Posted 4 months, 13 days ago in 
Loading ...
The inference by Mr. Neslin of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission that Battlement Mesa’s situation is in no way unprecedented deserves comment and challenge.
Since when has a 20-year-old unincorporated Colorado community of 5,000 residents, properly established as a retirement community by county authority, with documented intent to transfer open space to the homeowners’ association, become now totally subject to massive gas drilling adjacent to their retirement homes? Please give us one Colorado precedent.
LARRY SODERBERG
Parachute
2 Responses to “Battlement Mesa was set up as a retirement community”
Posted July 10th, 2009 at 6:35 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
Someone owns the mineral rights and can extract them anytime they desire. Surface rights owners can hire all the high priced lawyers they want and cry to their representatives till hell freezes over, but the owner of the mineral rights can extract them when they choose.
Posted July 11th, 2009 at 12:16 am Login to Send PM Report this comment
The community of Battlement Mesa was established in 1982, not as a retirement community, but was intended as housing for employees of Exxon, the company which planned and paid for it. That many retired folks began moving there in the late-80’s to early-90’s does not imply that it is “properly established” as a retirement community. The 2000 census shows only 24% of the population of Battlement age 65 and over. Battlement’s own website promotes it as a place to raise a family, start a family or retire.
And as Kemosabe mentions, those who own the minerals underneath the surface have the legal right to extract those minerals with or without the surface owners’ permission.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.