From The Fairplay Flume (Jason Douglas):
Two of the tracts are adjacent to southwestern Park County’s Antero Reservoir, a major source of water for Denver and a gold medal trout fishery. The third tract is adjacent to the South Platte River – also a gold medal trout fishing location and part of the Denver watershed. The action was made at the request of the Denver Water Board, which owns Antero Reservoir…
The Land Board currently leases out to others somewhere between 65 and 70 mineral leases on a total of about 30,000 acres in Park County, according to Mark Davis, the Land Board’s mineral director. Davis said that about 100 tracts go up for auction each quarter and that this quarter, none of the tracts up for auction are “virgin,” or never- before-leased land…
Matt Bond, a community relations spokesman for Denver Water, said that Denver Water’s board asked the Land Board to remove tracts 66 and 67 in Township 12 south 76 west because it is concerned that oil and gas development there could have an adverse effect on water quality, not only from hydraulic fracturing fluids but also from runoff that could be created by platform and road construction. According to Bond, Antero has a dam that is more than 100 years old, and no one knew how it might have been affected by nearby oil and gas development.