Coalition Pushing for No Drilling

on Valle Vidal Land

By Paula Murphy, Publisher

The Raton Range, 4/27/04

Forty thousand acres of federal wilderness land are proposed as one of the next northeast New Mexico tracts of land to be drilled for coalbed methane, but the Coalition for the Valle Vidal is hoping to end those plans put forth by the drilling company already operating on nearby private property.

The Houston-based El Paso Corporation, currently drilling on Ted Turner's Vermejo Park Ranch in western Colfax County, has asked to lease 40,000 acres of the Valle Vidal, which is part of the Carson National Forest, to explore for oil, natural gas and methane.

The coalition is a broad-based alliance of ranchers, hunters, anglers, outfitters and guides, local businesses, concerned citizens and conservation groups vehemently against the coalbed methane drilling. The group cites many reasons for its opposition, including: contamination to surface and underground water sources; draining underground aquifers; unknown long-term effects on the watershed and aquifers; fragmentation of wildlife habitat.

The Valle Vidal is home to the largest elk herd in New Mexico, and is also home to black bear, bald eagles, mule deer, mountain lion and native Rio Grande cutthroat trout.

Miles of roads that will increase traffic and increase poaching; noise pollution that will inhibit wildlife communication; industrialization of wild land; loss of millions of sportsmen dollars to local economies; negative impact on summer camps used by 22,000 visitors and staff of the
Boy Scouts' Philmont Scout Ranch.

The coalition has asked the U.S. Forest Service to respond to its concerns. The Forest Service is now analyzing the oil and gas potential beneath the Valle Vidal. The law requires the government to study the economic potential and environmental impacts of mineral extraction before deciding whether to grant a lease.

The Forest Service has contracted the geology division of New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology to study the oil and gas potential and the economic feasibility of drilling for those resources.

The coalition believes there is no responsible alternative to drilling in the Valle Vidal. The group's purpose is to advocate no drilling at all. According to the Oil and Gas Accountability Project (OGAP), a group of citizens from across the country, formed in 1999, to oppose energy
corporations that drill in pristine expanses of public lands.

Methane is loosely bound to coal, held in place by water in the coal deposits. In methane gas production, millions of gallons of water is pumped out of the well, which decreases the pressure on the gas and allows it to detach from the coal and flow up the well. In the early stages of production, the wells produce mostly water. Eventually the wells are dewatered and the production of gas increases. Water removed from coal beds is known as produced water.
Produced water, depending on the geology of the coal formation, may contain nitrate, nitrite, chlorides, other salts, toluene, ethylbenzene, other minerals, metals, high levels of total dissolved solids and benezene.

El Paso officials have downplayed the value of the Valle Vidal as a scenic landscape, instead pointing out that numerous roads are already built through it. The property has been managed for timber, coal and other natural resources in the past.

Dr. Larry Stolarcyzk, founder of Stolar Inc. in Raton, a company that has developed technology to be used in underground mining, said at a recent Raton Rotary Club meeting that we're losing 95 percent of our energy to harvest 5 percent since fracturing, the technique used in our area to
extract the methane, pulverizes the coal seam, leaving it non-mineable in the future with the technology we know.

Fracturing is a method of stimulating the coal formation by pumping a gelling agent and diesel into a reservoir with such force that the reservoir rock is broken and results in greater flow of methane.

The coalition believes there isn't a right way to drill for coalbed methane. The coalition will launch its web site www.ValleVidal.org May 1. The coalition can be reached at 776-3276 or 758-3874.

The 100,000-acre Valle Vidal was donated by the Pennzoil Corp. in December 1981 under the condition that it was to be managed for its outstanding wildlife resource, scenic quality and outdoor recreational value.

Coalition for the Valle Vidal
P.O. Box 238 • Taos, NM 87571

(505) 758-3874 • (505) 776-3276

Viva@ValleVidal.org