The first official public hearing on a new oil and gas ordinance being drafted by the county will be held Monday, Jan.7.

Monday's meeting will be the first of two mandatory hearings before the new ordinance can become law.

About 800 people attended a meeting Dec. 6 at Santa Fe High School to discuss the county's draft ordinance, which was released in late November.

And hundreds of people have submitted written comments. County officials say these were considered for inclusion in a revised version of the ordinance, which will be unveiled at Monday's hearing.

Commissioner Paul Campos also held a closed-door session Dec. 13 with a hand-picked group that included representatives from the state Oil Conservation Division and Tecton Energy. Tecton sparked the creation of the new regulations by announcing last fall that it had leased 65,000 acres of mineral rights in Santa Fe County.

A second meeting, featuring a panel of experts, was scheduled to have been held Friday, but Campos canceled it Thursday after a majority of the citizen representatives who had participated in the first meeting said they wouldn't attend.

In a letter to Campos, they wrote: "In light of current circumstances, we have decided that we cannot engage in further discussions concerning the ordinance with Tecton Energy unless Tecton first withdraws its pending applications for permits to drill and acknowledges the Commission's authority."

When Campos' informal advisory group first formed, Tecton had yet to file any formal drilling applications. But the company filed applications to drill three new wells the day the group first met, angering participants who felt the company was just paying lip service by attending the meeting. Forest Guardians and several other opposition groups asked the company to withdraw the applications until after the ordinance was completed. The company refused.

The closed-door, no-minutes format of the hastily organized advisory group's meetings had already tainted their effectiveness in the minds of some. "They should have done this prior to writing the ordinance," said Bill Manns, one of the board members of a recently formed group called Santa Fe Not Oil. "It reminds me of having the sex and then putting on the condom."

Campos said Monday that he hopes some of the attorneys and experts who had been expected to attend the now-canceled meeting will present information at next Monday's public hearing.


Contact Phaedra Haywood at 986-3068 or phaywood@sfnewmexican.com.

IF YOU GO

What: First of two public hearings on Santa Fe County's new oil and gas regulations

When: 3 p.m. Monday

Where: The Jemez Room, Santa Fe Community College, 6401 Richards Ave.