4:58
On January 7 2020 a group of students from Niwot High testified in front of the Boulder County Commissioners calling on them to ban fracking in the face of a proposal for a huge drilling site just 3 miles from their school.
Simon Saia, co-leader of the Niwot High environmental club, was one of the students who testified at the meeting.
“I m a junior and now high school and I m here with my fellow Niwot High School environmental Club students to bring awareness to the crest own CDP and also ask for a permanent ban on all new oil and gas installments in Boulder County,” testified Saia.
4:58
Where Weld and Boulder Counties meet, it’s hard to see where one jurisdiction ends and another begins. It’s where Amanda Harper and her family live.
“West Weld County looks like eastern Boulder County, it’s spacious, there are homes with large farms, small farms, it’s a beautiful agricultural area.”
Harper and her family moved here because of the landscape, the chance to have a small farm, and the opportunity to live a rural, peaceful life.
“That’s how we wanted to raise our child in an agrarian situation with open spaces and clean air.”
But that peaceful rural life was suddenly interrupted 6 years ago when Harper learned that her idyllic farm house would soon be in the midst of an oil and gas development.