Newcastle City Council members, during their June regular meeting, denied five conditional use permits for Four Point Energy on their proposed Riva Ridge drilling site. Council members said the site did not meet the City’s setback requirements.
The proposed site is located on the north side of S.W. 16th Street east of Rockwell Avenue. The oil company proposed the site saying they feel it is a better site than a second one in the area because this one is closer to the road and provides room to get heavy trucks off the roadway. Several local residents voiced their concerns to Council during the public comments section of the meeting. They voiced the same concerns that had been discussed at previous meetings, such as sound emanating from the site, 24-7 lighting at the site, and potential runoff coming from the area. They also mentioned the use of City streets and resulting damage, as well as potential unkept promises from the oil companies. A Four Point Energy spokesperson said the company had conducted ambient surveys and they have planned on noise blankets and 24-foot sound walls during drilling and completion, and the noise emanating from the site would be less than the 75 decibels. Because the proposed site did not meet all setback requirements and several commmunity members who live in the area were in opposition, the City Council also unanimously opposed the conditional use permit. Since Four Point Energy has a second site on the property, they are expected to be back at another council meeting with the new proposal.
In another public comment during the June meeting, the City Attorney and council member s disagreed with the commenter. Newcastle resident Spencer Howsley said the City has much more control with oil and gas than they are saying, and it is through the use of zoning. He said the Council had at some point changed the zoning so the proposed property could be drilled upon.
Although no comments were made at the time of Howsley’s comments, later in the meeting, Council member Gene Reid said a City cannot zone out an oil and gas well. Council member Marci White added that the City doesn’t have much latitude in these matters.
City Attorney Jeff Bryant said legislation passed in 2015 stripped cities and towns of their ability to regulate.
He said, “The gentleman mentioned the zoning. That was something in Norman that we fought very hard about, and Stillwater also. We looked at the powers afforded to cities through zoning and the Oklahoma Constitution. The Oklahoma Supreme Court rejected that argument. They said no.”
State Bill 809 was signed into law by Mary Fallin in 2015. The law only allows municipalities to set ordinances for road use, traffic noise, odors, setbacks, and fencing.
SB809 states the following: “A municipality, county or other political subdivision may enact reasonable ordinances, rules and regulations concerning road use, traffic, noise and odors incidental to oil and gas operations within its boundaries.”
“A municipality, county or other political subdivision may also establish reasonable setbacks and fencing requirements for oil and gas well site locations as are reasonably necessary to protect the health, safety and welfare of its citizens but may not effectively prohibit or ban any oil and gas operations, including oil and gas exploration, drilling, fracture stimulation, completion, production, maintenance, plugging and abandonment, produced water disposal, secondary recovery operations, flow and gathering lines or pipeline infrastructure.
“All other regulations of oil and gas operations shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Corporation Commission.” SB809 on page 3 At the time of signing, Fallin issued the following statement: “Corporation Commissioners are elected by the people of Oklahoma to regulate the oil and gas industry. They are best equipped to make decisions about drilling and its [effect] on seismic activity, the environment and other sensitive issues. We need to let these experts do their jobs. The alternative is to pursue a patchwork of regulations that, in some cases, could arbitrarily ban energy exploration and damage the state’s largest industry, largest employers and largest taxpayers.”
