OCTOBER 14, 2014 – The City of Longmont has successfully defended a critical legal case that upholds its oil and gas regulations.

The City filed with the court today on behalf of all parties a Stipulated Dismissal of All Claims and Covenant Not to Sue. What this means is that the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) and Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA) agreed never to sue Longmont again with a challenge to Longmont’s oil and gas ordinance.

Coupled with a local oil and gas operator’s agreement not challenge Longmont’s regulations, the oil and gas regulations will remain in place and enforceable for the foreseeable future.

“This is a great victory for the Longmont community,” declared Longmont Mayor Dennis Coombs. “Longmont has secured important protections for the community including no drilling in neighborhoods, mandatory groundwater monitoring, setbacks from riparian areas, and other important regulations that will protect the health and safety of our residents.”

The City had asked the COGCC to dismiss “with prejudice,” meaning that it could never sue on the same issues again. The agency declined to do so, but by agreeing to the Covenant Not to Sue, COGCC and COGA have forsaken future lawsuits against the City.

In July 2012, the Longmont City Council passed a series of oil and gas regulations that generally restrict new oil and gas surface operations in residentially zoned areas, require disclosures of fracking chemicals to the City’s first responders, set groundwater monitoring rules, and mitigate visual impacts, among other things. The COGCC and COGA filed suit shortly thereafter claiming that the City’s rules and regulations violated state laws. Today’s filing upholds the validity of Longmont’s rules.

The dismissal came at the behest of Governor Hickenlooper, who in August 2014, called on the COGCC to drop the lawsuit as part of a larger political compromise.

Although Longmont succeeded in defending its oil and gas regulations, the City is still involved in an ongoing and separate legal case involving Longmont’s fracking ban.

The second lawsuit was filed against the City by the oil and gas industry and the State of Colorado challenging the citizen-initiated hydraulic fracking restriction, passed by the voters in November 2012. That measure also prohibited fracking waste disposal in Longmont, and is known as Amendment 300 or Article XVI.

Longmont scored an important victory on this separate fracking case today when the Boulder County Court granted the City’s Motion for Stay Pending Appeal meaning that Longmont’s fracking prohibition will stay in place during the appellate process, which could take years.