The fight will be over new state rules for gas production that were proposed after Gov. Bill Ritter took office last year.
Both critics and fans of the gas industry are expected at the fairgrounds at 11 a.m. Monday for a three-hour public hearing about a big change in the way Colorado regulates gas production. It is the only public hearing scheduled for Southwest Colorado.
A similar meeting in Parachute last week drew almost 500 people.
"It should be quite the showdown," said Gwen Lachelt, director of the Oil and Gas Accountability Project, based in Durango.
Christi Zeller with the La Plata Energy Council said the proposed rules would slow down the drilling of new wells.
"We can't be certain as to what kind of delays we'll be facing," Zeller said.
And that uncertainty is a big deal to the industry, which has to count on a return on its investment before it commits a lot of money to drilling wells.
Many of the mineral rights in Southwest Colorado are owned by private citizens, who get a cut when companies extract and sell the gas.
"You can't collect royalty payments for wells that can't be drilled," Zeller said.
The proposed rules aim to protect wildlife and human health. Health and wildlife experts and neighboring landowners would have to be consulted before some wells could be drilled.
The rules also propose tougher noise and odor standards, and would require companies to tell regulators what chemicals they use when drilling and hydrofracing a well.
"These should have been in place 20 years ago," Lachelt said.
The staff of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission will attend the Monday meeting, but most of the commissioners will not, said David Neslin, the commission's acting director.
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"It's an opportunity for us to explain this initial, pre-draft proposal," Neslin said.
He also wants to hear what people in the Four Corners have to say.
Sen. Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus, sponsored the bill last year that reorganized the COGCC. With the proposed rules, the new commission is getting down to the details of how it will enforce the law.
And it's the details that have upset the industry.
The Energy Council placed ads in the Herald to encourage people to attend.
"Do you like paying low property taxes?" the ad asks. "Do you appreciate the financial support the energy industry provides to our friends and neighbors through nonprofit organizations?"
Gas companies pay the majority of the property taxes in La Plata County. As a result, county homeowners pay some of the state's lowest property taxes.
La Plata County commissioners are concerned, too. They wrote to the COGCC to say they are "gravely concerned" that the rules would take away some of their authority to regulate gas development. Over the years, the county has won the right to police the industry.
But for Lachelt and other longtime critics of the COGCC, the rules, which were proposed late last year, could be the start of a welcome new era.
"After 20 years of working on this issue and losing just about every time until last year, it was both shocking and delightful," Lachelt said.
