Colorado schools near proposed fracking could gain funding, but families worry about possible health risks

AURORA, Colo. — Christa Burke and Monica Aldridge have been friends since they moved to Aurora’s Southshore neighborhood just one day apart two years ago.

Their families wanted a quiet community with access to nature and great schools.

“We moved into this neighborhood, in particular, because it’s part of the Cherry Creek School District, which is known for its excellence. And so, we were very excited,” said Burke, who has two sons in middle and high school.

“This neighborhood is full of young families with young children,” said Aldridge, whose three children also go to the local schools. But soon after buying their new homes, she said they got “a surprise, and not a happy one.”

Just east of their neighborhood, beyond the Aurora Reservoir, the oil and gas company Civitas is proposing to drill more than 170 wells.

“They’re going to do fracking very close by with young children,” Aldridge said.

Burke, Aldridge and many of their neighbors are pushing back against the planned fracking through a grassroots group called Save the Aurora Reservoir.

“Most of the neighborhood was unhappy, and our fears related really to the health impacts of fracking near homes and schools,” Burke said. “We have at least three elementary schools, two middle schools and a high school that are all within the map where the [horizontal drilling from the] wells will go underneath.”

If Colorado’s oversight agency, the Energy and Carbon Management Commission, and Arapahoe County approve the proposed fracking, the operator will drill the wells at the Lowry Ranch, sprawling grasslands owned by Colorado’s State Land Board.

Kristin Kemp, a spokesperson for the land board, told Denver7 this summer that Colorado owns the Lowry Ranch land and minerals, and rents it out to companies, including oil and gas producers.

Civitas is already operating several wells on the Lowry Ranch, since the company acquired an existing lease from the energy giant ConocoPhillips in 2020. Civitas hopes to incorporate those wells into its larger proposed project for the ranch.

“It’s been leased here for oil and gas development for almost 100 years already,” Kemp said. “The rent we collect helps fund public schools.”

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