Public comment during the Valencia County Commissions meeting in Los Lunas on June 1. Community members and environmental organizers spoke during public comment after many felt blindsided by the Valencia County Commission’s approval of a new “natural resource overlay zone” that could open the doors to local oil and gas development. The commission has scheduled a public hearing July 14 to get community feedback. (Chancey Bush/Journal)
Activists opposed to oil and gas drilling are mobilizing for a mammoth turnout at the Valencia County Commission’s special hearing tonight on an ordinance that could open the doors to local fossil-fuel development.
Commissioners scheduled the hearing to reconsider the issue after opponents packed the County Commission’s June 1 biweekly meeting in protest against a new “natural resource overlay zone” that commissioners had previously approved in May. The overlay zone would allow developers to apply for exploratory surface and subsurface mineral development in the county without changing existing zoning on targeted properties, potentially expediting the permitting process to extract natural resources like oil and gas.
But the five-member commission repeated the ordinance at its June 1 meeting to correct a failure to appropriately provide advance public notice about the issue before approving it in May in a 3-1 vote with one commissioner absent and virtually no public input. And, given the huge overflow crowd that showed up on June 1, the commission set a special hearing for July 14 to allow more community input before reconsidering the issue.
That meeting is now set for 5 pm tonight at the Los Lunas Transportation Center at 101 Courthouse Road — a spacious facility that the commission chose to accommodate the huge crowd expected to show up. The meeting will also be live streamed on Facebook at https:/ /www.facebook.com/VCAdminandGov
High turnover expected
Since early June, Valencia Water Watchers has coordinated with nearly a dozen other local and statewide environmental and community groups to mobilize turnout, with a long list of speakers expected to provide public comment. That includes more than a dozen “expert” witnesses who will offer testimony about the potential environmental impacts of oil and gas development, said Water Watchers organizer Ann McCartney.
“We’ve networked with so many organizations and had so many people say they want to speak out that we’re expecting a huge turnout — possibly 150 people or more,” McCartney told the Journal.
Ordinance supporters may also show up in force, something that didn’t happen at the June 1 meeting.
That includes long-time oilman Harvey E. Yates Jr., who supports the ordinance to pave the way for his company — Albuquerque-based oil and gas firm Jalapeño Corp. — to begin exploratory drilling in Valencia County. Yates spoke in support of the ordinance at the May 3 meeting where commissioners approved the overlay zone.
He didn’t appear on June 1, but he plans to speak at tonight’s event.
“I’ll be there,” Yates told the Journal Wednesday evening. “… I plan to answer some questions that have been asked about what we’ve done so far geologically that makes us think there’s oil and gas in Valencia County.”
An industry engineer may also explain the drilling process and safeguards against environmental impacts. And Yates will discuss the high-risk investment involved in exploring for oil and gas in the Albuquerque Basin — an undeveloped zone potentially rich in hydrocarbons — and the potential benefits for Valencia County if Jalapeño Corp. does discover a commercially viable deposit.
“These wells will be very risky, with possibly a 90% chance of failure,” Yates said. “We may need to drill three to five wells. But if we find one that’s productive, we could then spend the resources needed to develop the field around it.”
Yates said he’s “perturbed” by environmentalists who claim he’s an “outsider” who’s just “swooping” into Valencia County to go after oil. He’s actually a long-time investor in the county with two active ranches and other businesses. And oil development could bring new wealth and jobs to the local community, he said.
“We may win and we may lose in this debate,” Yates said. “If we lose, it means I save a lot of money. But if we win, it means I’ll invest a lot of high-risk capital that could benefit the county.”
Opponents, however, say the environmental and health risks connected to oil and gas development outweigh any benefits, particularly the potential for surface and groundwater contamination, plus adverse health impacts from toxic chemicals and other pollutants released during operations. Those hazards are particularly elevated in the Albuquerque Basin, where subsurface layers of rock and sediment are filled with fault lines that could become conduits for oil and gas operations to contaminate the basin’s freshwater aquifer, said Water Watchers organizer Amber Jeansonne.
“We want to emphasize at the meeting that this is a fractured risk zone,” Jeansonne told the Journal. “It’s the most earthquake-prone region of the state, according to our experts.”
Ordinance details
Opponents want the commission to completely table the ordinance, McCartney said. But if the commission does opt to pursue it, they want a lot more safeguards added to the ordinance, including clear opportunities for adequate public input on every proposed project, substantial financial assurance mandates for industry operators to repair and renovate potential damages, and a lot more study of possible hazards before moving forward on any projects.
The safeguards now written into the “mineral resource district” included in the county’s current zoning ordinances are now far more stringent, McCartney said, and those requirements should be included in any overlay zone.
Still, Commissioner Joseph Bizzell, who sponsored the overlay zone, said the ordinance is inherently protective, because it facilitates natural resource development without changing existing zoning. That ensures current land uses can continue.
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Without it, developers can still apply for county permits for mineral operations, but zoning on targeted properties could be permanently altered.
The ordinance excludes permitting on any land within the Middle Rio Grande District, defined as the county’s “green belt.” Developers must also still apply to the county for an overlay permit through a public process with community input. And if an overlay zone is approved, the project must take place within 24 months, or the property reverts to its original zoning, Bizzell said.
Perhaps most important, Bizzell said, the ordinance aims to inspire a lot more local natural resource development well beyond oil and gas, including everything from extracting and cleaning up brackish water for community use to timber exploitation and gravel pit businesses.
“As a life-long Valencia County resident, I’m pro-business, and I want to see a lot more development here,” Bizzell told the Journal. “The ordinance can contribute to more economic growth in the county.”
This story will be updated.
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