Canaly

requests

protest letter



By RUTH HEIDE

ALAMOSA — Saying they did not feel it was their battle to fight, the Rio Grande Water Conservation District Board members in their July meeting opted not to file a protest against oil and gas leases the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) may open up in the San Luis Valley.

Chris Canaly, director of SLV Ecosystem Council, asked the board to weigh in on the issue before the July 25 deadline to file protests with the BLM. She said the Ecosystem Council was filing a protest, and she asked the water board to consider sending a letter as well.

“We see this as an opportunity to make a stand in terms of areas we feel are really important to protect,” Canaly said.

“The Valley is not like a focal point right now, but as resources get more and more limited I think that the Valley is going to have to make some decisions,” Canaly added, “so I highly recommend people inform themselves what is happening in other places like the western slope and New Mexico and Wyoming.”

Canaly said about half a million acres of BLM land surround this Valley. She said in 1991 the BLM developed a management plan that designated areas of critical environmental concern. She said the BLM is currently considering offering oil/gas leases/sales on land that had been designated areas of critical environmental concern on top of Flat Top Mesa in the San Luis Hills.

Canaly said the process that initiates oil and gas leases or sales is generally a mining company asking that certain parcels go up for lease/sale. In the Valley, about 90 percent of the BLM lands are open to that kind of development, Canaly said. She added the Valley geology has never supported oil and gas. “According to their own maps, there really isn’t a high potential there,” she said.

She said what was driving these nominations for oil/gas leases was the desire of companies to look like they have a great deal of assets to impress investors.

Canaly said the Ecosystem Council’s concerns with the land currently up for possible oil/gas development include: it is two miles from the Rio Grande Natural Area; it is being studied for wilderness consideration; many species such as the bald eagle inhabit this area; and it is part of the migration route for the sandhill cranes.

Rio Grande Water Conservation District (RGWCD) Board Member Dwight Martin said he had been all over that mountain and had not seen any wetlands or habitats. He said what existed up there was “a lot of sagebrush and a lot of rattlesnakes.” He said he could not imagine anyone even using the area for grazing because there is no water there, and there are only a few places a person could get to on a horse.

“If they want to drill a well on top of Flat Top, more power to them,” Martin added. “It is a long ways from anything. There’s just nothing there.”

RGWCD Board President Ray Wright told Canaly he appreciated her point of view but did not see the relevance to the water district. “I hadn’t personally found the point at which this district was engaged in this issue considering the distance from the river corridor,” he said. He said he did not see how the district could credibly make a protest in this matter.

Canaly said she believed it was just a matter of time and the sooner the district became involved in an issue such as this the easier it would be in the long run. Wright said the district had a history of getting involved early on in issues that directly affected what the district was charged with doing. He said he did not believe the board at this time could file a protest.