Beginning Sunday, crews from Anadarko Petroleum will be placing seismic sensors — recording devices each about the size of a shoe box — in certain areas of city of Loveland property as part of a survey of underground geology, the city of Loveland announced Friday.
Seismic sensor placement is already underway in Weld County, and crews will work westward through an area that approximately covers 3 square miles directly southeast of the intersection of U.S. 34 and Interstate 25, 2 square miles directly northwest of the same intersection, and 2 square miles southwest (see map). The total survey area is 20 square miles.
After the seismic recording devices or “geophones” are placed, one or more vibrator vehicles — also known as Vibroseis, “vibe” or “thumper” trucks — will drive in a line across the property and use a device to vibrate the earth in certain spots, creating the seismic signal that bounces off underground rocks and is recorded by the sensors, according to an email from Anadarko municipal planning analyst Tracy Colling. The testing will be contracted to Brighton-based Seismic Acquisition Services and sub-contracted to Centennial-based Dawson Geophysical Company, per the right-of-way permit.
The trucks will lower a metal pad every 200 feet along the path, and vibrate for about 15 seconds, wrote Jeremy Hill of Seismic Acquisition in an email. The truck will move slowly, but be finished in each area within a day, said city of Loveland spokesman Tom Hacker.
Light vehicles will be on city streets throughout the project area, especially along U.S. 34, wrote Jennifer Brice, corporate communications manager for Anadarko. Heavier vehicles, including the seismic trucks, will be used on larger streets primarily to access permitted areas within the project.
“We will limit or avoid using major roads that will impact traffic, and also avoid high-traffic times by working after hours as much as possible,” Brice wrote.
The testing will allow Anadarko to “see,” via the 3D seismic imaging, what kinds of mineral deposits might be part of the geologic structure 1.25 miles underground. The process will last approximately 15 days, through the first two weeks of December.
Hacker emphasized that though the geophones might look like explosives, they are safe.
“In this day and age, when people see strange-looking devices lying around with wires sticking out of them, some are likely to think the worst,” Hacker wrote in an email to the Reporter-Herald. “In Weld County, when this started years ago, emergency dispatchers were getting calls reporting bombs. They are harmless.”
Residents in areas where the survey work is planned will be notified via notices placed on doors 48 hours prior to testing, according to a city press release.
The city of Loveland approved Anadarko’s permit to use city roads for the testing Oct. 24.
“The City has no obligation to permit such testing, but may benefit by receiving the results of the testing,” wrote City Manager Steve Adams in an email to the Loveland City Council sent Friday. He added that testing results will be shared with the city, which owns the minerals connected with the land.
“Staff from the City Manager’s Office, City Attorney’s Office, Development Services Department, Parks and Recreation Department, Open Lands Division, Public Works Department, Facilities Division, and Risk Management Division reviewed Anadarko’s request and do not have concerns with Anadarko’s proposed testing as the testing will have little if no impacts on the City’s property,” Adams wrote.
The study does not itself indicate that Anadarko will be drilling in or near Loveland, but if the results indicate valuable mineral deposits are present, Anadarko might decide to drill.
“The results of this current survey will help us formulate future plans, and while it is premature to determine what those might be, will communicate any plans for future activity to city officials,” Brice wrote.
Anadarko last did a seismic survey in the Loveland area in 2013 in the Centerra area, including within the High Plains Environmental Center and along the shorelines of Houts Reservoir and Equalizer Lake, according to previous coverage by the Reporter-Herald. Following that survey, Anadarko produced about 13 wells slightly south and east of Loveland, Brice wrote.
The city of Loveland has a long history with Anadarko Petroleum and retained Anadarko staff as consultants during the process of developing the city’s advanced oil and gas permit regulations in 2013, Hacker said.
The city’s oil and gas permit process acts as an overlay, meaning it adds additional requirements to the statewide regulations controlled by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
The city’s enhanced standards, which include greater setbacks, air quality standards and pipeline requirements, allow operators willing to comply to circumvent the public hearing process and have their drilling permit reviewed administratively. Those unwilling to submit to the enhanced standards follow the typical route, which includes a hearing before the city’s Planning Commission.
“Anadarko is regarded as one of the cleanest and safest producers in Colorado, they have a fairly strong track record,” Hacker said. “And that’s one of the reasons the city selected them to consult in that process, of drafting the permit regulation.”
In September, Magpie Operating Inc. notified residents on the Loveland’s southeast side of its intention to drill horizontal wells beneath their neighborhood in 2019.
Julia Rentsch: 970-699-5404, jrentsch@reporter-herald.com
