Critical Public Hearing at Valencia County Commission on July 14

In May, the Valencia County Commission approved an ordinance for a new Natural Resource Overlay Zone (NROZ). The NROZ ordinance sidesteps the Mineral Resource District (MRD) code that has been in effect since 2004.

The NROZ ordinance:

🛑     lacks many of the common-sense safety requirements that are written into the MRD code.

🛑     makes it very easy for an oil & gas company to come in and start drilling

🛑     was essentially written by a lawyer and Harvey Yates Jr., an ultra-wealthy oilman

🛑     was initially pushed through by the County Commission with no public input

Oil and Gas Drilling:

☠️     Puts our groundwater at risk of contamination

☠️    Puts our surface water at risk if there’s an oil spill

☠️     Puts our health at risk

🍼    More premature babies

⚰️    Decreased life expectancy

🧪    Toxic chemicals found in air, water and urine samples

☠️     Increases violent crime

☠️     Puts agricultural community in jeopardy

☠️     Litters the land with pump jacks and drilling equipment

Why put a new ordinance in place that makes it extremely easy for an Oil & Gas company to start drilling in Valencia County?

Why put a new ordinance in place that provides far fewer protections than the existing ordinances provide for our community?

Why sacrifice our community for someone else’s profit?

👉YOU CAN HELP! Yes, YOU!!👈

Please attend the Public Hearing at the Los Lunas Transportation Center (101 Courthouse Rd SE, Los Lunas). 

💡We’d like to give priority for public speaking to Valencia County residents, including youth, people from neighboring Indigenous communities, and people from other communities directly impacted by oil and gas drilling. We invite others to stand with us in solidarity and intend to fill the room!

Hearing begins at 5 pm, please show up by 4:30 pm to sign up for public comment. 

⏰ We’re expecting this hearing to go on for hours so please bring food and nourishment!

✅ We’re attaching a document with ideas of Talking Points

💟 Please RSVP for this event on Facebook and share on social media

☑️ Please check out our new instagram account

💻 See our website for more information

Please don’t hesitate to contact us with questions or concerns.

We hope to see you there,

Valencia Water Watchers 

Recent News Articles and Op Eds:

Ordinance Could Bring Oil and Gas to Valencia – May 12, 2022

Valencia County to Reconsider Opening Door to and Gas Development – May 31, 2022

New Mexico Oilman hopes to drill in Valencia County – June 1, 2022

Capital and Main: Valencia County to Ease Oil & Gas Drilling Rules – May 24, 2022

Harvey Yates’ Misleading Op-Ed – June 24, 2022

Oil and Gas Drilling: At What Cost? (VWW Op-Ed) – June 30, 2022

Add your name to the IPL petition to Sen. Schumer and the full Senate

The national IPL is circulating this “Our Climate Can’t Wait Petition” to Senator Schumer and the full Senate with the Climate Action Campaign. The petition will be delivered on Monday, July 18th.

 

 

The Permian Basin – An Oil and Gas Sacrifice Zone that Entangles Us All

The Permian Basin is an ecosystem of extraction: pump jacks, drilling rigs, petroleum storage tanks and methane flares – all these structures stare you down as you drive from Lovington, NM to Hobbs to Eunice to Carlsbad.  Here, oil is BIG money and it touches everything.

By Ann McCartney and Clara Sims

On an immersion retreat experience for Interfaith Power and Light (IPL) to the Permian on June 10-11, 2022, we were saddened gazing at well upon well of oil and gas production and met with some of the people in Hobbs who are the victims of the abuses of the outsized production here and the public health crises following in its wake. We viewed some of their homes, schools and parks, surrounded by pump jacks, storage tanks and methane flares – some literally a stone’s throw from folks’ front yards, back yards, schools, playgrounds, and daycares.

As jarring as these visuals were to take in amidst the 100 plus degree heat, it was the stories we heard that left the most permanent marks on our hearts.

