Companies drilling for oil in Northern Colorado are often failing state inspections aimed at ensuring they leave as little trace as possible after closing down exhausted wells.

Oftentimes, it’s the drought that has hurt their reclamation efforts most.

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission performed 154 so-called reclamation inspections between April 2010 and August 2012, the state agency told the Business Report. Only 88 sites passed inspection; the other 66 failed.

The companies, which must pay the costs of restoring the land, are supposed to remove equipment such as tanks and pipelines, and in some cases, get rid of service roads built so that their vehicles can access drill sites.

They also must restore plant life, a requirement that poses one of the biggest challenges to the companies because of the drought.

In response, the region’s cities are taking steps to protect their lands.

In coming months, officials with the cities of Fort Collins and Loveland expect to outline their own reclamation standards ahead of a drilling boom they believe will expand west from Weld County to Larimer County.

Reclamation represents one of the areas they