{"id":1817,"date":"2007-06-06T11:55:00","date_gmt":"2007-06-06T17:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/06\/mccamley-wants-commission-to-support-drilling-delay\/"},"modified":"2007-06-06T11:55:00","modified_gmt":"2007-06-06T17:55:00","slug":"mccamley-wants-commission-to-support-drilling-delay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/06\/mccamley-wants-commission-to-support-drilling-delay\/","title":{"rendered":"McCamley wants commission to support drilling delay"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Do\u00f1a Ana County Commissioner Bill McCamley<\/a> wants his peers to approve a resolution supporting the postponement of oil and gas drilling on the Otero Mesa until a study of the water underneath it is complete. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The delay has the support of three of New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019s elected officials in Washington \u2013 Democratic Sen. Jeff Bingaman<\/a> and Rep. Tom Udall<\/a> and Republican Sen. Pete Domenici<\/a> \u2013 who have all asked the Bush Administration to put off leasing the land.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. and Hobbs<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> oilman Steve Pearce<\/a>, R-N.M., whose district includes the Otero Mesa, has thus far been silent on the issue.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

McCamley, a Democrat, is vying for the right to take on Pearce next year, but so is Al Kissling<\/a>. McCamley said the resolution, which commissioners will consider on Tuesday, is not politically motivated. He said it\u2019s about ensuring that Southern New Mexico<\/st1:place>, which is growing rapidly, has enough water for the future.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThis issue is all about water,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is a whole lot of both fresh and brackish water located under the Otero Mesa. Sen. Domenici is in on this, so it\u2019s not even a partisan issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

According to a fact sheet<\/a> provided by the Southwest Environmental Center<\/a>, a 2006 federal study estimated that there could be more than 57 million acre-feet of groundwater \u2013 15 million of them potable \u2013 under the Otero Mesa, which is recharged by surface water runoff that could become polluted if drilling isn\u2019t handled carefully.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

An acre-foot is almost 326,000 gallons. The average family uses roughly 0.3 acre-feet of water each year.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

According to SWEC, it\u2019s estimated that there\u2019s enough gas under the Otero Mesa for a 16-day national supply. There is enough water to supply a million people for more than a decade.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Domenici recently wrote a letter to the Bureau of Land Management (read letters from Domenici, Bingaman and Udall by clicking here<\/a>) asking for a delay in leasing the land and pointing out that a bill he\u2019s sponsoring would help fund a study to determine the aquifer\u2019s susceptibility to contamination from drilling.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

That would be part of a broader study that\u2019s already underway, having also been pushed by Bingaman and partially funded with $1 million committed by the state.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

McCamley pointed out that Pearce states on his campaign Web site<\/a> that \u201cWater is life. We must protect and preserve our water rights, improve water quality and develop ways of reusing this precious resource.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cIf he truly believes that, then he needs to get behind this,\u201d McCamley said. \u201cAll of us in Southern New Mexico<\/st1:place> should know what the impacts are to this important resource before we allow drilling to occur.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I contacted Pearce\u2019s office for comment on Tuesday. His press secretary, Brian Phillips, told me he would discuss my questions with Pearce and get back to me as soon as possible. He hasn\u2019t yet done that.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

If he provides comments, I\u2019ll post an update at the end of this article or write a new article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do\u00f1a Ana County Commissioner Bill McCamley wants his peers to approve a resolution supporting the postponement of oil and gas drilling on the Otero Mesa until a study of the water underneath it is complete. The delay has the support of three of New Mexico\u2019s elected officials in Washington \u2013 Democratic Sen. Jeff Bingaman and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1817\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}