County will pay huge price for oil

Marianna Hatten |

10/21/2007 -

I'm outraged at the prospect of Tecton Energy coming into Santa Fe with a greed-driven desire to drill for oil.

What do we have to gain? What do they have to gain? And, most importantly, what do we have at stake?

They will drill, fracture with high-pressure chemicals, pollute surface and ground water and aquifers, use 78,000 gallons of water to drill just one well (their figure); bring in huge trucks for construction, or is that destruction? They'll haul, pollute our air. Our peaceful and quiet lifestyles will be filled with the sounds of diesel generators running 24/7.

Our beings will be surrounded by air pollution and toxic chemicals of the most dangerous kinds, and our brilliant dark skies will be polluted with big outdoor night lights. And, they'll be at it for 25 to 30 years (their estimate), if they get their foot in the door.

All this for the production of 50 million to 100 million barrels of oil (their estimate) over 25-plus years? Worldwide consumption on a daily basis is about 86 million. A lifetime of ugly and ruin for a day of oil?

For this, will our county commissioners permit Tecton to forever change our lives, allowing a daily flow of heavy construction and tanker trucks on the Turquoise Trail National Scenic Byway and on County Roads 55 and 55A? CR 55 and 55A and the private roads affected are all one-way in and out, allowing no route for any other emergency situation (a house is on fire?) to get around an oil spill or fatal accident.

They'll use up our water, ruin our ecology, run off our wildlife, run roughshod over our archaeologically, historically and culturally rich landscape and drive down property values forever.

Tell the commissioners to just say no! We don't want to be another Farmington!

Put up wind generators or solar collectors in my county, on my land! But,
no oil wells.

Marianna Hatten lives in Cerrillos.