Company Pulls Bid to Drill in Bitter Lakes Wildlife Refuge

Yates Petroleum Corp. has withdrawn its bid to drill two new natural gas wells in an eastern New Mexico wildlife refuge after several groups raised environmental concerns

Yates Petroleum Corp. has withdrawn its bid to drill two new natural gas wells in an eastern New Mexico wildlife refuge after several groups raised environmental concerns.

The Artesia company has State Land Office leases for minerals under Bitter Lakes National Wildlife Refuge east of Roswell and applied last month for permits to drill the wells.

Environmental groups, the state's top wildlife official and a Democratic contender for the land commissioner job said drilling could harm the refuge ecosystem.

New Mexico Game and Fish Director Bruce Thompson said in a letter that the wells would create "opportunities for contamination of ground and surface waters" and present a "high-risk situation" for several rare aquatic species.

The refuge is home to the Noel's amphipod, three spring snails, the least tern and Pecos sunflower- all protected under the Endangered Species Act. Five species considered threatened by the state also are found there.

"Accidents happen and that entire area is very fragile," said John Horning, executive director of the Santa Fe-based environmental group WildEarth Guardians.

Frank Yates, executive vice president of Yates Petroleum, and Land Commissioner Pat Lyons talked about the environmental issues.

"We had some mutual concerns and so we've decided to hold off," Yates said this week. "We want to try to do the right thing."

He said the escalating cost of drilling a well influenced the company's decision.

Yates said the company has a history of drilling safely at the refuge- it has had two producing wells on the same lease since the early 1980s.

"We need to step back and reevaluate what we've done before and maybe go one step further," he said.

Jim Baca, who is seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge Lyons in November, called on Lyons last month to "act immediately to work out a solution to drilling on state mineral rights within the refuge."

One of the existing wells on the lease was approved in 1983 while Baca, who was then land commissioner, was in office.

In an interview Wednesday, Baca said he didn't recall the well being drilled but that his hands probably were tied, as were Lyons' hands were in this case.

Once a state lease is issued- as this one was in 1972- the land office has a minimal role in the development, said assistant state land commissioner John Bemis.

Oil and gas companies apply to the state Oil Conservation Division for drilling permits.

"People are throwing stones at Commissioner Lyons and this is another deal where you inherit what is left to you," said Bemis.

This isn't the first time Yates Petroleum's plan to drill at the refuge has raised environmental concerns.

In 1982, the company sparked a national controversy when it bulldozed a road and started drilling a natural gas well in the wilderness portion of the refuge without the necessary federal permits.

Activists blockaded the drilling site, and federal courts ordered the company to halt until the permits were issued months later.

Copyright 2006 Albuquerque Journal - Reprinted with permission


 

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