Otero Mesa's resources needed now

(Picture: OCD Pit Sampling Program, 2007)

Santa Fe New Mexican Op Ed: 8/10/2008
Patrick Lyons

From the New Mexico State Land Office website: "New Mexico’s Commissioner of Public Lands, Patrick Lyons, recently made history by being the only Republican to hold the office for two consecutive terms. Mr. Lyons was first elected in November 2002, and is the highest ranking Republican in the state of New Mexico’s Executive Branch."

Excerpt (highlight added):

"Any time the subject of oil and gas development comes up, the first line of opposition is that it will damage water resources. Consider this: The state presently approves 2,500 or so new well permits every year that they say will not pollute water, and there are more than 30,000 active wells in New Mexico that are not harming any water supplies. If we can't protect our water sources, we shouldn't be drilling anywhere."

Regulations are designed to mitigate damage. To protect water resources fully would mean that there would be no degradation. Thus, there should be no drilling in or around our water sources that could be put to beneficial use by the citizens of New Mexico. Taking Commissioner Lyon's statement, "If we can't protect our water sources, we shouldn't be drilling anywhere," then based on his logic, the conclusion would be no drilling.

From Earthworks Oil & Gas Accountability Project (OGAP):

Groundwater Contamination

Taking pit water quality samples in San Juan County, New Mexico.

The New Mexico Oil Conservation Division has detected and documented more than 700 hundred incidents of groundwater contamination from oil and gas facilities across the state. The data can be downloaded from the OCD web site (click here to download a pdf version or an Excel spreadsheet version).

Prior to 1990, only 39 orders were issued against oil and gas companies for contaminating groundwater. The earliest order was issued in 1954. Since 1990, 705 incidents have been recorded, for a total of 743 documented groundwater incidents related to the oil and gas industry in New Mexico.

Of the 743 groundwater contamination incidents, more than half have been caused by contamination from oil and gas industry pits.

The Oil and Gas Accountability Project has created some graphs to summarize the OCD data. These graphs show:

• Groundwater contamination from all types of oil and gas facilities
  
• Groundwater contamination from different types (or locations) of oil and gas pits
  
• Oil and gas companies responsible for groundwater contamination from pits
  
• NM counties with groundwater contamination from pits
  
• Depth of groundwater contaminated by oil and gas pits and other facilities

For more information, go to ogap.org.