Secretary Prukop Asks BLM for New Environmental Impact Statement on Otero Mesa

This is good news, especially in the era of "drill, baby, drill." Yates Petroleum is the biggest lease-holder in the Otero Mesa.

New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department News Release:

Contact: Jodi McGinnis Porter, Public Information Officer 505.476.3226

Secretary Prukop Asks BLM for New Environmental Impact Statement on

Otero Mesa

Asking BLM to Withdraw Its “Environmental Assessment/Decision Record and Finding of No Significant Impact”

SANTA FE, NM –State Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department Secretary Joanna Prukop, officially protested the federal Bureau of Land Management’s environmental impact statement that would allow for oil and gas exploration at Otero Mesa.

Otero Mesa encompasses approximately 1.2 million acres of Chihuahuan Desert; it is a unique and special place with an ecosystem that is home to rare desert grasslands, herds of pronghorn, prairie dog villages, mule deer, aplomado falcons and more than 345 of the world’s 1,500 cacti species. The rains that occurred this summer have carpeted the landscape with abundant diverse native plant species that characterize this important desert type. Native wildlife species respond in kind. This is the last remnant of the Chihuahuan Desert ecosystem in our country.

Prukop said the Bureau of Land Management is using old data, and should prepare a new Environmental Impact Statement to address changed circumstances in the region, such as groundwater contamination.

“We’d like the Bureau of Land Management to withdraw its decision” said Secretary Prukop. “We’re asking the BLM to prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, since some of the data used is as old as 1997. They need to take a hard look and address new information and changed circumstances, as required by federal regulation and by their own BLM Policy.”

Federal regulations, as well as the BLM’s own policies, require that the BLM revisit significant environmental issues involved with the proposed exploration of the Otero Mesa region in light of new information and circumstances of which it is now aware and that did not exist when the original Environmental Impact Statement was prepared.

This new information is especially pertinent to the cumulative impact analysis as to habitat fragmentation and wildlife, and to the potential contamination of groundwater (the Salt Basin Aquifer). The New Mexico Energy Minerals and Natural Resources Department has placed the BLM on notice twice for the potential; if not likelihood, for groundwater contamination in the Otero Mesa area if appropriate, preventive measures are not implemented.

In the appeal, Secretary Prukop addresses the BLM’s failure to abide by federal regulations, enacted pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act, by not providing a 30-day public review period of the proposed “Finding of No Significant Impact” prior to making a final decision that no Environmental Impact Statement was necessary in this case. Secretary Prukop contends that this constitutes a procedural error.

The entire Request for Administrative Review with Oral Presentation by New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department Regarding Bennett Ranch Unit #6, EA #NM-030-2006-161, Environmental Assessment/Decision Record and Finding of No Significant Impact is attached below. The Exhibits can be found and downloaded at: http://www.emnrd.state.nm.us/MAIN/OteroMesa.htm