Pipeline through Bald Eagle, Mule Deer, and Elk Habitat Challenged - Impacts to Livestock Grazing Also Cited

WildEarth Guardians and Tweeti Blancett filed a challenge yesterday of an eight-mile pipeline approved by the BLM that would impact special areas set aside for Bald Eagles and Mule Deer

Santa Fe, NM - Nov. 30. WildEarth Guardians and Tweeti Blancett filed a challenge yesterday of an eight-mile pipeline approved by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) that would impact special areas set aside for Bald Eagles and Mule Deer. In addition to wildlife concerns, the challenge was based on concerns about impacts to livestock grazing operations.

There are 37 Bald Eagle Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACECs) in the Farmington district of the BLM. These ACECs provide winter habitat to an average of 100-200 bald eagles each year. While the BLM claimed that the pipeline would not impact bald eagles because no eagles were detected in the project area, last week WildEarth Guardians documented eagles directly over survey stakes for the proposed pipeline. The pipeline is routed across buffer areas for two Bald Eagle ACECs. There is a push under the Bush Energy Plan for increased drilling on public lands, despite severe ecological impacts, including harm to our national symbol, the Bald Eagle. More than half a dozen wells have already been drilled within the 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. At minimum, they are asking BLM to reroute the pipeline out of sensitive areas, to address impacts to endangered species, wildlife, and livestock.

"This federal agency seems to be going out of its way to harm our national symbol, the Bald Eagle," says Nicole Rosmarino, Conservation Director for WildEarth Guardians. "A line has been crossed here, showing that there are no limits on how far the BLM and the Bush Administration will go to satisfy the oil and gas industry's appetite for destroying our public lands," Rosmarino continued.

The challenge to the pipeline is in the form of a request for BLM State Director Linda Rundell's formal review of the BLM's decision to approve the pipeline. WildEarth Guardians and Ms. Blancett contend that the Farmington Field Office of the BLM's decision to approve the pipeline violated numerous federal laws, including the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. They contend that the sightings of Bald Eagles in the project area underscore the need for BLM to consult under the Endangered Species Act on impacts from the pipeline to this species, which is designated as Threatened under that law.

Oil and gas operations severely impact the amount of forage available for livestock and can cause livestock deaths through ingestion of water contaminated by oil and gas operations. The environmental assessment for the pipeline failed to discuss these impacts to livestock grazing operations.

"Just as livestock are dying from oil and gas operations, so too are wildlife. Oil and gas operations have affected me first hand. I've lost as many as eight cows in a single week from contamination," stated Chris Velasquez. "We get promises that the industry will restore old wellsites and pipelines, but this never happens. They leave a wasteland behind," continued Velasquez.

Stated Tweeti Blancett, "Let me be very clear, I will continue to work with groups that I have not always agreed with on issues that we can agree on, because ranchers are fighting for our very existence against the largest, most powerful industry on the face of the earth."

"As a rancher, I take seriously my stewardship duties and the bald eagle is a symbol of that patriotic heritage," said Blancett.

Tweeti Blancett joined in WildEarth Guardians' challenge of the pipeline out of concern that the oil and gas industry is once again trying to breach two Bald Eagle ACECs, with impacts to livestock grazing. Nearby, the Blancetts have protected a 600-acre bench on the 32,000-acre BLM allotment for which they hold the 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. As a whole the allotment has been ravaged by more than 400 wellsites and accompanying roads and pipelines. Stated Blancett, "Someday we need to look back and see what northwest New Mexico looked like before oil and gas's destruction of this beautiful area."

The primary effect of oil and gas exploration and extraction on native wildlife is through habitat fragmentation. Wildlife migration routes may be disrupted, feeding and nesting sites may be isolated into parcels too small to use, and the cumulative effect of widespread activity creates noise, emits pollutants, and generally disrupts wildlife behavior.

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 holds the grazing permit for the BLM allotment on which the pipeline is proposed.

Outside of WildEarth Guardians, contact: Tweeti Blancett, rancher, 505-215-1200 Chris Velasquez, rancher, 505-330-4684


 

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