The wildlife-rich Galisteo Basin is a fragile ecosystem. I urge the Santa Fe County commissioners to adopt an oil-drilling ordinance that protects this land and its aquifers with strict limits on chemical use, a closed-loop system, large setbacks from homes and water wells and no variances.

However, this ordinance is not just about the Galisteo Basin, but about the entire county and the way forward in energy production here. So that the commissioners can reduce for themselves pressure from oil-drilling interests, I urge that the public be allowed a major role (even a county-wide vote) in the way forward, perhaps with some of the suggestions below.

• Slow down, to allow the public and the land, not just the oil interests, to frame the ordinance. Institute perhaps a two-year moratorium on oil leases to allow issuance of an updated county-wide comprehensive resource management plan, similar to the three-year moratorium and resource planning going on at the Bureau of Land Management. This resource plan would seek to expand the ecological and cultural map overlays the county is reportedly working on. For instance, water aquifer depths mapped for the entire county would be essential for determining where and at what depths oil wells could be drilled.

• Because our county is growing in population and is the state capital, include in the resource plan a financial study of the competing land-use activities. Compare projected state oil revenues with current and projected county-wide income from tourism, the art industries and new home-building itself, all of which rely on the harmonious landscape of the county.

• Make the resource plan look to the county's and our children's future. Consider rules for other energy development, perhaps limiting the height of any future wind generator towers, taking into account scenic values and future population land use. Look at encouraging homes, businesses and pueblos to develop photovoltaic power arrays, which are quiet, low-lying and non-threatening to water, air, birds and views (relatively).

• While realizing the shared demand for oil and that some oil extraction likely will take place, work to minimize the impact on homes and land by requiring that oil wells be clustered on sufficiently isolated pads, with the required use of directional drilling to extend extraction, rather than a larger grid of roads and pads.

• Create new county laws for transfer of property ownership, with the eventual aim and effect of eliminating split-estate private property. Require that land buyers be informed of the owner of mineral rights beneath their land, including contact information, and that buyers be given the right to purchase those mineral rights. Also, require that existing land owners be notified of planned mineral-rights acquisition under their land, and be given the first right to purchase those rights by bettering a mineral extractor's offer.

The county drilling ordinance affects the land, lives and income of private landowners. Reportedly some mineral rights were obtained without landowner knowledge. Doesn't it make sense to fully involve the public and issue the revised county oil-drilling ordinance after, and as part of, a comprehensive resource/land-use management plan review?

Ron Simmons is a building contractor who lives in Santa Fe.