WildEarth Guardians

Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Controversial Pipeline Temporarily Stopped - Government Grants Stay of Pipeline Challenged by WildEarth Guardians and Ranchers

The BLM 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 Blancett made a special plea for an injunction
Contact: WildEarth Guardians

Santa Fe, NM - The Interior Board of Land Appeals issued a stay of an eight-mile pipeline routed through special areas set aside for Bald Eagles, Mule Deer, and Elk. WildEarth Guardians and Tweeti Blancett had requested a stay of the pipeline in January. Onsite visits by WildEarth Guardians and Chris Velasquez in early February revealed that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (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 Blancett made a special plea for an injunction.

“We’d grown used to BLM letting oil and gas companies run roughshod over the San Juan Basin,” stated Tweeti Blancett, an Aztec-area rancher. “We’re happy the pipeline is stopped for now, as it’s bad for cattle and bad for wildlife. We hope that the BLM modifies this project so that it protects the grazing permittee and wildlife.”

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 had never discussed exceptions to the timing restriction in its resource management plan or the environmental assessment for this project.

“The BLM added insult to injury by not only routing the pipeline through key wildlife areas, but then giving the green-light to Williams Field Services to build the pipeline in violation of seasonal timing restrictions and before the public was even told about the project,” stated Dr. Nicole Rosmarino, Conservation Director for WildEarth Guardians.

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.

“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.

After Farmington Field Manager Steve Henke refused the groups’ request for a State Director’s review of the project, WildEarth Guardians and Tweeti Blancett filed a formal appeal and petition for stay with the Interior Board of Land Appeals. They contend that the BLM’s decision to approve the pipeline violated numerous federal laws, including the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. The Board found that WildEarth Guardians and Blancett were likely to prevail on their claim that BLM failed to adopt adequate mitigations to protect wildlife from the pipeline. One of the key mitigations was the timing restriction.

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 took BLM to court in March 2005 challenging the agency’s refusal to implement this important mitigation. The case is still pending.

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

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. Background information, including photos of illegal pipeline construction, available on request: nrosmarino@fguardians.org, 505-988-9126x156.

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