Approximately 90% of the population of New Mexico depends on groundwater for drinking water and nearly half of all water used in the State for any purpose is groundwater, as indicated in a document written by Nada Culver, a lawyer with The Wilderness Society. In 2002, the State of New Mexico conducted a report that concluded a large fresh water aquifer, called the Salt Basin, lay beneath Otero Mesa, with enough fresh drinking water to supply 1 million New Mexicans for 100 years. Steven Finch, vice president and senior hydrologist with John Shomaker and Associates, expresses concern about the potential for groundwater pollution from oil and gas drilling:

The groundwater sits in a fractured limestone aquifer that's susceptible to surface pollutants, as well as hazardous fluids that could seep into the basin during drilling activity. Drilling fluids used in the gas industry can contain contaminants. A byproduct of drilling for natural gas is a salty, brine-like water that is also produced from the wells. That water is then moved through collection lines and stored in tanks, where it is eventually injected deep into the aquifer through an injection well. The problem is that this salty, sometimes petroleum-laced water can make the groundwater unfit to drink.

The BLM has acknowledged that surface water and groundwater in Otero Mesa are both vulnerable to contamination from oil and gas operations, and that it does not have complete information on aquifers or other aspects of the condition of the water resources (RMPA/EIS for Sierra and Otero Counties). Nonetheless, BLM remains confident that it can rely on the oil and gas industry to not irreparably damage this precious resource. However, the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department (NMEMRD) found in 2001 that out of 734 cases of soil and groundwater contamination, oil and gas operations were responsible for a staggering 444 of them, or roughly 60 percent. Furthermore, the Oil Conservation Division (OCD), a sub-agency of the NMEMNRD, recently published a report on their website, which shows over 1400 additional cases of groundwater contamination due to oil and gas operations (www.emnrd.state.nm.us/emnrd/ocd/).

Thankfully, Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), is requesting that the United States Geological Survey (USGS) work with the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission to conduct a thorough aquifer study of the Salt Basin to determine its quantity and vulnerability. However, even if USGS does get the federal funding to carry out a water study, this analysis alone will not halt drilling as currently proposed by the BLM. It is clear that the BLM is ignoring the potential for groundwater contamination in the aquifer beneath Otero Mesa because their plan for drilling in this wild Chihuahuan Desert grassland is entirely shortsighted and driven by D.C. politics.

In May of 2001, the National Energy Policy Development Group, better known as the Cheney Energy Task Force, concocted a report for President Bush that overwhelming recommended the expansion of domestic energy production on public lands in the West. Accompanying the release of the Cheney report were two important executive orders, which directed all federal agencies, including the BLM, to “expedite energy-related projects […] and accelerate the completion of energy related projects.” Consequently, all state BLM directors, including New Mexico’s Linda Rundell, received a memorandum ordering the agency to authorize oil and gas development on public lands, without regard to the potential degradation of environmental, recreational, or cultural values. In the case of Otero Mesa, the agency was charging full steam ahead regardless of the fact that not all of the environmental consequences of such decisions had been thought through by the agency, or that the public had not yet had opportunities to fully participate in these decisions. Perhaps most disturbingly though is that State Director Rundell puts forth the argument that the plan to drill Otero Mesa is “the most restrictive that has ever come out with respect to oil and gas exploration and development on public lands.” This statement is purely designed to mislead the public and placate any oppositional argument—it is simply not the truth. Nada Culver of The Wilderness Society analyzes the BLM’s “most restrictive” plan and offers the facts in an unbiased manner: Out of the 1.2 million acres that comprise the wild public lands of Otero Mesa, the BLM will open 95%, to oil and gas development. Only 5% of this endangered ecosystem will be closed to development, of which almost half (35,000 acres) must legally be closed. It is unmistakably evident that the BLM’s plan to drill in Otero Mesa is heavily influenced by the Bush Administration’s perpetual thirst for oil and gas, and that it pays to have friends in high places.

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