WildEarth Guardians

Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Controversial Pipeline Sent Back to the Drawing Board

Interior Board of Land Appeals Remands Project Back to the BLM
Contact: WildEarth Guardians

Santa Fe, NM - May 30. Last week, the Interior Board of Land Appeals ordered the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to reconsider portions of an eight-mile pipeline project routed through special areas set aside for Bald Eagles, Mule Deer, and Elk. WildEarth Guardians and rancher Tweeti Blancett had challenged the pipeline last fall. The Board ruled that the BLM must take a second look at mitigations necessary to protect area wildlife.

Onsite visits by WildEarth Guardians and rancher Chris Velasquez in early February revealed that the BLM had allowed the pipeline company to proceed with pipeline construction before the public was ever notified of the project. Based on their discovery of premature construction, WildEarth Guardians and Tweeti Blancett made a special plea for an injunction. The Board issued an injunction, but last week granted BLM's request for dismissal of those portions of the case pertaining to pipeline segments that were already built.

"We're pleased that the BLM must re-evaluate the impacts of this pipeline. This case shows clearly that BLM is allowing our public lands to be destroyed by thoughtless drilling," stated Nicole Rosmarino of WildEarth Guardians. Rosmarino continued, "We've also uncovered a pattern of this agency waiving key wildlife protections - such as seasonal closures to protect elk and deer - whenever they think no one is looking."

In its environmental assessment for this project, BLM had indicated that a key mitigation for wildlife was seasonal closures on pipeline construction, from November 1 - March 31. But BLM allowed one leg of the pipeline - through elk wintering and calving habitat - to be constructed during this seasonal closure. While BLM has stated that it granted the pipeline company a two week extension, the Board noted that the agency never discussed exceptions to the timing restriction in its resource management plan or the environmental assessment for this project. In its ruling last week, the Board commented that WildEarth Guardians and Tweeti Blancett raised legitimate concerns around whether exemptions to the seasonal closure are even legal.

Tweeti Blancett stated, "The oil and gas companies have consistently abused the land, endangered our water, harmed area wildlife, and have not been good neighbors to those who also share the land. I am glad the IBLA has forced the BLM to take a closer look at what is happening in the San Juan Basin by staying this pipeline."

One of the primary concerns about the project is its impacts to Bald Eagles. It is routed across buffer areas for two Bald Eagle Areas of Critical Environmental Concern. While the BLM claimed that the pipeline would not impact Bald Eagles because no eagles were detected in the project area, last November WildEarth Guardians documented eagles directly over survey stakes for the proposed pipeline. Eagles were again sighted in the project area earlier this month. There is a push under the Bush Energy Plan for increased drilling on public lands, despite severe ecological impacts, including harm to the national symbol, the Bald Eagle. More than half a dozen wells have already been drilled within Bald Eagle ACECs since President Bush took office in 2001.

The pipeline also occurs within the Carracas Mesa Specially Designated Area, which is supposed to be protected by BLM as Mule Deer and Elk habitat. The justification for the proposed pipeline is that more wells will be proposed for the area. But WildEarth Guardians and ranchers Tweeti Blancett and Chris Velasquez have questioned the appropriateness of these additional wells, given the severe destruction being caused by area oil and gas operations. In addition to impacts to wildlife, oil and gas operations severely impact the amount of forage available for livestock and can cause livestock deaths through ingestion of contaminated water. The groups have asked for a comprehensive plan of development, rather than poorly sited piecemeal drilling.

In the southeast corner of the state, over the past several years, BLM has similarly relaxed timing restrictions that were meant to protect the Lesser Prairie-Chicken. WildEarth Guardians, New Mexico Wildlife Federation, and the Chihuahuan Desert Conservation Alliance settled a case with BLM in April that requires the agency to conduct a National Environmental Policy Act process when considering waivers to timing restrictions for the Lesser Prairie-Chicken.

Tweeti Blancett joined in WildEarth Guardians' challenge of the pipeline out of concern that the oil and gas industry would breach two Bald Eagle ACECs, with impacts to both eagles and livestock. Nearby, the Blancetts have protected a 600-acre bench on the 32,000-acre BLM allotment for which they hold they permit for more than 20 years. This bench is now the only large tract of land left on the Animas River that has not been drilled. The allotment has been ravaged by more than 500 wellsites and accompanying roads and pipelines.

WildEarth Guardians preserves and restores native wildlands and wildlife in the American Southwest. Tweeti Blancett is a rancher who has challenged inappropriate oil and gas operations in the Farmington, NM area for twenty years. Chris Velasquez previously held the grazing permit for the BLM allotment on which the pipeline is routed. Background information, including photos of portions of the pipeline already constructed and Bald Eagles over the pipeline, are available on request: nrosmarino@fguardians.org, 505-988-9126x156.

Additional contacts: Tweeti Blancett, rancher, 505-215-1200 Chris Velasquez, rancher, 505-330-4684