Beleaguered BLM office faces decisions on oil leases near NM national park

Laura Paskus

In September, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management will hold a sale on almost 200 drilling leases for 89,000 acres in Chaves, Eddy and Lea counties. About a dozen of those leases are within a mile of the boundary of Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The National Parks Conservation Association hopes the BLM will defer the parcels nearest to the park, in critical cave and karst areas and in other places with environmental concerns or wilderness characteristics, said Ernie Atencio, the nonprofit’s New Mexico Program Manager. “They heard our request to that effect, and they might even agree and prepare the paperwork for it, but that’s another decision that has to come down from D.C. and no longer in the hands of local managers,” he said. Today, the national park encompasses nearly 47,000 acres, more than 33,000 acres of which are designated wilderness. But most of the region’s cavern systems extend beyond the park’s boundary and remain unexplored. And people are learning more every year about the area’s cave and karst systems—karst refers to limestone that has been washed away over time, creating crevices and tunnels with water. The federal office in southeastern New Mexico responsible for handling these leases and drilling permits—and balancing conservation, industry and federal regulations—is one that’s been on the lips of state and federal officials over the past year and a half. After a company purchases a lease, it then files an application for permit to drill, or APD, that includes information on the well’s specific location, how it plans to develop the well, what roads need to be built and bonding. The company may also need to obtain zoning, state and air and water quality permits, and have the site inspected. (One lease can have multiple wells drilled on it.) It’s a complicated process, and repeatedly over the past year, lawmakers and industry have criticized the Carlsbad Field Office for processing those APDs too slowly. In June, Gov. Susana Martinez and New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Secretary Ken McQueen testified before the U.S. House Resources Committee that bureaucratic backlogs in the Carlsbad Field Office of BLM were hurting the state. Martinez, McQueen and Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce pointed fingers specifically at the Carlsbad Office, condemning a backlog of 800 permit applications...MORE