(Illustration by Keith Lewis)
West Siders beware
Houston-based Tecton Energy has an oil play in mind for 50,000 acres of Albuquerque's West Mesa.
“We're concerned about the pollution. Until you hear the compressors, smell the air, and see the contamination, it's hard to believe…"
That’s Tweeti Blancett, a northern New Mexico rancher, talking about the impacts of oil and gas drilling on her land. Tweeti has been seeing her water supplies fouled and cattle dying since oil companies started drilling wells on her ranch a few years ago.
Could we in Albuquerque be living next to and exposed to these same pollution and contamination?
The answer is yes. And it could be soon.
Although most people in Albuquerque remain unaware, a Texas based oil company, Tecton, has signed a lease to drill for oil on 50,000 acres of the West Mesa. Tecton has already started looking for oil, using three wells. If Tecton strikes oil, Albuquerque residents could see more than a thousand wells on the horizon.
The medical and public health communities believe strongly that this is the wrong prescription for Albuquerque.
The actual act of drilling an oil well poses serious risks to Albuquerque’s way of life. Oil companies inject chemicals into underground aquifers, thus putting precious water supplies in danger. Oil wells also release toxic chemicals, increase ozone levels and smog, and contribute to air pollution.
There is good evidence linking these chemicals and “volatile organic compounds” to cancer, reduced fertility, birth defects, and neurological problems. The increase in smog and ozone also will likely lead to an increase in asthma and other respiratory illnesses – especially among children and the elderly.
Deb Meader, a nurse and mother who lives next to oil and gas wells in Colorado describes the risks more eloquently, “you can't live next to a gas well and not get sick. We look around on the mesa and everyone's got something… cancer… headaches… high blood pressure.”
If the drilling goes ahead as planned on the West Mesa, the problems described by Deb Meader are likely to happen to people living throughout Albuquerque– not just those living near the wells. Albuquerque is both downwind and below the proposed drilling location, which means that toxic emissions will tend to drift over and settle in the entire Rio Grande valley.
There was a time that oil and gas drilling took place in remote, isolated areas, thereby not putting people in immediate danger. But now with gas prices through the roof and big profits calling, oil companies are looking to drill everywhere: next to our homes, our neighborhoods, our schools, our hospitals, and our drinking water supplies.
Before drilling begins in earnest on the West Side, we should ask the simple question, “What to do we want Albuquerque to become?”
Do we want to become an oil and gas field? Or do we want to become a leader in renewable energy technologies, a leader in the new energy economy?
With a wealth of renewable resources, Albuquerque should be on the cutting edge of solar and wind energy. Our leaders should be recruiting solar companies, not oil companies. We should be creating high paying “green collar” jobs that will stay in our communities for decades to come – not short-term jobs that come from the boom and bust cycle of the oil industry.
We need leadership right now, which will stand up and protect our communities from oil and gas drilling and help develop a healthier direction for energy.
Over the last year, Santa Fe and Mora counties have been threatened with similar proposals for oil and gas drilling. Residents in those counties have obtained a moratorium on drilling until the environmental, health, and economic consequences can be fully evaluated.
Leaders in Bernalillo County have a choice.
Will they give in to outdated ways of thinking about economic development? Or, will they place a premium on human health by putting the breaks on drilling in their community?
Mallery Downs is the past president of the New Mexico Public Health Association and Dr. Lucy Boulanger is an internal medicine and public health physician who serves on the board of Physicians for Social Responsibility.
CATEGORIES IN THIS STORY:
© 2008 The New Mexico Independent
Comments:
Posted 05/28/2008 10:45 with
Seems kinda fitting that the people who drive all the time to get to the Westside and bitch about gas prices, will see some wells in their backyard. They have to get the oil from somewhere…
Posted 05/28/2008 11:28 with
Yeah, those west siders are gonna be pissed when their aquifer gets poisoned, too. Serves them right… how dare they want affordable housing, and commute, and work, and stuff…
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Posted 05/28/2008 11:59 with
It isn’t affordable when home prices are stagnant, gas prices and commutes are high. Along with all of the other development that occurs when people move far away from city centers but want the same goods and services.
Have there actually been any studies conducted by independent sources as to people getting sick by all this drilling in New Mexico? This piece seemed like all fluff and no substance.
Posted 05/28/2008 15:39 with
I grew up in Hobbs, NM which has tons of oil drilling going on there. I don’t know of any studies, but I personally know many people there who have detrimental health ailments, which are pretty obviously related to the oil drilling there, and the oil and gas refineries there. It pretty much comes down to which is more valuable, oil or potable water and clean air.
