Rio Arriba County has paid its attorneys more than $100,000 so far in its fight against oil and gas drilling near Tierra Amarilla, according to County documents.
The County’s main adversary during the ongoing drilling battle has been Approach Resources. The Texas-based company’s plan to start drilling on the more than 90,000 acres in mineral rights leases it has near Tierra Amarilla prompted the County to enact a four-month moratorium on oil and gas drilling in April, which as since been extended six more months. The company was preparing to drill on several ranches this spring when the County decided to intervene on environmental grounds, saying the eastern part of the County, including important watersheds, could be severely impacted by drilling activities.
Approach took the County to federal court over the moratorium. That legal battle, combined with hearings before the state Oil Conservation Division and Oil Conservation Commission over the company’s drilling permits, have been keeping County attorneys busy. For work done from April through part of July of this year, County records show, $158,588 in County funds have been paid to two law firms: Santa Fe-based Rubin Katz has received more than $30,000 in drilling-related work for the County, and the Law Offices of Ted Trujillo, of Española, have been paid nearly $120,000 during that period. The Katz fim was also paid for non-drilling work in addition to the $30,000. Vouchers the Trujillos submit do not always specify which County issue they are working on so it is impossible to tell the exact amount they received for drilling related work. But it is clear from their vouchers that most of their billable hours during the aforementioned period were spent on drilling-related work. The County has not yet been billed for work done in August.
This new expense does not sit well with some residents who live in the western part of the County, many of whom rely on the oil and gas industry for jobs and revenue.
In the western part of the County, 50 years of drilling had gone all but ignored by County leaders (except to collect millions in tax revenue, accounting for 60 percent of last year’s County budget). The word “drill” does not appear in the County’s “comprehensive” plan, and the County didn’t raise environmental concerns until the industry moved east.
The County Commission decided it would be necessary to develop an ordinance addressing oil and gas, so it passed a temporary drilling moratorium April 24 that applies only to privately held lands. On Aug. 18 it was extended until February, because the County and its attorneys found that four months was not time enough to write such regulations.
Residents of Lindrith (home to most of the private lands in the County where drilling takes place) say they are feeling the sting of halted business. Steve Stevenson, a driller from Lindrith, said the moratorium could be “devastating” for his family. Craig Schmitz, who builds new well pads and roads, said he has laid off three workers and has a newly leased piece of $400,000 equipment sitting idle in his yard thanks in part to the moratorium.
Lindrith residents have expressed confusion over why their activities had to be caught up in the moratorium, when the County appears to be worried only about Tierra Amarilla.
“It’s the people on the ground that get hurt,” Schmitz said. “I can’t live six months without making my payments.”
Schmitz said he has been “kicking around the idea” of taking legal action of his own, but that would also take time and money.
“That’s what’s against us,” he said. “I’ve gotta be out there.”
Chuck Nielson, of Lindrith, said he has started seeing the effects of the moratorium on his community.
“It’s beginning to bite,” he said.
Nielson said the County disregarded vital jobs and tax revenues when it took action against Approach, and now the people of Lindrith are suffering because of actions that were proposed on the other end of the County.
“We’re the ones that are being penalized by this moratorium,” he said. “We’re paying for the lawyers to penalize ourselves.”
County Manager Lorenzo Valdez said the watershed near Tierra Amarilla is important for the entire County. He said everyone downstream on the Rio Chama could be affected if there were an accident like an oil spill, and the County has to work to protect its water resources and residents.
“It’s about regulating impacts on County resources as a whole,” he said.
For their part, ranchers on whose lands Approach plans to drill have largely let the County take the lead. Dave Holloway, of the Brazos Land and Cattle Company, did retain an attorney, however. He attempted to intervene in Approach’s lawsuit against the County and lend his support to the County’s cause, but Approach opposed the motion and later dropped the suit.
What remains to be seen is whether legal expenses will remain within the $400,000 the County has budgeted during this fiscal year. Last calendar year, the total amount spent on attorneys didn’t quite reach $350,000.