Santa Fe New Mexican

Tuesday, January 06, 2004

BLM Proposal Would Allow Drilling on Otero Mesa

By BEN NEARY | The New Mexican

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Monday released a proposal to allow oil and gas development on 105,000 acres on Otero Mesa in southern New Mexico.

But environmental groups pledged to fight the plan, saying it doesn't have enough environmental safeguards to protect the mesa's vast expanse of pristine grasslands.

In outlining its management plans for nearly 2 million acres of federal lands, the BLM proposed energy leasing in Otero and Sierra counties.

"This plan balances the nation's need for energy resources with conservation of the area's natural resources," said Linda S.C. Rundell, state director of BLM in Santa Fe.

She said the agency worked with the "counties, ranchers, conservationists, the oil and gas industry, and other interested parties to develop a plan that will allow for environmentally responsible energy development, requiring that all disturbed areas be successfully re-vegetated."

But Stephen Capra, associate director of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, said Monday that it's clear the BLM's decision is driven solely by the Bush administration's desire to serve up public lands to the energy industry.

"We think it's terrible for New Mexicans," said Capra, whose group is a member of the Otero Mesa Coalition. "It's a policy that's being driven from Washington, designed to maximize profits for the oil and gas industry at the expense of our quality of life in New Mexico."

Capra said the coalition plans to file comments against the BLM plan, but he expects the dispute will ultimately wind up in court. He said the groups intend to argue that the federal agency's final decision of how to develop the area is outside the options it floated to the public for comment.

"The net result is New Mexicans are being asked to sacrifice yet another area," Capra said. "And in this case, an area that is the largest remaining wilderness area in our state. You're going to destroy the largest roadless area in our state, an area rich with wildlife, and you're going to do it all for natural gas that's going to be shipped to California."

Bill Huey of Tesuque, former director of the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, said Monday that Otero Mesa holds fine habitat for quail and antelope.

Huey has joined several other former game department directors in calling on the federal government to protect the area from the pollution and noise of drilling.

"You don't have to have oil and gas exploration on everything," Huey said. "We recognize that oil and gas is important, but not to the exclusion of wildlife habitat."

Bob Gallagher, director of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, said Monday that he has mixed feelings about BLM's plan. While he said he is glad to see the plan completed after five years in preparation, he said it doesn't go far enough to allow energy development.

'Otero Mesa is, by law, multiple-use,' Gallagher said, adding that land status requires the federal government to permit energy development. He said the federal government has considered the area repeatedly for formal designation as wilderness and concluded it isn't appropriate.

Hans Stuart, spokesman for BLM in Santa Fe, said the agency doesn't expect energy development to occur on all 105,000 acres where it could be allowed on Otero Mesa. He said the agency expects natural gas reserves will be light
to moderate in the area.

And Stuart denies that the White House is behind the decision to open the mesa to development.

"That's not true," Stuart said. "That's been used to characterize what's happened, but BLM by law has to open public lands to mineral development unless there are compelling reasons not to, like wilderness areas."

Stuart emphasized that Otero Mesa has been open to oil and gas development under BLM's standard conditions since 1986. The agency itself started the process of determining what special conditions should be placed on the area out of its concern to protect it, he said.

Gov. Bill Richardson, who served as energy secretary in the Clinton administration, has assigned a task force of state officials to review the BLM plan and quickly report back to him.

"The governor has been consistently opposed to drilling on Otero Mesa," spokesman Billy Sparks said Monday. "The governor remains skeptical of the ability to drill and maintain the environmental integrity of Otero Mesa."