OpEd Oil Industry, #NoDAPL and Fracking Ordinance in Sandoval County

The Fossil Fuel industry threatens our drinking water supplies and air quality of Albuquerque and the Rio Grande Valley that will exacerbate extreme drought conditions and cause health impacts. We could see these impacts very soon because Albuquerque and Rio Rancho  now face similar property takings as the Pine Ridge and Standing Rock  Sioux Nations are now experiencing  and hundreds of other communities across the US 

The water protectors are here to tell you that “The DAPL FIGHT IS NOW ON YOUR DOORSTEP! [i]

On November 20^th, 2016, the excessive force violence water protectors endured maimed and injured nearly 300 protectors with paramilitary using surveillance, tear gas, rubber bullets, sound cannons, water cannons with impunity against unarmed prayerful citizens. [ii]North Dakota white nationalist Morton County Sheriff inflicted this violence with the help of TigerSwan, (A.K.A. Blackwater) paramilitary operations.  The para-militarized border at Standing Rock is repressive, Illegal and unconstitutional.

According to Former Mayor Jim Baca’s Blog that Mayor Berry has considered using TigerSwan, (A.K.A. Blackwater) paramilitary operations to counter freedom of assembly and free speech in Albuquerque, all in the name of public safety.[iii] Mayor Berry and Brad Winter armed with the knowledge of 8,000 wells West of Albuquerque and potential resistance is considering paramilitary response to use on the citizens of Albuquerque  giving them a foothold into the State of New Mexico.  Are they going to paramilitarize the West Mesa like they did Standing Rock Sioux Tribe?

This is an industry that has corrupted and has colluded with government officials and legislators to ignore regulations, laws, and invade state agencies to write bogus ordinances and allows de-regulation that govern oil industries whose private profits supersedes without regard for the millions of people in this country that have property taken and their health and welfare ruined in the process.

WPX is one of the most egregious air emitters and dirtiest corporations operating in NM and now shamefully, the Governor appointed this huckster CEO head of the Oil and Gas Conservation Bureau. We have no State Government protecting us from oil and gas takings.[iv]

The oil and gas ordinance that is currently being written for Sandoval County is a sham, in that Industry has had input. The OAG Found Sandoval in Violation of IPRA [v] needless to say the County still refuses to give us the safety plans we asked for.  Meanwhile, the group of 40 NM residents working on this ordinance, working to protect their water and air are left out of the process and will be collateral damage, as they have been disenfranchised from the process.[vi] The democratic process in New Mexico is at imminent risk because the people’s voices go unheard. A government that does not protect its citizens from health and welfare risks becomes the corporate state of inverted totalitarianism. 

These type of considerations are shameful and opens government up to more litigation at the taxpayer expense, it is the wrong approach for all.

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[i] TYT Video Link It's time to Stand with Standing Rock Sioux Tribe

[ii] Water Protectors maimed in attack from Morton County

[iii] Jim Baca's Blog Post Oct 24, 2016  Mercenary

[iv] Martinez appoints WPX Executive to top post

[v] OAG Determination Letter Attached

[vi] NM Tech policy Institute  Ordinance process Highjack

Sandoval County Violates IPRA to support oil and gas industry

Our group requested the tactical response safety plans for and oil and gas pipeline explosion and or other industry facilities. The county violated IPRA and redacted  the information stating national security. The OAG weighed in by investigating and found the county had violated the IPRA. Their attorneys are fleshing this out.

In the meantime,
We sent this letter to the Sandoval County Commission

Sandoval County Commissioners      November 8, 2016                                                             

County Manger Philip Rios 

RE: IPRA Violations on Public Record Request Concerning Oil and Gas safety procedures. 

Dear Sandoval County Commissioners and County Manager Mr. Rios,

We are writing to make our final request for the Sandoval County tactical safety plans surrounding the oil and gas industry pipelines and other facilities.  On Sept. 4^th, we requested the Tactical safety plans concerning spills, fire explosions and other catastrophic events.

