Contact:

Save Our Sugarite, 505-445-8691 or info@saveoursugarite.org

SAVE OUR SUGARITE PROMOTING STATE INVOLVEMENT TO PROTECT WATERSHED

August 26, 2007

Raton, N.M. -- Save Our Sugarite has launched a petition drive to garner public support for protective designation of the Raton watershed, while aiming for governor-to-governor contact regarding gas drilling plans on the New Mexico-Colorado border.

The citizen’s group unveiled the petition at the second SOS public meeting last Thursday in Raton. Many of the approximately 50 people in attendance signed the petition aimed at designating waters of the watershed as “Outstanding National Resource Waters.”

This designation must be approved by the state of New Mexico and is recognized under the federal Clean Water Act. The designation protects qualified water sources at their present water quality level. The Valle Vidal Coalition sought and obtained this designation as part of its campaign to protect the federally owned Valle Vidal near Cimarron.

At the meeting Thursday, participants applauded when SOS president John Davidson thanked the City of Raton for filing a legal complaint to block the planned drilling of five exploratory coal bed methane gas wells in the watershed.

The complaint filed in Raton District Court on Aug. 15 seeks a court order to prohibit the drilling “except in compliance with conditions imposed to accommodate the City’s water rights and to protect the quality and quantity of the City’s water supply.“

Davidson said SOS wants to support the city, including by encouraging the state of New Mexico to take part in opposing the drilling plan.

“There are some things a lawsuit can’t solve,” said Davidson, who added SOS has been in contact with state officials to ask that Gov. Bill Richardson write to Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter about the planned drilling.

Davidson said he believed this might occur and he thanked many state officials for their efforts, including former Raton resident Joanna Prukop, chief of the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. Davidson said Prukop has “really led the charge for us in Santa Fe.”

The city of Raton owns the surface rights but does not own the mineral rights to the town’s watershed, which begins in southern Colorado in the Lake Dorothey State Wildlife Area. The watershed continues into New Mexico, in Sugarite Canyon State Park.

The city leases the Colorado property to the Colorado Division of Wildlife, and leases the New Mexico land to the state Parks Division.

However, the mineral rights are held by Newmont Mining of Denver and have been leased by TDC Engineering of Abilene, Texas.

Davidson told meeting participants that a long-term solution will require finding a way to retire those mineral rights, possibly through some kind of conservation easement.

Earlier this summer TDC notified the city it planned to move forward with drilling plans. TDC said it plans to drive through Sugarite to the Colorado side, and then construct a four-mile road through the Lake Dorothey State Wildlife area to the drill site. Hikers have found flagging along road routes.

The drill site is in the drainage of Segerstrom Creek, which flows into Lake Maloya. Lake Maloya is a primary source of drinking water for Raton.

During Thursday’s meeting, SOS member Gus Holm presented a slide show on how CBM drilling has affected the Bosque del Oso State Wildlife Area in southern Colorado. Photographs showed the impacts of gas well construction and roads.

Jeremy Gallegos, a game warden for the Colorado Division of Wildlife, spoke at Thursday’s meeting and said his agency gets public comments that the Bosque del Oso “doesn’t look like a wildlife area, it looks like an industrial zone.“

He added the CDOW is “very concerned” about the drilling plan at Lake Dorothey and is working with the city “hand in hand” to mitigate any impacts.

CBM drilling can allegedly affect water quality and quantity, impact fish and wildlife, cause erosion, spread noxious weeds, and create air, noise and light pollution.

For more information, citizens can phone 505-445-8691, email info@saveoursugarite.org, send letters to SOS, P.O. Box 333, Raton, N.M.