Pressure builds in battle over oil driling
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Galisteo-area residents worry about environmental impact
10/20/2007 -
Santa Fe County officials, Galisteo-area residents and oil-and-gas developers are girding for what could be a hard-fought land-use battle.A Houston-based company called Tecton Energy bought mineral rights on about 65,000 acres in the Galisteo Basin area and plans an "exploration program" involving two existing wells and six new ones.
If Tecton's prediction that the earth there holds as much as 100 million barrels of increasingly valuable light sweet crude proves correct, pump jacks could be sucking it out of the ground there for the next 30 to 50 years, Tecton managing partner Bill Dirks says.
However, a number of residents of the rolling ranch country south of Santa Fe — including some attracted in recent years by sweeping Southwestern vistas and a quiet, rural lifestyle with easy access to the city — have organized against drilling activities and asked the county to enact stricter regulations.
County spokesman Stephen Ulibarri said the county government has received about 100 letters and e-mails from people opposed to oil-and-gas drilling in Santa Fe County, expressing such concerns as the potential impact on underground water resources.
Francine Kern, 75, who moved to Eldorado from New York City about 20 years ago, wrote one of the letters.
Kern acknowledged the not-in-my-backyard) aspect to the controversy but emphasized she sees the oil wells as the invaders. "If I know something exists when I move into a neighborhood, I accept it," she said. "But if I'm then presented with something that is going to change the environment and quality of living, that's when I say: 'I don't think so.' The reason most of us moved here is because it was open and beautiful and quiet."
Drilling Santa Fe, a nonprofit group organized by Johnny Micou, who lives near where Tecton plans to drill, is asking the county not to grant any new permits until drillers meet a list of requirements designed to protect the environment. Micou said about 1,000 people have signed the group's petition asking for the moratorium.
Tecton has already begun work on Black Ferrill No. 1, one of 14 existing oil wells drilled in the 1980s. Tecton wasn't required to obtain a new county permit to work on Black Ferrill No. 1 because the well has been in continuous operation, but Tecton will need permits to develop any new or previously plugged wells.
Ulibarri said Santa Fe County hasn't received any permit applications from Tecton yet. But the county has begun revising an ordinance that was adopted primarily to address hard-rock mining — in anticipation of getting applications. Ulibarri said that while the county hasn't declared a moratorium, "it's safe to say we will not process new applications until we have an ordinance that applies specifically to oil and gas."
Ordinance language is being studied primarily by the county's legal department, which is reviewing ordinances in other states, Ulibarri said. County attorney Steve Ross worked as associate general counsel for the Oil Conservation Commission from 2000 to 2004.
The Oil Conservation Division of the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department regulates most oil-and-gas drilling activities in New Mexico.
To drill on state or private land, companies have to apply for a drilling permit from the state Oil Conservation Division. Permits cost $48 and are usually approved within 48 hours, according David Brooks, attorney for the Oil Conservation Division.
The county does have authority over some mining-related issues. But the extent of that authority is still a matter of debate.
Opponents of oil-and-gas drilling have criticized the county for not being aggressive enough in trying to regulate the industry on a local level.
"Everything I've seen indicates they'll be fairly timid about asserting their authority," said Eric Jantz, a staff attorney at the New Mexico Environmental Law Center. Jantz said Drilling Santa Fe has retained the center to represent the group on this issue.
County Land Use Administrator Jack Kolkmeyer said the county's authority appears to be limited to surface issues such as traffic, noise, light and surface-water pollution. Anything that goes on underground is regulated by the Oil Conservation Division, Kolkmeyer said.
Kolkmeyer said the issue has the potential to become highly politicized. But he said county staff will treat permit requests from oil-and-gas interests the same way they handle requests for creating new roads or digging into hillsides to build homes.
"It presents a lot of difficult philosophical questions that people have to answer for themselves," Kolkmeyer said. "But our position as staff is the same. We're trying the best we can to protect the landscape for everybody."
County Commissioner Jack Sullivan echoed that sentiment.
"I apply the same level of scrutiny to any land-use application," Sullivan said, "(I) go through it with a fine-tooth comb and make sure every question is answered and every base is covered."
Kolkmeyer said the county's current code requires Tecton to submit studies about the archaeological, biological and environmental impacts of its proposed drilling activities. Kolkmeyer said these studies are reviewed by independent experts at the state level.
Dirks said that of the 65,000 acres of mineral rights acquired by Tecton, about 6,000 acres were acquired through a state bidding process. The other 59,000 acres were leased directly from private landowners, he said.
Because New Mexico, like many Western states, is a "split estate" state, the person who owns the surface of the land is often not the same person who owns the rights to the minerals below the surface.
In 2005, the New Mexico Legislature passed the Surface Owners Protection Act, which gave surface owners some rights. The law requires developers seeking access to underground mineral rights to notify the owners 30 days before drilling commences and to negotiate compensation agreements with surface rights owners. However, owners who hold surface rights but not mineral rights can't prevent developers from drilling on their land.
Ulibarri said that while some residents are leaning on the county to stop oil-and-gas drilling, that isn't the county's job.
"We're caught in the middle," Ulibarri said. "Our job isn't to make either side happy. It's to protect natural-resource and property rights in Santa Fe County effectively."
Ulibarri said he expects county residents worried about oil-and-gas drilling to do whatever they can to stop Tecton's activities.
"We expected this," he said. "And we told Tecton, 'You are in for a fight. You are in for strong public opposition to this and we hope you are ready for this.' This is not a surprise to us. Santa Fe County residents love their land. They love clean water. They are well-educated, they have financial means. They are going to fight it."
IF YOU GO
What: Public information meeting hosted by Tecton Energy to discuss the company's plans for oil-and-gas drilling in Santa Fe County.
When: 5:30 to 8: 30 p.m. Nov. 1
Where: Genoveva Chavez Community Center, 3221 Rodeo Road.