WINDSOR - Many of the people who showed up believed it was going to be a meeting where they could comment and sound off on their concerns - but it turned out to be more of a presentation about the process of oil drilling.
A Greeley oil company is proposing to drill an oil well near hundreds of homes in Windsor and that does not sit well with many of those residents. They are care concerned about the fracking and what effect the new oil well could have on their property values.
Gene Fatton has lived in Windsor for 12 years.
"You need to move this thing away from subdivisions," he said.
He says Greeley-based Ranchers Exploration Partners is proposing to drill an oil well on the property right behind his.
"These things make a lot of fumes. They can put out hundreds of tons of fumes, literally. They can make noise. It can smell. It can be all types of problems," Fatton said.
The proposed well would be near two subdivisions. It would drill for oil using a process called fracking. Fracking is a way to release oil and gas from the ground by pumping a high-pressure mix of water and chemicals deep underground.
"They can put these wells 200 feet from people's homes. Two hundred feet - that's not very much when you're pumping out bad stuff," Fatton said.
Homeowners in the River West and Ridge West subdivisions near the Larimer-Weld County line showed up at Monday night's town hall meeting to give their input.
"When we're talking about 200 plus homes on home sites that are less than an acre, this is not feasible. This is not safe," Nicole Stansfield, a resident, said.
"We've seen no comprehensive management plan, drilling plan. There's no neighbor plan. We have no idea what they're going to do they just keep us in the dark," Tom Stohl, another resident, said.
Instead of open public comment on the issue on Monday night, the public was allowed to ask questions about the oil drilling process after a presentation by the city. Most homeowners told us they're concerned about fracking.
They're going to drill down in and pump high pressure fluids," Fatton said.
He says he's worried about what kind of fluids will be used.
"They say it's a closely guarded secret. Well, it shouldn't be. If you're going to pump stuff underground, underneath people's homes and potentially in the aquifer, it should be a well-controlled process," he said.
9NEWS couldn't find anyone from Rancher's Exploration Partners at the meeting, but during a meeting last week, our partners at the Windsor Beacon say the COO of the company told a crowd of 150 that the precise location of the drilling, and when it will begin, hasn't been determined because no pipeline exists.
"Health is a big concern, besides the sight and the smells, health is the number one concern," Fatton said.
9NEWS left messages for Rancher's Exploration, and several emails, but we did not hear back from anyone on Monday night.
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