Ca. rancher furious over oil sump on his property

A rancher is angry about an oil drilling sump on his land and worried about its impact on wildlife and his animals. On Tuesday, the drillers were ordered to remove oil from the material in the sump and get it cleaned up. Wendell Weller, 89, has owned land on South Granite Road for about 70 years, but the Bureau of Land Management has the mineral rights. For about two years Bonanza Creek Energy has leased the site from the BLM, and they've been drilling wells on the rolling hills where Weller pastures cattle and horses. Recently one horse died, and Weller is more worried than ever. Tuesday Weller went to the current drilling site demanding to look at the sump. He said a bulldozer had started that morning to clear out the sump. "I want to get a sample of this right here," Weller said -- pointing at the large sump. By his estimate, it's 300 feet long, 20 feet wide, and ten to 15 feet deep. "They wouldn't have touched this," Weller told Eyewitness News, "Had I not gotten a hold of you to come out. They wouldn't have touched it."...more