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 Gas Drilling: Angry Ranchers Want Their Land Back… Above and Below the Surface
There are about 19,000 producing wells in the San Juan Basin, a roughly circular area of approximately 7,800 square miles comprising portions of New Mexico and Colorado.1 The Bush administration has proposed the creation of nearly 10,000 new wells on public land over the next twenty years.2 While there have been lulls before in the oil and gas industry since these resources were first discovered in New Mexico, the Bush administration's ill-conceived National Energy Policy is pushing to exploit domestic energy sources in sensitive areas of New Mexico and the Rocky Mountain West at a frenzied pace. Over the last three years, the Bush administration has continually placed oil and gas industry profits above the interests of Western landowners and ranchers. In 2002, the administration changed scientific data or suppressed information in favor of a destructive oil and gas practice called "hydraulic fracturing," the process used in coalbed methane extraction, in which fluids containing benzene and other carcinogenic and toxic chemicals are injected into the ground, potentially contaminating drinking water sources.3 Shortly after briefing congressional staff about research indicating that hydraulic fracturing could lead to unsafe levels of benzene in drinking water, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a draft report stating just the opposite. EPA gave no scientific justification for the drastic change, explaining simply that it was "based on feedback" from an industry source.4 Why would the Bush administration be so adamant about the need to drill for oil and gas in New Mexico? During the 1999-2000 election cycle, George W. Bush was the top recipient of campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry, taking in almost $2 million dollars.5 Furthermore, the company that pioneered the technology to increase oil and gas production, Halliburton, contributed close to half a million dollars to supporters of the Bush/Cheney ticket in the 2000 election.6 In an incredibly destructive process, coal bed methane extraction requires the withdrawal of massive volumes of groundwater from aquifers to obtain natural gas trapped in the coal seams. Not only does groundwater pumping often dry up springs and wells used for drinking water and for watering livestock, disposing of the contaminated water is difficult because it may contain high concentrations of dissolved minerals that are unsafe for drinking or crop irrigation. Chris has a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) permit to graze cattle on 20,000 acres in New Mexico's Rosa and Alamo allotments. There are 373 wells on this public land, with 70 more recently approved. Chris' 320 acres of private rangeland have been drilled too, with 10 wells so far. A serious problem for many private landowners in the San Juan Basin and elsewhere in the intermountain West is the prevalence of so-called "split estates." On private land, most people own only what is on top; the subsurface rights are leased to energy and mining companies by the BLM. What's more, the BLM allows subsurface leaseholders to put wells, roads, fences, and pipelines on the surface, without asking the landowners' permission. The same is true on public lands, where Chris and others hold grazing permits. Chris and several of his fellow ranchers got so fed up with what they see as oil and gas development run amok, that they locked the gates to their private land. The companies called BLM officials and it was a clear that a rebellion was about to take shape. "You can talk all you want," says Chris, "but they don't respond to nothing but strong tactics." Chris and his fellow New Mexican ranchers have a laundry list of grievances including open ranch gates where livestock can escape and the poisoning of wildlife and cattle. All told, Chris has lost more than 80 animals, and while the oil and gas companies have paid him for all the cows that have died, he has had to fight for the reimbursement of each animal. Chris knows the country needs energy and that New Mexico can help provide it. He also knows that we can do a better and more sensitive job of recovering those energy sources. We need to maintain the multiple-use mandate for the BLM, which holds that recreation, conservation, the preservation of cultural lands, and energy development are all important uses of America's public lands. Unfortunately, the Bush administration has chosen energy production as the dominant use. "It's not that the companies don't know how to do it right," Chris says. "It's that the BLM just gives us lip service while they keep approving permits." The Bush administration could be standing up to these companies, making sure they go about drilling appropriately and fining or suing them if necessary. Instead, the administration prefers voluntary compliance-meaning thousands of miles of poorly constructed and poorly maintained roads throughout the San Juan Basin. For more information contact:
www.sanjuancitizens.org
New Mexico Bureau of Land Management
New Mexico Wilderness Alliance
Excerpts of this story from Sierra Magazine's "A Cowboy's Lament" by Marilyn Berlin Snell published July 2003.
Photo courtesy Chip Simons; used with permission.
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