A case with potentially far-reaching effects on Colorado’s oil-and-gas industry will be decided by the Colorado Supreme Court.
The court heard arguments Wed nesday in a dispute over water that’s pumped from the ground to draw natural gas out of coal beds. The justices are expected to rule later.
Landowners in southwest Colorado had sued, saying the practice threatens their limited water supplies. They argue that gas companies should defer to water users with older water rights and replace the water they use when it belongs to others.
The state engineer, who administers Colorado water law, and BP America Production Co., appealed a ruling last year by a district court in La Plata County that said the water produced while extracting the gas from coal seams is subject to state water law.
Pumping groundwater relieves the pressure trapping the methane gas trapped in the coal seams. Other gas drilling might produce water, but not in the volumes that coal-bed methane extraction does. Millions of gallons of water might be pumped over the life of one well.
BP America and the state engineer say the water is a waste product of the drilling and should continue to be regulated under state oil-and-gas rules.
BP America reinjects the water into the ground, usually at deeper levels than it was drawn from.