We were denied the plans through arbitrary and capricious actions of Fire Chief Maxon, who stated that we, “did not have the “expertise” to decipher the county safety plans” in the case of a catastrophic event.  He therefore redacted the information later claiming national security reasons. We find these claims to be false and in violation of IPRA. We requested an opinion of the Office of the Attorney General (OAG). This is now the second time within the year the County has been found in violation of IPRA on our IPRA requests. It has been noted that the County is remarkably lazy on following the law.

The Office of the Attorney General read the County’s response to their Oct 6^th letter inquiring about the situation surrounding the redaction of public records and violations of the IPRA 3-day and 15-day notice and their incorrect and false reasoning for redaction of the records. The Attorney General will be contacting the County in regards to these violations.  

Furthermore, we are making one last ditch effort to request these plans prior to filing in New Mexico District Court.

The County appears to be pushing the ordinance through before the end of the year because they want to pass the ordinance without full disclosures of their safety plans in case of accidents, explosions and contamination of water, air and risk the public health and safety.

By not releasing public information the county appears to be willing to risk the public safety in order to appease the oil and gas industry and multinational banks ready to drill over 8,000 wells with all the ramifications of that decision.

If this is not the case then release the information requested.  We hope that this issue can be resolved without further litigation. Thank you

Respectfully,

Elaine Cimino 

Benton Howell

City and County Draft Oil and Gas Ordinances

The City of Rio Rancho and Sandoval County have drafted oil and gas ordinances, spurred by last year’s bid by an Oklahoma company to drill for oil just outside the Rio Rancho city limits.

The Sandoval County Planning and Zoning division will hold two public meetings to review the county’s draft ordinance.

The meetings are scheduled for Tuesday and Tuesday, Sept. 6, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the commission chamber in the county administrative building.

http://riorancho.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=12&clip_id=1211&caption_id=1331852

This video is from the meeting of August 16 when the draft discussion first appears online prior July 27 meeting it was only a proposal of draft no one was hired to write at that time.

A digital copy of the 30-page draft can be viewed on the county’s website, as well as at the county’s administrative office.

City councilors discussed the 14-page draft at a work session earlier this month.

The city’s ordinance will be available to the public once it has been finalized and presented to the governing body.

No date has been set for a regular governing body reading of the ordinance.

Prompting the proposed ordinances was SandRidge Energy’s application last fall to drill an exploratory well in the Rio Rancho Estates area.

The Oklahoma City-based company withdrew its application in February amid public protests about the project and disagreements between the company and county regarding application requirements.

At the time, neither the county nor Rio Rancho had ordinances addressing oil and gas drilling.

City Manager Keith Riesberg told city councilors during the Aug. 16 work session that city staff began creating an ordinance shortly after SandRidge filed its application.

“Even though the SandRidge application was withdrawn from the county, this issue has not gone away in that it is our understanding that AMREP has contracted the mineral rights for their properties, so we do expect this is going to be an issue that will resurface at some point in time,” Riesberg said.

Both drafts borrow language from established ordinances in other communities.

Maria O’Brien of the Modrall Sperling law firm worked on the ordinance with city staff as the city’s legal counsel. She said the city considered ordinances in Hobbs, Farmington, Bloomfield and in other municipalities in Colorado.

During a county commission workshop in April, Michael Springfield, director of the county’s planning and zoning department, said the county looked at oil and gas ordinances in Rio Arriba, San Miguel and Santa Fe counties.

O’Brien said city staff is trying to create an ordinance that is neither too strict nor too lenient, and also gives the city the option to require an applicant to meet specific or different requirements.

“It’s this balance between having the ordinance be like Bloomfield’s, going on for 50 pages and trying to address every little thing, as opposed to having a general framework, minimal requirements, but then reserving the rights of the city based on a specific proposal to propose additional requirements to effectuate the intent and purpose of the ordinance, which is to protect the public health and safety,” she said.

Both drafts require applicants to provide exploration, production, emergency and road plans. The county would require plans for storm water pollution prevention, waste disposal plan and site remediation.

The city ordinance would prohibit an applicant’s proposed drilling site from being any closer than 300 feet to any building, or production equipment from being closer than 750 feet to any building in the city limits — unless the building is owned or controlled by the applicant. No well would be allowed within 5,000 feet of a municipal water supply well.

