Watchdog Report: Oil & Gas Ordinance–Citizens Working Group status

Following is an ES-CA “Watchdog” summary from my attendance of the 6/26/18 P&Z meeting.  This is the report on the second of two items that were on the agenda of interest to ES-CA and the LPT:

2. Update by the Citizens Working Group on the status of an Ordinance dealing with Oil and Gas production in Sandoval County. It was clear that the marching orders from the County Commission to the P&Z staff and the P&Z Commissioners were not understood as there were several conflicting versions being discussed.  In any case, at this meeting there were two status reports presented which, at the request of the chair, were intended to focus on the plan for completion by the date of a requested presentation to both the County and P&Z Commissions (to be available for publication on July 5^th to give participants review time prior to the July 12^th meeting) rather than details on ordinance content:
   1. The first report was given by John Arango, former P&Z chairman, who is a member of the Citizens Working Group and has been working with Peter Adang and others to draft the ordinance.   John reported that their proposal separates the County into 3 parts based on the geological differences: that in the NW part of the state currently being a significant oil & gas producer (more than 400 current wells), the area served by the Albuquerque Basin, and the rest of the County (ROC) in between.  He also stated that in the Albuquerque Basin area, they intended to ban “unconventional” drilling (horizontal).  John reported that the group he was with would have an ordinance ready for review by the 12^th.
   2. The second presentation was made by David Craig and Randy Erickson.  They gave no content and most of the discussion revolved around the completion status, as they indicated they would be able to present the planned content at the 12^th but would not have a completed.  They asserted that their efforts were taking longer because they were complying with the County Commission’s desire that the effort be inclusive (e.g. of tribal and community interests—though P&Z Commissioner Maduena stated that they had failed to include representation from the San Antonio de Las Huertas land grant).  The implication was that the other team had failed to achieve this inclusiveness and had chosen to meet deadlines instead—but I did not hear a statement on this from the first group.  Mr. Erickson did say that he felt it would be a good thing that the staff and commissioners will have two independently derived proposed ordinances to consider.
3. At the upcoming 7/12 meeting (announced on Nextdoor by a posting on 6/29 by Sandoval County Public Information Officer Melissa Perez), is being set as a joint “study session” for both Commissions with participating groups including: New Mexico Tech, the Citizens Working Group, the Citizens Working Group Science Committee and the New Mexico Oil and Gas Industry.  The public will be invited to attend but no public comment will be permitted.

Dick Ulmer, Chairman, ES-CA Land Use Protection Trust Board

LPT.ES-CA@comcast.net