Otero Mesa environmental review insufficient say officials (NM-Richardson again)

The Santa Fe New Mexican ^ | January 15, 2008 | Associated Press

[CedarDave]

Gov. Bill Richardson and Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Secretary Joanna Prukop said Monday that an environmental assessment done by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management on an application for a permit to drill on Otero Mesa is insufficient.

The state is calling on the BLM to do a full environmental impact statement on the application of Harvey E. Yates Co. The Roswell-based business known as Heyco has proposed putting a natural gas well on land it leases in the area.

Prukop sent a letter Monday to the BLM, saying the state was concerned the agency's review of Heyco's application was incomplete and based on outdated information. "The adverse repercussions to the environment are irrecoverable if oil and gas exploration continues without more in-depth study," Prukop said in a statement.

Richardson called Otero Mesa a "precious area." "It is critical that every safety measure be taken to protect ground water and native plant and animal species from the activities involved with oil and gas operations," the governor said.

The BLM has proposed opening parts of the 2 million-acre mesa to drilling. Out of the 2 million acres, a total of 1,589 would be disturbed by drilling practices such as additional roads, well pads and pipelines under the BLM plan. In addition, no more than 5 percent can be disturbed on the grasslands at any specific time.

BLM officials have argued that the agency, in developing its plan for Otero Mesa, went to great lengths to ensure protecting the ecosystem while serving the needs of land-use parties.

Otero Mesa has one of the last undisturbed areas of Chihuahuan Desert ...

[CedarDave]

Richardson again. His oil and gas agency is also stiffening regulations in other areas of the state to essentially make disposal of the bentonite clay drilling mud and salt residue from produced water, effectively regulated under current regulations, economically impracticable with regulations as stringent as for hazardous wastes. Given that the oil and gas industry produces somewhere around 25% of state revenues, with all Richardson's new spending programs (his RR to nowhere and now his push for his billion-dollar version of Hillary-health care) the state will sink further into a third-world morass.

[CedarDave]

PING!!