Rio Arriba County is poised to extend its moratorium on drilling for oil and gas to give County officials more time to develop a drilling ordinance.
The County passed a four-month moratorium April 24 in response to plans by Texas-based Approach Resources to drill for oil near Tierra Amarilla. County officials said they were worried about the potential environmental impacts to the area, and they wanted to use the length of the moratorium to develop a County ordinance regulating oil and gas operations.
The version of the moratorium that was passed was shorter and less broad than the one that had initially been proposed. The moratorium only applies to drilling on private lands within the County, and its length was set at four months instead of six. It is set to expire Aug. 22.
Soon after the moratorium’s passage, Approach filed a complaint and a petition for an injunction against the County in federal District Court to keep the County from enforcing the moratorium or developing its own ordinances. County Commission Chairman Alfredo Montoya said the complaint (which has since been dropped) took too much of the County’s time and attention away from the development of an ordinance.
“That lawsuit brought nothing but distractions,” Commissioner Elias Coriz said.
Montoya agreed, saying the complaint, combined with a hearing before the state Oil Conservation Division, took too many County resources away from developing the ordinance.
“Our attorneys can only do so much,” he said. “In reality, we should have gone to six months.”
Montoya said he anticipates the moratorium being extended another six months, which would take it through February, when weather will likely prevent drilling in high-altitude areas near Tierra Amarilla for several months more.
“I think that would be reasonable,” Montoya said of a six-month extension.
Stephanie Reid, director of government affairs for the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, said she has alerted members of the Association to the meeting. She said she has not heard from any that will attend the meeting to oppose the action, largely because only a small percentage (about 7 percent, according to information from the federal Bureau of Land Management) of drilling in the County takes place on private lands.
“Since the moratorium was lifted from state and federal lands, it’s certainly less of an issue,” she said.
Chuck Nielson, of Lindrith, said he will speak at the meeting, however. Lindrith and the surrounding area contain many of the private lands being affected by the moratorium. He said his conversations with County officials led him to believe the ordinance would be done within the four-month time frame. He also said he has not been contacted to help with the ordinance, when he was under the impression a working group including landowners, drillers and oil and gas operators would be formed to assist the County.
“The only people that ended up getting impacted by this are the most vulnerable ones,” he said. “It’s kinda sad.”
Nielson said small operators and landowners are the only ones who will suffer, because bigger companies have only limited activities on private lands. He also wondered why the County didn’t specifically target the area of concern.
“Why not focus your attention in (Tierra Amarilla)?” he asked. “Why tar us with that same brush?”
Earlier this year, the County unveiled a comprehensive plan that is supposed to cover development in Rio Arriba for the coming decades. The document, which took years to complete, barely touches on oil and gas drilling. Taxes on these activities are the County’s largest generator of tax revenue.
Representatives from Approach did not return calls seeking comment.
Meanwhile, a hearing before the Oil Conservation Commission that was scheduled to take place Thursday (8/14) has been changed to Sept. 11 at 9 a.m. in Santa Fe. County attorney Adan Trujillo said attorneys from the County and Approach agreed they needed more time to prepare for the hearing.
The subject of the meeting will be eight drilling permits the Oil Conservation Division put on hold pending a hearing before the Commission. Division Director Mark Fesmire cancelled one of Approach’s permits following the Division’s hearing with the County because of its proximity to water, but he said he did not feel comfortable ruling on the remaining permits himself.