More natural gas development is brewing 12 miles southwest of Rifle.

Garfield County commissioners on Monday unanimously approved an oil and gas permit sought by CPX Piceance Holdings LLC to drill 32 natural gas wells at Teepee Park Ranch near Beaver Creek. The ranch is 4,250 acres in size.

Location of the wells, to be built on an existing 5.45-acre well pad called 36A, falls within a high-priority habitat buffer zone created by Colorado Parks and Wildlife to protect cutthroat trout, additional aquatic life and surrounding habitat.

Well pad 36A’s close proximity to Beaver Creek is immediately upgradient of the riparian corridor, county documents state. Area vegetation includes spruce/fir forest, Kentucky bluegrass, fishlake thistle and more.

According to the Army Corps of Engineers, flowlines for the project will run between the 26A well pad and another well pad, 25A. The lines will have water crossings at Beaver and Teepee creeks as well as an unnamed ephemeral stream.

Pursuant to the Energy Carbon Management Commission (formerly called Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission), developers must seek alternative drilling locations whenever planning to extract natural gas within a wildlife protection bufferzone. Piceance, however, sought additional drilling locations but preferred to build on existing infrastructure rather than disturb more land with drilling.

In the meantime, Piceance preemptively worked with CPW before seeking to obtain a COGCC variance, which allows drilling in the buffer zone despite the rule. The CPW required that Piceance not remove water from Beaver Creek, set up perimeter berms around the wells to prevent inadvertent spills, implement dust mitigation and more.

The Houston-based natural resource development company has owned Teepee Park Ranch since 2015, according to CEO Nicholas Kurtenbach. The ranch was formerly used for grazing, logging and oil shale extraction.

“We’ve been thinking about this a long time with the singular goal of, how can we develop this asset in Teepee Park while adhering to our cornerstone belief in land stewardship?” Kurtenbach told commissioners. “We’ve taken on a number of projects to improve the environmental aspects of the ranch.”

According to consultant Jessica Donahue, a compliance and permitting specialist with Ardor Environmental, pad re-construction is set to take four weeks, while drilling of the 32 wells is expected to take 32 weeks. After interim reclamation occurs, the wells are set to be in production for the next 30 years.

“After the wells are drilled, completed and placed on production, the pad will be interim reclaimed down to 1.34 acres of disturbance,” she said.

The commission passed the application but under 16 conditions. This includes Piceance drilling all 32 wells within three years, it follows all local, state and federal regulations and that it coordinates maintenance activities on County Road 317 with the Garfield County Road and Bridge Department.

Dale Ratliff, Piceance Holdings legal representative, said there is a project oil and gas development plan hearing with the Energy Carbon Management Commission slated for Aug. 30.

“Overall, we do not anticipate any major setbacks for this OGDP as it continues moving through COGCC’s permitting process toward Commission hearing, as long as the OGDP application demonstrates compliance with all COGCC Rules,” COGCC Planning and Permitting Manager Sabrina Trask said in a letter to Ardor Environmental. “We appreciate that CPX is utilizing this existing surface rather than requesting a new surface disturbance, and we appreciate the consolidation of operations between the (36A) pad and the nearby (25A) pad.”