The county’s ordinance proposes similar limitations. It would allow no oil or gas facility within 1,000 feet of a ground water recharge area. The facility would have to be at least 600 feet from residential property or lot line, 750 feet from a place of worship or school, 750 feet from an existing water well and 200 feet from a public road.

Fencing and locked gates for drilling sites are required within both ordinances.

The city ordinance requires a site’s disposal for waste to comply with the city’s and state’s air and water pollution control regulations.

Sandoval oil and gas Ordinance Info

Please distribute this note broadly.  Sandoval County has posted a draft O&G ordinance and a legal notice of two very near future O&G ordinance public input sessions - Aug 30 and Sep 6, both 6 pm at the usual County building:

Legal Notice:

http://www.sandovalcounty.com/uploads/Downloads/Divisions/PlanningZoning/legal/2016/LN20160830.pdf

Draft Ordinance:

http://www.sandovalcounty.com/uploads/Downloads/Divisions/PlanningZoning/legal/2016/PZAug2016_OG_Ordinance.pdf

2016 TECO PNM Integrated plan for NM and Public hearing Info

If there is anyone on this blog who knows more about this issue please contact me.

This type of storage containment and processing plant exploded near Chaco Canyon last month
Oil and gas wants to checkerboard the entire state of New Mexico (check out maps in plan links below)

In your Electric Bill this past month there was a gas pipeline notice of gas pipelines being constructed in the 2016 integrated plan

The gas companies are fear harping on the 2011 Climate Freeze that caused a gas shortage where thousands of people in northern NM  were without gas in severe frigid temperatures. 

Instead of a big picture overview the TECO / NM GAS /PNM is integrating electric and gas plans to run pipelines , processing plants through NM and under the border to Mexico. 

This is preparing for LNG that will be part of the TPP and shipped out of the Country to whomever buys the resources here. Under TPP treaty as a state we cannot disallow the sale of the  resources/gas. 

Residents need to be assured that the cold freezing climate will happen again and that we need to keep our resources here in the ground and support existing upgrades to stop methane releases that are some of the worst in the world.

Below there are a series of links for you to look at, and something to when discuss when considering the Sandoval ordinance and how these pipelines/refinery will effect drilling in Sandoval Counties and elsewhere. 

This is how the Gas companies work, they piecemeal PROJECTs so that there is no master plan, regarding funding, construction and resource management & safety, or transport and refining of gas throughout NM and delivery out of the country. There is hub refinery in the Plans around Rio Rancho in 2012 they said it was to expensive, check out the maps in the plan and see where the nearest processing plant and pipeline or drilling rig  is to you. 

August 15th is the deadline for anyone wanting to intervene in the lawsuit 

Does any know more about this lawsuit? if so, Please contact me I want to know more

October 12 2016 Public hearing on PRC PERA BLG BOARDROOM 1120 paseo De Peralta Santa Fe NM Stipulation and testimony in support of stipulation shall  be filed by Sept 16, 2016 

opposition to any stipulation shall be file by Sept 21 2016 ... SEE BOTTOM LINKS to BROWSE 

http://164.64.85.108/infodocs/2016/4/PRS20221364DOC.PDF

http://pnucc.org/sites/default/files/PolzinShockleyTXNMFeb2011ColdSnap_0.pdf

https://www.nmgco.com/pdf/2012.NMGC_IntegratedResourcePlan.pdf

​  Past Plan ​

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/2/10/942521/-  OUTAGE: The New Mexico Natural Gas Outage and The Texas Trap

