Red Lodge Clearinghouse

Over the past week and a half, officials in the city of El Paso, Texas, and surrounding El Paso County have passed ordinances urging Congress to act on legislation that would put the 1.2 million acre mesa, home to one of the last remaining intact Chihuahuan Desert grasslands, off-limits to oil and gas development.

An act of Congress is needed to "provide permanent protection for Otero Mesa's unique and irreplaceable grasslands, wildlife and water from oil and natural gas exploration," according to the resolutions.

On Monday, the El Paso County Commission passed its resolution by a 4-1 vote, and last week, the El Paso City Council unanimously approved a similar measure. Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, a 400-year-old tribe in the El Paso area that considers the mesa sacred, and commissioners in Dona Ana and Sierra counties in New Mexico have also passed resolutions urging protection of the mesa.

The spate of resolutions was spurred by the Southwest Environmental Center in Las Cruces, N.M., which has fought drilling on the mesa for years. After Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne rejected efforts by environmental groups and the state of New Mexico to establish a moratorium on drilling until a water impact study could be completed, the group decided to look for other alternatives to protect the area, said Kevin Bixby, executive director of the group. "We don't feel like the BLM is really considering a moratorium, so we decided to pursue legislation," he said.

But while environmental groups are primarily concerned with the effects of energy development on the mesa's unusually intact native grasslands, local communities on both sides of the state line have their eyes on the water far beneath the surface. They are concerned that oil and gas activity could foul the Salt Basin aquifer, which they see as a potential water source to meet future demand in the arid region. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates the aquifer may hold as much as 57 million acre-feet of water, the Texas resolutions note.

"The Salt Basin aquifer could be very important to our future," said Councilor Beto O'Rourke, who introduced the city of El Paso's resolution. "It is not something we want to jeopardize for the sake of an unproven natural gas resource that most experts think has low to moderate potential."

The porous geology of the Salt Basin makes the aquifer particularly vulnerable to contamination from energy development, local officials argue.

But Hans Stuart, a spokesman for the Bureau of Land Management's New Mexico state office, said BLM's management plan, issued in 2005, includes strict safeguards to protect the aquifer.

"We did not feel the resolution is necessary, because we're convinced our resource plan will protect southern New Mexico's resources," he said. The plan requires operators to use fresh water or air to extract the gas, rather than drilling fluids to avoid contamination of the aquifer, and drilling must be done using steel casing and cementing to isolate the well from groundwater, he said.

"It's a very restrictive plan," Stuart said.

Mesa's energy potential unclear

Otero Mesa, which lies about an hour's drive northeast of El Paso, sprawls across about 1.2 million acres in southern New Mexico; about 700,000 acres of that is administered by BLM. The management plan for the Delaware-sized area, which allows oil and gas development on about 90 percent of BLM lands on the mesa, has been roundly criticized by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) and environmental groups (Land Letter, Jan. 26, 2006).

But how much development will occur on the mesa remains unclear. Tim Sanders, assistant district manager for BLM's Las Cruces office, noted that the agency's resource management plan for Otero Mesa characterizes the energy potential on the mesa as "low to moderate." The office has received only one application for a permit to drill, submitted last year under an old lease, and is currently conducting an environmental assessment for that permit, he said.

The level of activity on the mesa is likely to remain low for the time being: BLM has imposed a moratorium on new leasing until a federal court addresses an appeal of a district court decision upholding the plan. Stuart said the moratorium on new drilling, which was rejected by Kempthorne, was unnecessary because proposed drilling activity would not exceed the limits on surface disturbance included in the management plan.

Bixby said his group will continue to try to bring more communities on board to push for a legislative remedy. He plans to meet with the Las Cruces City Council next week to urge it to pass an Otero Mesa resolution, he said. The center has not yet discussed a resolution with Otero County, where the bulk of the mesa is located, Bixby said.

Doug Moore, an Otero County commissioner, said he supports "proper stewardship" of the mesa and would consider a proposal for legislative protection. "I would entertain any suggestions anybody had," he said.

But he added that in his view, much of the mesa is already adequately protected. And he questioned why Texas communities have taken such an interest in what he views as a New Mexico issue.

"If they're worried about contamination, there are a hundredfold more wells being drilled on the Texas side," he said. "So I don't know why they'd be concerned about what we're doing in New Mexico. They should tend to their own house."

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