Greens Sue to Obtain Otero Mesa Drilling Plans

SANTA FE, New Mexico, May 17, 2004 (ENS) - Conservationists filed suit in federal court in New Mexico Thursday to acquire documents relating to the government's plan to open unroaded wild areas of the Otero Mesa to oil and gas drilling.

The environmental law firm Earthjustice, representing New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, filed its complaint after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted five months ago.

The Otero Mesa extends eastward from the Hueco Mountains to the Guadalupe Mountains and north from the Texas border into New Mexico. It is inhbaited by numerous species that are protected under Endangered Species Act, including the black-footed ferret, northern aplomado falcon, Kuenzler's hedgehog cactus, and bald eagle.

The area also holds a supply of clean ground water large enough to supply more 800,000 people or half of New Mexico's current population. Critics of the oil and gas development fear it could contaminate this supply.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) plan would allow 141 oil and gas wells across some seven million acres.

But there is no shortage of critics, including New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who has pledged to fight the BLM plan.

State wildlife officials and environmentalists have expressed particular concern over whether oil and gas development within the Otero Mesa and Nutt desert grasslands will destroy habitat that is needed for the recovery of the endangered northern aplomado falcon.

The lawsuit seeks to flush out documentation uncovering a part of the process - the Fish and Wildlife Service's part in approving the BLM's decision not to further evaluate the potential impacts to the falcon and other species from unrestricted oil and gas development on the Otero Mesa.

"The Bush administration is selling out New Mexico and the Otero Mesa," said Earthjustice attorney Mike Harris. "We gave them ample opportunity to respond to our request for information, but they continue to stonewall us."

"Otero Mesa is one of the most endangered ecosystems in America and we can not stand by while it becomes the victim of another backroom deal," Harris said.