The Board of Santa Fe County Commissioners won't win any quick-draw contests with its decision, at last, to declare a moratorium on oil-drilling permits — and the board runs a risk of lawsuits over the taking of property rights.

But the time-out being called for three months is a reasonable one, given the rush by at least one company to turn parts of the Galisteo Basin into the next Hobbs, Lovington or Farmington.

Declaring an emergency need to draft mineral-contamination rules before allowing Tecton Energy to expand its quest for oil and gas, the board acted on Tuesday. Meanwhile, state Rep. Peter Wirth is asking the state to consider an even longer stall — six months.

We, along with the folks in the Galisteo area, like the representative's idea — in fact, an indefinite postponement would even be better, in the best of all possible worlds.

But Tecton holds the mineral rights on the drilling sites in question. Not only has the company jumped through hoops for the county and the state, but it has exceeded many official demands. It agreed, for example, to run the water needed for cooling drills and compacting drillholes through a "closed-loop" tanked-water system instead of running it into ponds the way it's been done for years down in the oil country of northwest and southeast New Mexico.

As oil outfits go, Tecton is behaving pretty well. But who knows how long that will go on: Company boss Bill Dirks already is challenging the legality of a decision reached with no public notice or hearing — and he's likely to raise more objections.

Folks around here suspect that county officials had lots more warning about oil-business incursions here than they let on when some of our politicians treated Tecton's arrival as an economic — as in revenue-raising — boon.

As for those mobilizing against oil pumping in their midst, they're not impressed with the county ordinance being proposed to rein in Tecton and the oil operators likely to follow the Houston company into the Ortiz Mountains and other parts of the basin. The drilling opponents especially object to setbacks of only 200 feet between oil wells and water wells.

That should be the subject of hearings in the months to come. Same goes for other points, such as noise and lights; items over which the county can issue reasonable restrictions.

The more important ones, such as requiring closed-loop water systems by companies besides Tecton, are up to the state's Oil Conservation Division — which is hard at work on regulations reducing oil-and-gas contamination in the face of the strong opposition of Big Oil. More about that in days to come.

Given the state's efforts to avoid any new contamination by a petroleum industry still in denial about the damage it does, Rep. Wirth deserves applause for his call for a longer moratorium. But if conservation officials, or anyone else in the state Department of Minerals and Natural Resources, were to halt work Tecton thinks it's got the right to do, expect lots of legal wrangling — at who-knows-what cost to New Mexico taxpayers.

Properly done, oil and gas extraction can be carried out with a minimum of disturbance — to the environment and to neighbors' viewscapes. Tecton is doing it pretty well — but could do better. Companies likely to follow will realize, if they don't already, that their work won't be welcome here, and that they should mind their P's and Q's.

But that might not be enough to keep the Galisteo Basin from becoming Boom Town — so a well-discussed county ordinance is needed. Three months isn't an awfully long time for Tecton to wait on the riches it figures are out there. Company CEO Dirks should consider patience a good investment — in, if nothing else, public relations.