The Dacono City Council implemented a six-month moratorium on permitting new oil and gas development on an emergency basis.
City Manager AJ Euckert said that city staff felt that Dacono needed to examine its oil and gas development regulations — which have not been updated since 1996 — but the city is not trying to ban oil and gas development.
“It’s totally within our purview as a city to guard the health, safety and welfare of our residents and just hit the pause button while we review our regulations,” he said Tuesday.
Euckert said that Dacono’s new moratorium, which went into effect the moment it passed Monday night, is unique because there is an exception for oil and gas developers who work with city staff. Specifically, if an operator negotiated an agreement with the city and the council approved it, that company could bypass the moratorium.
“That’s our exception to the moratorium that we included,” he said. “Other moratoria that have been passed around the state and made the news lately — those seem to be focused on just stopping operations, and that is not our intent. We want to update our 20-plus-year-old rules.”
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