History

Improving communication between first responders and oil and gas operators in Colorado is an essential component of safety and a core mission of the industry, public safety organizations, and various governmental jurisdictions. The Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin in Northern Colorado has seen increased oil and gas activity over the past decade, and with it, an opportunity to enhance emergency preparedness and response readiness while strengthening relationships between first responders, government organizations, and oil and gas operators.

The Colorado Preparedness and Response Network (CPRN) is a continuing effort of these organizations to enhance the overall safety of the community and first responders that will respond by establishing a vehicle to collaborate on initiatives that can be implemented together. 

A working group was initially formed as the Front Range Emergency Resources Co-op (FRERC) in 2014. The group was led by representatives from PDC Energy, Encana, Anadarko Petroleum, and Noble Energy; Josh Carlisle with Extraction Oil and Gas and Roy Rudisill, Weld County Director of the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) worked as the organizers of the FRERC to keep it active between 2016 – 2019 as an industry and First Responder initiative with the primary purpose to establish:

  • A proactive, non-regulatory initiative by industry (oil and gas operators, railroad, pipeline companies, midstream operators) to work together to earn their social license to operate by improving response preparedness and readiness.

  • Building shared best practices for planning and exercises.

  • Building relationships among First Responders before an incident occurs.

  • Provide support to Members in the event of an emergency in the DJ-Basin.

  • Own and maintain response resource equipment.

 
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The focus of the CPRN has changed from its initial conception, which was to directly own and maintain equipment resources to aid response to oil and gas incidents. The emphasis shifted to developing an overall emergency preparedness and response framework consisting of:

  • Communication between industry, government, and the community.

  • Understanding of stakeholder priorities.

  • A shared view of how to respond to emergencies.

  • Transparency of decision-making.

  • Collaboration within an incident management system.

Another emphasis of the CPRN is creating a Mutual-Aid support system to include sharing equipment and additional Incident Management Teams (IMT) among CPRN Members.  With Mutual-Aid, Members would be able to support more depth to sustain 24-hour operations until appropriate Member technical specialists and management teams arrive.

In early 2019, industry members of the CPRN recognized the need to formally incorporate the working group as a nonprofit and hire a manager to spearhead this effort. In September 2019, Tron Clark was hired to lead the effort of turning a phenomenal grassroots working group into a nonprofit entity. The CPRN was incorporated on December 3rd, 2019, as a 501(c)(4) organization. Pursuing the development of a nonprofit entity provided an opportunity for a better understanding of our stakeholders' shared responsibilities to help prevent and properly respond to industry incidents.

The name of the FRERC was changed in late 2019 to the CPRN by stakeholders’ wanting to broaden and not limit the reach of the organization solely to the Front Range in Colorado, but to offer the opportunity to expand throughout the State as needed.