Community Win: How Earthworks Shut Down a Toxic Oil and Gas Company that was Poisoning People in Colorado

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I hope others look at this example and act swiftly because this is happening all over the country where oil and gas operations are located. We all should have the right to breathe clean air and the laws that are currently in place do not allow that and that is wrong.

– Von Bortz, Larimer County, Colorado resident

Partnering with Frontline Communities to Hold Big Oil and Gas Companies Accountable

Von Bortz knew something was wrong when the sulfuric, rotten egg smell started and he was getting dizzy, with severe headaches and nausea. 

Bortz lives in Larimer County, Colorado. He knew there was oil and gas drilling nearby. But he didn’t think it would make him sick. Larimer is home to cities like Fort Collins and Loveland, with 370,000 people and 105 active drilling wells. A mismanaged oil and gas operation can hurt a lot of people. And it did. Bortz learned that he was getting sick from toxic hydrogen sulfide he was constantly being exposed to — by pollution from a company called Prospect Energy.

Bortz filed complaints, but local and state governments couldn’t do anything without a pattern of proof. Tired of feeling sick and defeated, Bortz shared his experiences with the Earthworks team, and we got to work. Over the next 36+ months, Earthworks launched a sustained, intensive investigation into Prospect Energy’s pollution — and started to document the evidence.

Step One: Show Proof Nobody Can Ignore

Earthworks began surveying and photographing Prospect Energy sites alongside local residents in January, 2021. Since then, we’ve made 64 separate surveys of local Prospect Energy sites. 

Using our Optical Gas Imaging (OGI) camera, we recorded the harmful emissions spewing from Prospect Energy’s facilities. With community directed evidence in hand, proof was now on video to show a pattern of harmful pollution, and that Prospect Energy was a “bad actor” in the community. 
We also filed 14 separate complaints to the state of Colorado, documenting chronic pollution at these sites — most recently in May 2024. Evidence was starting to add up.

Step Two: Small Wins Lead to Bigger Wins

Over time, we continued working with the community to make the case that Prospect Energy needed to be held accountable for the harm they caused by their negligence and disregard for public health. Our OGI evidence helped investigative reporters produce stories in December, 2021 and February, 2022, that ran in regional news outlets like the Fort Collins Coloradoan. 

In August of 2022, Colorado closed some of Prospect’s worst facilities. But inexplicably, they allowed them to reopen again only a few short months later. Nothing had improved. And we weren’t ready to back down.

We worked with the community to produce a constant drumbeat of evidence and demands to hold Prospect Energy accountable for their negligence and disregard that made it impossible for neighbors to breathe clean air.

Finally, this past July, after years of persistence from both Earthworks and our community partners, Larimer County and Prospect Energy came to an agreement — for Prospect Energy to shut down, leave the state, and commit to cleaning up the polluted equipment at its facilities. 

Step Three: Earthworks’ Model to Make the Win Last

It’s a lasting win. And it reinforces the model we’ve been building for the past 10+ years: 

• Gather and pair OGI evidence alongside frontline communities as a sustained effort. 
• Advocate for action at both the state and local levels. We back up advocacy with evidence and solutions. 
• Organize alongside local activists, including for change through local elections. Build the power to enact lasting legislative and regulatory changes on the ground.

For Earthworks, community wins like this start with the power of people. In Larimer County we magnified the power of community voices by establishing irrefutable visual evidence of harm — and held polluting, bad actors responsible for the sickness and harm they caused. 

That power translates locally and statewide — to create policy changes that: (1) force the government to prioritize people over polluters, and (2) expand and instill responsibility in the local government to take action and protect its residents.

Thanks to your support, it’s a model we’re using across the US — and around the world. 

Want to be part of our work ending oil, gas and mining pollution? Get involved!