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National News

24 Oil Wells in a School’s Backyard. How Close Is Too Close?

Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Weld County commissioner, in Greeley, Colo., May 9, 2018. Many are cheering a new boom in oil and gas production, but the growth is also pitting neighbor against neighbor and communities against companies in a fight over which projects should be allowed to pierce the land. “You’re talking to a person who lives within about 200 feet of a drilling operation,” says Kirkmeyer. “If you don’t like it, you shouldn’t move in next to it.” (Chet Strange/The New York Times)