Drilling / Mining

02/02/2012 From Michael Brune, Executive Director

Have you ever had to turn away millions of dollars? It sounds crazy, but here's why the Sierra Club chose to do exactly that.

In 2010, soon after I became the organization's executive director, I learned that beginning in 2007 the Sierra Club had received more than $26 million from individuals or subsidiaries of Chesapeake Energy, one of the country's largest natural gas companies. At the same time I learned about the donation, we at the Club were also hearing from scientists and from local Club chapters about the risks that natural gas drilling posed to our air, water, climate, and people in their communities. We cannot accept money from an industry we need to change. Very quickly, the board of directors, with my strong encouragement, cut off these donations and rewrote our gift acceptance policy. Let me tell you how it came about.

By Mary Katherine Ray

When last we visited the Beryllium deposit near Monticello Box and the historic Warm Springs, Be Resouces Inc., the mining company looking to extract that Beryllium, had been granted permission to drill 12 more of 20 exploratory bore holes for which they had asked. Every new bore hole creates a risk to the groundwater and spring flows in this special place where, no matter how intense the drought, there is always precious water. The Mining and Minerals Division had refused permission for the remaining holes, including one that would have been thousands of feet deep, over concerns that they posed “significant” environmental impact that would warrant more public involvement and scrutiny.

By Kathleen Dudley, Co-founder, Drilling Mora County

Mora County citizens have entered their fifth year staving off industry development in spite of the slick natural gas ads on TV, radio and newspapers that extoll the proposed benefits for communities.

By Susan Selbin

Hydraulic facturing—or “fracking”—as part of drilling to extract natural gas, is used in more than 30 states, including New Mexico. This process forces water infused with dangerous chemicals into deep shale deposits, fracturing the deposits to release the gas. Fracking is recognized to have resulted in contaminated water, serious health issues for humans and domestic animals/wildlife, and damage to the natural landscape as well as the property of those involved.

Beryllium exploration continues at Monticello Box

By Mary Katherine Ray, Chapter Wildlife Chair

The Monticello Box and Warm Springs are under renewed threat from beryllium mining yet again.

After completing the strongly opposed five exploratory bore holes on the hills directly south of the Box, the company seeking to profit from the beryllium deposit asked for a permit modification to add 19 bore holes to its exploration. These new holes would be to depths of several hundred feet, except for one that would be to 3,500 feet—much deeper than any bore hole yet.

“Mora County will be the first county in the United States to put baseline water testing in place on private land prior to natural-gas development in their county.”

Baseline Water Well Testing Completed for Mora County: Las Vegas Basin Property Owners

In December 2010, Drilling Mora County completed a baseline water-well sampling and testing protocol on a number of private and community drinking water wells that traverse the Las Vegas Basin area east to west and north to south on land that has either been leased for natural gas drilling or near leased land.

My friend Lance passed away this November from pancreatic cancer. Although not many of us here in the Rio Grande Chapter knew Lance, he has left behind a legacy that may help us in our pursuit of a sustainable-energy future.

The Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club has been leading efforts to make Otero Mesa into a National Monument. Another step forward occurred today when New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson sent a letter to President Obama urging him to act on this issue. The letter from Governor Richardson is attached.

In the first weeks after the oil platform “Deepwater Horizon” sank in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana, the standard “Drill, baby, drill” Republican mantra was notably absent. As the biggest environmental disaster in American history unfolded, perhaps even the staunchest ultra-right-wingers realized, as a matter of their own self-interest, that it was not the best time to push for more oil drilling-—in the lower 48, in Alaska or offshore. Perhaps they feared an anti-conservative backlash, as Americans saw at first hand the risks of our addiction to petroleum.

Two northeastern New Mexico counties continue to carve difficult paths through the uncharted territory of oil and gas exploration. San Miguel County Commission voted and signed into law a one-year oil and gas moratorium in winter, 2010. The Las Vegas City Council doubled that protection, and enacted a two-year moratorium in May.