AURORA, Colo. — Colorado state regulators hit pause this week on a controversial proposal to drill 32 new oil and gas wells near the Aurora Reservoir.

The Energy and Carbon Management Commission voted 4 to 1 this week to postpone the State Sunlight/Long Development Plan, which would have allowed Civitas Resources and its subsidiary Crestone to drill the wells on Lowry Ranch, located less than a mile from homes and the reservoir.

Randy Willard is part of Save the Aurora Reservoir, a group of neighbors committed to pushing back against oil and gas drilling in unincorporated Arapahoe County.

Civitas, one of Colorado’s biggest oil and gas operators, plans to drill at least 600 wells along the Front Range.

The Lowry Ranch drilling project consists of 156 of those wells, planned just east of

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