Health risks for frontline residents

Women with friends and husbands, fathers and children affected by the oil and gas economy of the region told us stories of so much illness: thyroid disorder, asthma, allergies, and cancer. They told of us people developing rare and terminal cancers at the age 14 and 35 and 50 – stories of their loved ones asking each other, how can this be? How can so many people be getting not just sick, but this sick? This can’t be normal.

Local residents talk about contamination concerns

One home pointed out to us housed an oil worker who has already lost two wives to cancer living in his home next to a working pump jack.  And even when terminal sickness is not present, bad smells and contaminated water in Hobbs turns people’s eyes red when showering and causes head hair to fall out. We were told that it is essential, if you can afford it, to put a shower filter on the shower, so one is not bathed in seemingly toxic water while showering.

The women we spoke with on our journey repeated over and over again that what is needed in the Permian region are different economic opportunities. Opportunities that do not pollute the air they breathe, the water they drink. Opportunities which do not overwork and jeopardize workers safety, day in and day out.

Oil and gas is an industry deeply embedded in our state and it has been the lifeway of many for a long time. We must understand and respect these ties and histories if we are to undertake the long, hard, deliberate, and collaborative work needed to bring a vision of economic vitality and health and sustainability to our siblings in SE New Mexico.

Kayley Shoup, retreat participant Stephen Picha

We were so grateful to see so much, hear so many stories and to pray and share rituals together with water and shared concerns. As our field guides and sojourners, we had the opportunity to journey with and discuss these issues with folks from Citizens Caring for the Future (CCFF), including community organizer, Kayley Shoup and one of the local leaders and Mennonite Pastor, Nick King. Kaley and Nick are among those working tirelessly and diligently in partnership with IPL to address concerns around health, human dignity, methane rules, water concerns, and oversight to safeguard the common good and community members.

We were inspired by the tenacity of their heart-driven advocacy. With the stronghold the industry has on the communities we toured, it is herculean task to raise the ethical and moral concerns to change minds and practices.  CCFF is an important witness meeting with local citizens, educating and engaging people in actions. During our trip they were sharing the value of the Oil and Gas Threat Map.

Community members are very interested in this tool that shows threat zones that include homes, schools, hospitals, businesses, etc. which lie within a half mile of an oil facility, whether a pump jack, storage tank, or compressor station. Yes, a half mile – the homes we saw in Hobbs were less than 100 yards from a working pump jack – in the very heart of the threat zone. In addition to information, CCFF works to address health concerns and hopes to offer adequate air purifiers to those most vulnerable.

Federal methane rules need strengthening

This summer is also an important time to contact the EPA to strengthen the federal methane rules, including addressing often exempted low producing wells which produce 6% of oil and gas and produce 50% of the methane (a greenhouse gas which is heavier and 80 times more potent than CO2 in warming the planet).  Advocating for strengthened federal rules is one of the most impactful things we can do as allies to those in the Permian as well as working for just transition to new and viable economic development. Public comments will be taken on supplemental EPA methane rules in the fall and all voices are welcome.

All our efforts at advocacy, solidarity, and awareness (like simply having a conversation with someone!) make a difference. We are all one and we are intimately entangled in the Permian Basin in our lives and as we face climate disruption. The Permian support our, our, dependence on oil and gas for everything from our cars, our stoves to heating our homes.

Those living in other regions of New Mexico have a particular responsibility as neighbors with the vulnerable communities in SE and NW New Mexico. We must keep talking about the suffering oil and gas creates, the need to strengthen methane rules, as well as the monitoring and enforcement of those rules.

Our minds tell us this excess and overproduction of oil and gas is not an acceptable and safe way to live and to treat Holy Mother Earth and her living biosphere, that includes our neighbors.

Our hearts tell us that no one – no single person – should be sacrificed for the profits of an extractive industry.

Our spirits call us to raise our voices in witness and solidarity to the cries Earth and the cries of her peoples.

Let us continue to work for the common good of our beautiful, abundant state and all the peoples who call this region home. You can get more engaged by contacting IPL.

(Ann McCartney is co-chair of the NMEPR-IPL board.  Her daughter, Clara Sims, is a student at the Yale Divinity School and recently a youth organizer for NMEPR-IPL)