prior to the construction and make sure that they're compliant with all the CDPHE rules and regulations and make sure that the pipeline is operated in compliance with all federal and state requirements. And that is it. So if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. Pretty short, it's a very small project, less than two miles from the pad itself to the connection point in Adams County.

Commissioner Baker? Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you for your presentation, Mr. Lewman. USR, is this the normal way that pipeline, I don't remember in the past any pipelines specifically. Maybe it was because of the size

Well, that's a good question, and I'm not the expert on. Usually we have, like, that's a great question because we have a USR, but then they have to transport the product somehow. Yeah. So we're beginning to see a lot of these because we weren't sure how to classify them. So we can have them as... Mr. Reynolds, that's right.

Thank you, Jason Reynolds, Planning Division Manager. The short answer is yes. Use by special reviews for energy facilities by a private company is one of the types of uses that are listed in our land development code use chart, and it is a use by special review in the zone districts where they are proposing the pipeline, and I believe the last one that the board saw was a couple of years ago, and it was a pipeline near state land board property.

Thank you very, very much. Do we have any other questions for Mr. Reynolds while he's up here? Commissioner Warren-Gulley. Oh, but it's for Mr. Lohman? Yes. Okay. Sorry, Mr. Reynolds. Mr. Lohman. Commissioner Warren-Gulley?

I still like talking with you, Jason, but I do have a question. Um, it says here that, uh, there were some referral comments that they, that you asked from the Colorado parks and wildlife. What? I'm sorry. I didn't see what those were, what the recommendations were and how they were being addressed.

Uh, that's a good, the, uh, they wanted to make sure that, um, like I said, like the time, the high noise construction activities shall be outside of critical winter, winter and breeding seasons. Okay. You know, I didn't read each one of these cause it gets right.

Where are they?

Each one of these is told the soundballs. It's just a limit distribute a disruption of wildlife use and wildlife crossing areas. Okay. They've got that in their plans, um, to address all those issues. Okay. I just brought these to the attention. So these are just the, raw comments from CPW. Okay. They are being addressed in every plan that's been submitted by the applicant.

Mr. Reynolds, would you like to think I see you over there?

Yeah. And then there are several recommended conditions of approval in the resolution related to wildlife. And those were forwarded with a positive recommendation from the planning commission.

Okay, great. And, and CPW signed off on them and everything. Perfect.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you very, very much. Mr. Baker, Commissioner Baker. Mr. Baker, you were not Mr. You were Commissioner Baker.

I was in the Army as a chief warrant officer and the proper title for a warrant officer is Mr. So it can work that way. You mentioned that the Planning Commission did recommend approval. Was that vote unanimous? Thank you.

Thank you very much. Do we have other questions for staff at this time? Any comments for staff? Does the applicant have a presentation? Oh, nope, there's a question. Commissioner Campbell?

I was trying to catch up, stepped outside to get the emails of our commenters. So I'm scanning through this and trying to, so forgive me if you did touch on this, but so this is gonna go under I-70?

You can see it's just west of Manila Road.

I'm looking at the green line, right?

The green line is just west of Manila Road, south of I-70, and then it'll travel north underneath I-70.

Okay, so do we have to get CDOT approval?

That's a good question. I don't know that. Yes, okay, yes.

And they didn't have any notes or anything? I'm not seeing anything in this presentation about CDOT.

I can find out for you and relay those notes to you if there were any. Okay. Actually, if there are no comments, we don't present, but that's a good point.

Yeah, I just feel like going under I-70, I mean, anybody who's driven on I-70, yeah, that would be a big deal.

Okay, I'll let you know.

Oh, we've got soup. It's like the Avengers assemble one by one. Here they come.

Yeah, normally they have to contact CEDA to get a necessary permit if they're crossing a CEDA right-of-way, yes.

Okay, and then, so did CEDA have any comments or anything or anything we should be looking out for? Oh, here comes another one. I love it. Yeah. Yeah. You need to be on the mic, sir. Sorry.

Ernie Rose, Energy Planner. So in the original comments from CDOT, it says working from within CDOT right away will require a utility special use permit. This includes but is not limited to a survey, landscaping, signal, or utility work.

