By Dan D'Ambrosio
Herald Staff Writer

La Plata County Commissioner Josh Joswick has it clear in his mind who should be regulating gas pipelines in La Plata County. And it isn't the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

"We've said all along there are certain things we don't want the state involved in because they're up in Denver, not down here," Joswick said. "They don't know what's going on down here. Their primary mission is to expedite the production of oil and gas. Our primary mission is to make sure things aren't screwed up for people who live down here."

Joswick said it should be up to the counties to ensure that pipelines are safe, and don't interfere with other uses of the land, such as agriculture and tourism.

Since La Plata County first took it upon itself to regulate gas pipelines in the late 1980s, it has been sued by the state and has sued back.

"I guess you could characterize (our relationship with the state) as borderline acrimonious in terms of who's going to be regulating what," Joswick said.

COGCC Deputy Director Brian Macke could not be reached for comment Friday.

Now Garfield County is in the midst of a gas boom that has catapulted it ahead of Weld County as the most active in the state for drilling, according to Garfield County Attorney Don DeFord.

And when Garfield County commissioners began looking at regulating gas pipelines, the commissioners in La Plata County were ready to help.

La Plata County put its pipeline regulations in place when it saw its own gas boom in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Those regulations were immediately challenged by the industry, but were upheld by the state Supreme Court.

Since then, the county has been in court "a bunch," Joswick said, being sued by the state of Colorado over various aspects of the regulations, and suing the state in turn over a regulation that would have written the county out of the picture when it came to regulating the oil and gas industry.

Those battles have made La Plata County a seasoned veteran, county officials believe. A veteran that is now eager to educate others about the war.

In Garfield County, "The level of activity is very high," DeFord said. "They anticipate issuing 700 permits this year in Garfield County for gas wells." And he says every forecast shows increasing drilling activity in the future for the county.

Last fall, Garfield County commissioners asked staff members to develop a set of proposed regulations for gas pipelines. Commissioner Tresi Houpt favored adopting the regulations without consulting the COGCC, but was overruled by the other two commissioners, John Martin and Larry McCown.

"My colleagues wanted to put together a roundtable to talk to the commission and various counties to see if there could be some continuity in the regulations, and to define what should be regulated at the state level, and what should be regulated at the county level," Houpt said.

It was like waving a red flag in front of La Plata County, along with other counties such as San Miguel, Routt, Mesa and Weld.

"The long and short of it was that Garfield County was trying to do this collaboratively and the attorneys for other counties didn't see that as a prerequisite for enacting your own local regulations," said La Plata County Attorney Jeffery Robbins, of Goldman, Robbins & Rogers. "The reason for the concern is (the state) has routinely taken the position that their regulations supercede local regulations."

The Garfield County commissioners were determined to try, nonetheless.

But after months of fruitless discussions with the state, the commissioners decided Monday to go ahead with their own regulations for gas pipelines, DeFord said.

Robbins welcomes the news from DeFord, and he speculated that other counties may have influenced the decision.

"DeFord knew he was about to get an onslaught of letters from other county attorneys," Robbins said. "This all sort of arose from county attorneys having a discussion last week, so he knew the counties were going to be looking into whether to send these letters or not." County attorneys had gathered for a meeting of gas-producing western counties in the Garfield County seat of Glenwood Springs.

In fact, the La Plata County commissioners decided to send their letter to the Garfield County Board of Commissioners anyway, despite Garfield's decision to go ahead with its own regulations.

Dated June 15, the letter expresses the La Plata County commissioners' concern that if Garfield County seeks advice from the COGCC, it could prompt the state to begin making rules that would further exacerbate the "jurisdictional conflicts between the state and counties concerning the regulation of gas gathering pipelines."

"Accordingly, in the interest of preserving and maintaining the jurisdiction Colorado counties have over oil and gas pipeline development, we reiterate our request that Garfield County not seek guidance from the COGCC as to your proposed local regulations," the letter states.

It looks like there's nothing to worry about for now.

"With the pipelines we really feel as if we can move forward because the state isn't regulating pipelines," Houpt, in Garfield County, said. "I'd like the county to be in the loop whenever there's any type of major activity with pipelines that impacts land use."

Houpt went on to say that she would like to see the roles of the state and counties in regulating the oil and gas industry defined by the state Legislature to make it clear who is regulating what.

Again, it's already crystal clear to Joswick.

"If (the COGCC) were ever funded adequately and they changed their mission statement to look out for the people who live in our county, then maybe we'd deal with them," Joswick said. "They don't do land use. We do. We don't do (the) technical aspects (of the oil and gas industry). They do. Let them stick to what they do, and we'll stick to what we do."

Reach Staff Writer Dan D'Ambrosio here .