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Otero Mesa Fact Sheet

What is the issue?

Proposed oil and gas development may destroy the unique and globally significant ecological values of the Otero Mesa.

What is Otero Mesa?

The greater Otero Mesa encompasses more than 1.2 million acres in New Mexico, located on the Texas border between Fort Bliss and the Guadalupe Mountains, about 60 miles northeast of El Paso. A portion of the mesa is on Fort Bliss . Most of the rest is federally-owned and managed by the Bureau of Land Management, with state and private land mixed in.

What are the ecological values of Otero Mesa?

• It encompasses one of the largest remaining grasslands in the Chihuahuan Desert . (Grasslands are an endangered biome in North America . Only about 10 percent of North America ’s grasslands remain.)
• Otero Mesa is connected ecologically with grasslands to the south in Texas and Chihuahua , that together comprise a major habitat complex
• It is home to a wide variety of plants and animals, including some that are found nowhere else, some that are endangered, and some that are declining elsewhere.
• It is home to New Mexico ’s healthiest pronghorn antelope herd, perhaps the only herd not wiped out by hunters and subsequently reestablished with pronghorns from elsewhere.
• It is historic habitat for the federally endangered aplomado falcon, and an ideal aplomado reintroduction site. (An aplomado falcon was sighted on the military portion of Otero Mesa in 1999.)
• It contains 22-25 remnant colonies of black-tailed prairie dog—a candidate for federal endangered listing--one of the few places in the Chihuahuan Desert where this species still exists.
• It provides habitat for many grassland birds, such as burrowing owls, lark buntings, Bairds sparrows, mountain plovers and ferruginous hawks. A number of these species are declining elsewhere.
• It supports an exceptionally high diversity of cacti.
• It is historic habitat for bison, Merriam’s elk and desert bighorn.

Have others recognized these values?

Yes. Consider the following:

• At a 1997 workshop of experts convened by World Wildlife Fund, Otero Mesa was identified as a conservation priority in the Chihuahuan Desert .
• The National Audubon Society and Partners in Flight have identified Otero Mesa as an Important Bird Area for its significance to grassland obligate species.
• The Nature Conservancy considers Otero Mesa to have “global ecological significance”—its highest conservation ranking.
• The U.S. Fish and wildlife Service has stated that Otero Mesa would provide “essential habitat for the recovery of the [aplomado] falcon in the southwestern United States , and recommended that it be protected as an Area of Critical Concern. (Letter to BLM, March 13, 2001 )
• The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish has stated that Otero Mesa is “one of the largest contiguous remnant grassland areas in the state, and where important pronghorn and mule deer herds occur that need to be protected.” It also stated that the prairie dog colonies found on Otero Mesa are “extremely important for future conservation efforts because they are some of the last extant populations within the Chihuahuan Desert in the U.S., are likely uniquely adapted to xeric environments, and represent most of the surviving source populations for recovery elsewhere within the arid southern portion of their known historic range.” (Letter to BLM, April 13, 2001 )
• The New Mexico Wilderness Alliance has surveyed the area and identified over 460,000 acres as suitable for Wilderness designation.

How much oil and gas lies beneath Otero Mesa, and how much development is likely to occur?

This is unknown. A well drilled in 1997 by Heyco (Yates family) found natural gas. Since then, energy companies have nominated 250,000 acres of federal land in the area for oil and gas leasing.

BLM has developed a “reasonable foreseeable development” scenario for planning purposes that predicts the expected level of development over a 20 year period. It includes:

• Drilling of 140 wells (of which 84 would produce)
• Long term disturbance of approximately 10 surface acres per well (includes well pads, pipelines, roads and other associated features), for a total of 862 acres
• 100 miles of pipeline
• 71,148 vehicle trips generated by well drilling and development
• 373 vehicle trips per well annually for well maintenance.

What are the potential impacts of oil and gas development?

Habitat fragmentation by roads, pipelines and other facilities.

• Increased poaching by well field workers and others.
• Noise caused by vehicles, oil field equipment and construction activities.
• Dust caused by surface disturbance.
• Degradation of air quality, especially in Class 1 areas of Carlsbad and Guadalupe Mountains national parks to the west.
• Degradation of surface water quality through increased erosion and spills of drilling fluids and chemicals.
• Birds and bats killed by uncovered “heater treaters.”
• Potential contamination of groundwater supplies by escaped drilling fluids, including El Paso ’s future water supply in the Dell City area.

Is it worth it?

Otero Mesa will not solve our nation’s energy needs. The U.S. has 3 percent of the world’s oil reserves. Middle eastern countries have 64%. We can’t drill our way to energy independence. Conservation, renewable sources and greater efficiency offer far more potential without the devastating impacts to biodiversity.

 

With the national labs, the alternative energy program at NMSU, and abundant sunshine and wind, New Mexico could be a leader in the production of non-polluting renewable energy.

Who Benefits?

Drilling in the nation’s last wild places is an essential element of the Bush Administration’s proposed national energy policy, which was developed behind closed doors with active and extensive participation by big corporations like Enron and Exxon, under the leadership of Vice-President Dick Cheney, himself a former oilman. Sacrificing Otero Mesa will benefit Big Oil but do little to solve our nation’s long-term energy needs.