Okay. And so that's been obtained? Yes.

They will have to obtain it to do that.

Okay, great. And then they're, okay. You guys are going to be up next. Well, okay, cool. Thank you, guys.

Is that it?

For now, I guess.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Lohman. So now we'd like to invite the applicant up for their presentation, please. Come on down Martin. Hello.

Let me find it. Sorry for this. For some reason, PDF doesn't like pictures. For some reason it's not. What's that? Did you already email it to me? Do you have the Williams project? Is that PowerPoint?

This feels like a nightmare I had one time about junior high.

That's funny.

Good morning. Good morning My name is John Chapman with elevation midstream on behalf of both elevation midstream and Williams City

out of Brighton, Colorado. All right, thank you. So I'll make this brief. I don't want to double up on what Martin alluded to earlier, so I'll try not to repeat things. But this is a joint project between DJ South Gathering, which is a subsidiary of Elevation Midstream, and Rocky Mountain Midstream, which is a subsidiary of Williams Companies. The project is a six-inch crude oil line and a 12-inch natural gas line, approximately two miles of Pipeline with no above-ground appurtenances all of private easements have been secured So the purpose of this project or the purpose and the need this will significantly reduce Eliminate truck traffic which reduces emissions enhances safety without all the trucks on the road And it's connecting an already approved pad site there were more pad site with Occidental in Arapahoe County Project location, Martin kind of alluded to this, so I'll just kind of skip over to this map. Several routes were proposed. You can see the dotted lines. These are all the routes that we were considered, and then the solid green line is our recommended route that we are proposing. This starts at the oxy remora pad, just south I-70, travels on the south side of I-70, and crosses under I-70. into Adams County and terminates at the Watkins Compressor Station. Now, Colorado Department of Transportation permit has been approved and we have had unanimous approval from the Board of County Commissioners for Adams County. One thing I would like to touch on as I wrap up, we pride ourselves on a safety first culture. This comes from following regulatory compliance to frequent trainings, safety meetings. There's daily accountability all the way from project design through the life of the pipe. So with that, thank you for your time and happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Commissioner's questions?

Going once. Going twice. Sold, that's right. Thank you very much, sir. I'll now open this item up for public comment. 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, your city address for the record, and you'll have three minutes for your comments. Thank you very much, sir. You can have a seat unless somebody comes up and they really have a question for you. Is there any public comment in the room? All right. So nobody signed up. Is there anybody who might be thinking they want to comment anyway? Great. Michelle, is there anyone online who would like to speak? Commissioners, there's no one in the queue at this time. Thank you very, very much. Now I'd like to ask, is there a commissioner discussion at this time or a motion?

Commissioner Warren-Gulley? Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I'm sorry, I can't remember your name. Don? Is it? Okay. I did have one question, if that's okay. Okay. We have had a lot of, we have had organizations come before us before to do a pipeline and I guess I would be remiss if I didn't ask how you all accomplish making sure there's no leaking from these pipes and we've heard how other organizations do it but I guess it would be lovely to hear how you all have the safety around that so that it's protecting not only our environment but the residents that live in this area.

Yeah, great question. So we have a 24-hour operational control room that monitors the pipeline pressures and then a leak detection system, which monitors flow in and flow out. If there's any discrepancy in that, they can shut down that pipeline immediately. As far as continuous monitoring there is routine maintenance from cleaning the pipeline Applying chemicals to inhibit corrosion and then on frequent basis we do An integrity run through inside the pipeline which tells us the condition of the pipe and if there's any issues that need to be addressed Immediately or within the year or however, that's looking so I There's continuous monitoring integrity maintenance on the pipeline as well.

Can I ask a follow-up? Please. Thank you for that, and obviously that's what we like to hear. Can you talk to me a little bit about emissions that might occur or leaks that might occur where these pipes are connecting to the pad sites and then to the compression station that you talked about when it gets there. Is that monitored as well? And maybe you know, but it would be interesting to see if our inspections team or the state inspections team monitor that at all.

