GLENWOOD SPRINGS - Garfield County may end up intervening in a proposal by Antero Resources to drill natural gas wells in and around the Battlement Mesa community in the western end of the county.

But the “intervention,” as it is formally called, would strictly be aimed at Antero’s request to be allowed to drill wells at a higher density than currently is permitted, in an area that apparently is outside the boundaries of Battlement Mesa.

The Board of County Commissioners agreed on Monday to take the first formal step to intervene with three “down-spacing” applications, meaning efforts to increase the number of wells allowed per section in a certain area. The applications were filed recently with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

Two applications, by Antero, are for well locations that seem to be close to or touching the boundary line of the Battlement Mesa Planned Unit Development, a community of some 5,000 residents near the town of Parachute, according to the county’s oil and gas liaison, Judy Jordan.

Antero has announced plans to build 10 well pads, and to sink up to 200 wells into the ground within the roughly 3,200-acre PUD, although no formal proposals have been submitted to the COGCC or to Garfield County.

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