The blinking lights on a 300-meter tower where scientists have measured emissions from oil, gas and agricultural operations in Erie for nearly four decades are going dark by the end of the month as researchers are reluctantly decommissioning the facility.

Robert Webb, director of the Physical Science Division at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Earth System Research Laboratory, notified scientists of the looming loss in a letter dated June 14.

The tower in question, known as the Boulder Atmospheric Observatory, is actually situated just northeast of Erie High School, north of Erie Parkway and between Weld County Roads 5 and 7. The 100-acre parcel of land on which it’s located is owned by the Colorado State Land Board, and has been leased to NOAA for many years.

But not for much longer.

Negotiations to extend that lease have been ongoing for the past couple of years, but Webb’s letter states, “In the midst of these negotiations, the State of Colorado notified NOAA of their plans to reclaim the property for other purposes and/or begin commercial development.”

Webb’s letter advised he therefore had decided that NOAA has to discontinue operations at the tower “immediately,” to prepare for a decommissioning that will require all “personal property, equipment or debris” to be removed by July 31.

Webb’s letter stated that his office provided a lease termination notice to the state.

“It’s a frustrating loss to NOAA, is how I would say it,” Webb said in an interview Wednesday.

Webb said there is unconfirmed speculation that the land is going to made available by the state to oil and gas interests.

“We’ve heard many different things, and that’s one of them,” Webb said. “The other rumors that are out there are that they want to develop it, as part of the town. It’s right next to the high school.”

State claims ‘no plans’ for site

Todd Hartman, spokesman for the state’s Department of Natural Resources, said NOAA’s lease for the site expired in 1998, and it had been operating there on a “year-to-year holdover” since that time. He maintained the decision to end the relationship was NOAA’s and was communicated to the state by letter May 26.

“The State Land Board currently has no alternative plans for the property; in the wake of NOAA’s decision, the Land Board has discussed leasing it to an existing agricultural tenant after NOAA vacates,” Hartman said in an email.

“In time, given growth immediately surrounding the property, the site will likely be annexed and developed in the Town of Erie but the Land Board does not have any active plans for the site today,” he said.

Hartman added that the land board already has active oil and gas wells on the property, “and has for many years, dating back to at least the early 90s.”

Dan Wolfe, a research meteorologist and the tower’s site science coordinator, has been working there since the tower’s inauguration in 1977. He is retired now from NOAA, but continues his duties there as a part-time employee of the University of Colorado.

“I have seen the writing on the wall, just because getting funding has been harder and harder, over the years,” Wolfe said. “But, the importance of the tower in my personal opinion hasn’t changed — it has stayed the same, or maybe even increased over the years.”

He added: “The only purpose of the state land board is to get money for schools. Whatever is most profitable — whether that’s putting in oil and gas, or 10,000 homes, whatever they do.”

‘Certainly a loss’

The Erie facility is part of NOAA’s Global Monitoring Division Tall Tower Network, roughly a dozen such sites around the country providing continuous sampling of carbon dioxide, methane and carbon monoxide as well as related gases such as ethane, benzene and propane, which improve scientists’ understanding of regional emissions trends.

Among the tower’s added functions has been to serve as a convenient metro-area location for testing and calibrating new atmospheric sensors, as they’re developed.

The loss of the Erie tower, equipped with a three-person elevator, will not leave NOAA blind to the state of emissions on the northern Front Range, said research scientist Arlyn Andrews — although she said, “It is certainly a loss.”

Ongoing measurements of the same gases will continue at the Niwot Ridge Mountain Research Station, she noted.

Additionally, Andrews said in an email, “We often use mobile platforms for studying regional emissions, such as aircraft and vans equipped with a variety of analyzers. I expect that we will primarily rely on those platforms going forward for studying regional emissions.

“We will unfortunately lose the continuous context that the tower provides, but we will be able to use the mobile platforms to get ‘snapshots’ of data to track emissions trends going forward,” Andrews said.

Charlie Brennan: 303-473-1327, brennanc@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/chasbrennan