Yeah, I know very little on the emissions, but there is minimal emissions when we do routine maintenance, such as pigging activities, pigging being cleaning the pipeline. That's just exposing the barrels to atmosphere, so there's very minimal emissions. And we do track that volume when we're doing those maintenance activities.

So the connection then is underground, that this is... I'm talking about where the product comes out and actually connects to the pipe.

From the pad site to the pipeline? Correct. It's all a closed-loop system. So it comes out of the ground. It'll stay within pipes. It'll be separated out between the crude oil, the gas, and the water. And then it's a closed-loop system, so it goes directly into our pipeline. Great.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Yes, Commissioner Campbell?

John, I'm looking at the pipeline. and this is about your 1041 approval. And so this is on page seven going on to page eight. Number two says that the proposed project considers the relevant provisions of the regional water quality plans. And the answer from you all says the project would be located within the Denver Basin Aquifer System and would be subject to the South Platte Basin Implementation Plan The project will comply with the state of Colorado and Arapahoe County Stormwater Management Manual. This goes a little bit to what Commissioner Warangole was talking about with risks and leaks. How do you all mitigate or prevent any potential disruption to the aquifer system? Are there any, like, is there a particular, any... Any kind of construction happening near an aquifer system would make one nervous about contamination into water, aquifer systems. Is this, but a basin can have varying levels of water in different kind of levels of the earth, right? So does this go basically, it's subsurface, but it's above the water shale, I think is what it's called?

Our pipeline is only about four feet deep.

Okay. Okay, great. And then how long will the, how long will, when will, what is the timeline for the project? When will construction start? When will you all start distributing or transporting? I don't know why my words are not working right now. Normally, flow. When will we start going from A to B? Okay, there we go. Thanks.

The pipeline is gonna be starting construction, is planned later in September. Construction will be around 60 days for the pipeline itself. When product is flowing through the pipeline, is scheduled for April of 2027.

And how long do you expect that to last?

the production of flowing through the pipe. Pipelines are typically designed for 50 years. I'm not sure what their production curves are looking like. But there will be a second occupation, so it'll be many years. I don't know the exact time.

Okay. Yeah, okay. So I believe there's a note in here and are you referenced or I think it was Martin referenced, um, avoiding like deep winter for the construction. Um, we didn't really have a winter going from 25 to 26, but I think it's, there's, I don't know. I'm hearing a lot about a super El Nino. And so what happens and what will you guys do if let's say winter comes early, like in October and we get, it gets kind of bonkers in October. Do you guys just delay and then wait?

Yeah, I might have to refer to our permitting agent on the restrictions of construction. Yeah, I don't think we have any restrictions on construction.

Please introduce yourself for the record. Good morning, Janice Kinnan, Westminster. Westminster Adams County. I'm the permanent agent on this project with regards to your question of construction during the winter as long as we can move earth Okay, so there's a really deep freeze. Okay, gotcha as long as they can dig up the ground. There's there's nothing preventing us. Okay Emissions wise permitting lies, etc. Roger that Thank You madam chair.

Thank you All right, are there any more questions? during this commissioner discussion. Thank you, John. It just took us a minute to get our questions formed in our minds. That's all it was. Now, if there is no more commissioner discussion, I'll entertain a motion. Commissioner Fields.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

There you go. Sorry.

No problem. I have reviewed the staff report, including all exhibits and attachments, and have listed to the applicant's presentation and any public comments as presented at the hearing. And based on the record before me, I hereby move to conditionally approve the applications and to adopt the resolution in the record approving the use by special review, including the conditions stated therein.

Second.

It has been moved by Commissioner Fields and properly seconded by Commissioner Warren Gulley. All in favor of the motion, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? The ayes have it and the motion is adopted. Thank you very, very much for all of this information and for your work. So at this point, we don't have any pulled agenda items, consent agenda items. So now we're going to take our opportunity as commissioners to make remarks about the work that they're doing, issues of importance, remembrances, thank yous, et cetera. Does anyone wish to speak? Okay. Well, then, be there no other business before this board, we are adjourned.