Posted 05/28/2008 16:10 with
Yes, entering the interior regions of New Mexico certainly does feel like we’re stuck in the 50’s! Can’t someone slap these 10 gallon hat wearin morons into 2008 and appeal to their sense of greed? Don’t they know it would be infinitely less expensive to erect wind turbines on that land which could generate enough energy to make Las Vegas nm look like Las Vegas??? And who dropped the ball on letting these oily Texans in here to ruin our air and deplete our state of it’s natural resources just cause they sucked their’s dry?????
Wake up people—we have an energy source that’s not buried in the ground, doesn’t require destroying habitat or health to harness, and is so inexpensive a Wal-Mart employee could afford it…walk outside people….look up…IT’S CALLED THE SUN!
Posted 05/29/2008 10:49 with
I am sure if Tectron drills in Senator Sanchez’s district, she will welcome them with open arms. She proved that she is a tool of industry in the last legislative session.
Posted 05/30/2008 21:49 with
Whether we like it or not, oil and gas, the military, and the labs have kept New Mexico on an even economic keel for years. The severence tax supports schools and the grt from the others supports infrastructure and local economys. Most anti business rhetoric is thoughtless and undermines our economy. Get over it!
Posted 06/06/2008 08:22 with
Get over the prospect of serious chronic and acute health problems for the people of Albquerque? Get over allowing ugly and harmful oil drills to pepper our horizon? When there are other healthy and forward-thinking options, especially ones that DO support local economies and infrastructure, we’d be sorely remiss as citizens to allow oilers to continue to set up shop here. The get over it mentality is not going to solve any problems. It never has.
Posted 06/07/2008 13:49 with
I’d love to see more public awareness on this issue, but I would like to see a more balanced approach to it. I think this, and this sort of article (by this sort I mean highly biased) contributes little towards creating “real” awareness about this issue.
Wouldn’t it be more meaningful to have a real discussion of the pro’s (yes there are) and cons (of which there are many) and realities of energy in New Mexico than to paint it all with a very one sided brush ? How is that better than just believing what an oil company exec will tell you ?
Here is what I think would be a more realistic approach:
1. If the oil and gas reserves in the Rio Grande Rift really are of the scale that was mentioned here
http://www.searchanddiscovery.net/documents/2007/08095roc…
Given the current trends in oil/gas prices, it is highly likely that these reserves are going to be tapped.
2. The good news is that what wasn’t possible/likely/economically feasible at $8 oil, is much more plausible with oil bouncing between $130-$140/barrel, or even at $70 or $80 (which is probably more like what a company might use to run their numbers).
3. Oil and gas are realities in your life. You may not like them, or the people who profit from them, but they surround you and are so deeply integrated into your life that for the next 10 or 15 years we all are going to have to live with the consequences of the world we built. You cannot quit cold turkey, and even if you can, most of the rest of us cannot, will not, and probably should not.
4. It is possible to explore for oil/as, find it and produce it without contaminating our water,air etc.. It is expensive, and requires diligence and a very careful eye on the people making the money to make sure corners are not cut… The good news is (see #2).
5. If you buy into the fact that the city/state/country cannot quit cold turkey, and believe that the city/state needs to pursue alternative energies wouldn’t it be great to structure deals such that money the state receives for it reserves are dedicated to such projects. Use the money from fossil fuels to fund cleaner, more renewable energy.
6. There is some advantage for all concerned, to diversifying the NM and Albq. economies. It will definitely supply jobs and revenue to the state. Certainly there is a boom and bust cycle to the business, but the boom ($70/barrel +) is probably here to stay.
7. In the article, and subsequent posts there was mention made of wind/solar farms in lieu of oil exploration. Most places people have tried to build either, near population centers anyhow.. have met with some push back given the area they require and their aesthetics. My point being that these are not without their own problems. Not that they shouldn’t be pursued.. but lets not fool ourselves into thinking right now, today these solutions provide all the answers and make all our decisions based upon that belief.
So…let’s talk about it.. argue about it.. tell me why we can’t make the oil/seismic/service companies clean up after themselves and leave a minimal foot print while helping funding the leading edge renewable energy projects. Do we know we can’t we have our cake and eat it too ?
I’m willing to listen to any reasonable discussion and in fact I think most people would be willing too.
So whaddya say.. is the NM Independent and/or readers up for it ?