http://www.nmprc.state.nm.us/utilities/docs/2011-12-21_Final_Report_NMPRC.pdf    

https://www.nmgco.com/pdf/16-00097-UT-Notice-to-NMGC-Customers.pdf

County Service Agreement with NM Tech Lacks Costs and Valuable Public Input

Service Contract agreement between NMTECH and the County of Sandoval vague when it comes to the Oil and Gas Ordinances being written.On July 27 NM Tech and the County of Sandoval hammered out and signed an agreement regarding policy development and review of oil and gas drilling and production application, field inspection and presentation to public bodies. Nm Tech agreed to do this for an undisclosed amount of money. Yes, folks, the 4 year agreement has no agreed upon fees for their services rendered in the contract.Did Sandoval County just give Cart Blanc checks to NM Tech? Just how is public policy NM TECH’s forte, escapes me, for they will have no authority to enforce any regulation and gives the oil and gas industry first stab at drafting the Sandoval county oil and gas ordinance. There have been numerous studies of the hydrology in Sandoval, Bernalillo and Valencia Counties which are most likely the most studied areas in country on water quantity and quality.Why do we need more studies that may be true or not. I have seen Garbage in garbage out science reports. Many people do not consider NMTech exactly a independent third party.

Item #3 under Scope of Work leaves out the implications of the 2016 Integrated Plan by TECO/Nm Gas and PNM. This is currently being heard in NMPRC hearing starting with commenting periods (Aug15), testimony (OCt12) and their deadlines. (See our Facebook Posting on this to confirm date times and schedule of hearings) The 2016 integrated Plan is about expanding pipelines and processing plants through out the State and to run a gas line to Mexico that will port the gas overseas. Most likely this is plan is gearing up to export LNG. The TECO Plan is harping on the 2011 Freeze where 1000s of people suffered through -15 below severe cold for a week and had no heat due to frozen pipelines, wellheads and loss of transport.

In 2012 The PNM/NM Gas wanted to put a processing plant for fracking operations in Rio Rancho. At the time it was thought toby too expensive however maps show that processing plants and new pipelines in the new 2016 plan that include the entire state.

It comes down to the fact that the Scope of the Work and the costs of the work are vague or undetermined. County Planning has not included the scope or context of the 2016 Integration Plan and how that will proliferate gas production in Sandoval County and through out the state where in some areas where transport has been non-existent.

There are many people that support upgrading “existing” drilled wells, pipelines and processing plants in order to stop methane releases. Current releases are considered a crime against humanity in the amounts of methane and GHGEs that are emitted into the atmosphere daily in Sandoval and the 4 corners. The State of NM and its citizens are responsible to stop these releases. However, the Neoliberal politics that strangleholds NM that keeps people in poverty, without jobs in a stagnate economy that may soon crash, will not hire inspectors to this job and protect us.

Many see this plan as win for NM but it is going to have exactly the opposite affect. The only money Sandoval County should be counting on from the oil and gas industry are fees from implementing a Fee and dividend system that gives cash rebates to households with income levels under $80,000 a year.

Regarding liability on the contract, NM Tech is also subject to the immunities and limitations under the NM Tort claims Act NMSA 1978 Sec 41-1- through 41-4-27 regardless of jurisdiction and conflicts of law and choice of law principles. So if they screw up, it may be just too bad for residents to sue under a property taking in Rio Rancho and Rio Rancho Estates and would set a precedence for elsewhere around the state and beyond.

OIl and gas lobbyist Gallagher says the County misled them ont he Sandridge application

http://www.abqjournal.com/750433/news/sandridge-consultant-county-misled-us.html 

LOL---  So we are now being labeled and marginalized by oIl and gas because over 2600 people spoke out against fracking and oil drilling!

   

Please note it is only because the oil and gas industry has flat lined, the job loss and the hit to the state and local economies in NM that we now have a voice to politicians. 

I think Mr. Gallagher should point that finger right back to the failed lobbying strategies from the gutting oil an gas regulations and to convincing the state politicians and regulators to rubber stamp and "Streamline" the permitting process; while making sure there are no ordinances at a County level that would hinder unbridled drilling and destruction of the planet and running local communities into the ground. 

But make no mistake they fear the Oil and Gas industry that is evident in several areas of politics such as the Democrat platform committee that lost having a Democratic progressive platform by 3 votes, because the oil and gas industry led the LEA County contingent to take over the party. 

The tentacles of the insipid strategies by oil and gas are rhizomes developed to marginalize parties, platforms and people. 

There are 1000's of well leases and permits given if the price oil rises you can be sure they would want to develop all these wells.