The local organization that led the effort for Longmont voters’ 2012 passage of a fracking ban has announced that it is closing down.

Our Health, Our Future, Our Longmont’s steering committee members said in a Wednesday post on Longmont ROAR’s Facebook page that they’d decided “that it is time to celebrate our accomplishments and pass the mantle on to the many others that have valiantly picked up the cause to ban dangerous and destructive fracking from our communities.”

Steering committee member Karen Dike said Thursday that “we’ll continue working” on trying to protect the community from the impacts of oil and gas exploration and production, “if we need to.”

Our Health, Our Future, Our Longmont led the drive to petition a prohibition against hydraulic fracturing — the process of injecting a mixture of sand, water and chemicals to free up deep-underground oil and gas deposits — onto the city ballot, where it got voters’ approval in November 2012.

However, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in 2016 that Longmont had no legal right to ban fracking.

But Our Health, Our Future, Our Longmont’s members and supporters have since continued their efforts to get as many local controls over oil and gas activities in place as possible, under current state laws and court decisions about those laws.

Dike and her fellow steering committee members — Judith Blackburn, Jean Ditslear and Michael Bellmont — said in their Facebook message that they were proud that Longmont’s court-overturned fracking ban had broken ground “in the push for local control by we citizens who have a right to health safety and well being.”

Our Health, Our Future, Our Longmont was a trendsetter in those efforts, Dike said Thursday.

Steering committee members wrote that “perhaps inspired in part by our actions, many groups and efforts in the fight against fracking have arisen in Colorado that advocate initiatives, lawsuits, legislation, new studies and nonviolent direct action that champion the protection nd empowerment of citizens and communities against this egregious and aggressive onslaught by the oil nd gas industry.”

“We feel that now we’ve got a City Council that is aware of the dangers of fracking and does not want fracking within the city,” Dike said.

She cited last month’s council approval of a $3 million agreement with TOP Operating and Cub Creek Energy.

City officials have said that pact will end oil and gas drilling from the surfaces of properties within the city, as well as from the surfaces of city-owned properties east of Longmont, while requiring the plugging and abandonment of a number of existing wells and the relocation of a major flow line.

While that agreement does not prohibit extraction of oil and gas from deposits underneath the city, the fracking and subsequent horizontal drilling is to be done from private properties outside the city.

Dike said she still has concerns that some of that drilling will be deep underneath Union Reservoir, and that’s something she and others will be monitoring for potential problems and impacts.

She said she is not naming or advising people about what specific other organizations fracking critics might now think about turning to.

“People who are interested in fracking are probably aware of the other organizations,” Dike said, and they can “choose one that meets their needs.”

Steering committee members wrote supporters: “Believing that each of us can make a difference, we encourage each of you to dedicate some time, energy and resources to a cause you truly believe in, whether it is resisting fracking, pressing our cities to commit to 100 percent renewable energy, or a social justice issue.”

Committee members also urged their followers to “remember the importance of your vote and the need for a political solution that puts health and safety of citizens above profit.”

Dike said committee members will continue to use Longmont ROAR’s Facebook page to share important information with their followers, even after closing down Our Health, Our Future, Our Longmont.

John Fryar: 303-684-5211, jfryar@times-call.com or twitter.com/jfryartc