Residents discuss opposition plan

While anti-borehole activists and the Quay County Commission agreed Monday they all want to stop the proposed drilling of a three-mile-deep borehole near Nara Visa, they could not agree on how to do it.

The commission voted to proceed with the plan that Warren Frost, the county attorney, proposed in which the county would hire a consulting firm to help oppose the project in National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) proceedings, which may begin within the next several months.

Anti-borehole protesters filled the seats in the Quay County Commission chamber Monday and spilled out into the hallway as spokespersons made a case for the commission to issue a temporary moratorium on any drilling in Quay County.

They also say the test borehole project , which bidding contractors say will be only test a possible method for disposing of nuclear wastes, could result in nuclear waste being buried in similar boreholes nearby.

The contractors say the test borehole project could be worth up to $40 million.

The protesters even brought children to ask the commission not to jeopardize their future by allowing the test borehole and the possibility of nuclear waste repositories to Nara Visa.

David Clements, a Ruidoso attorney whose wife, Erin, has relatives who own the Hat T Ranch near Nara Visa, said the moratorium was the strongest option to pursue.

It was the last chance to avoid federal involvement in the project's progress. Once that happens, he said, there is nothing local opponents can do to stop the project from proceeding.

The protesters expressed disappointment when the commission voted against giving a first reading to an ordinance that would order the moratorium. Final passage would involve a public hearing and second hearing at a later meeting, County Clerk Ellen White said.

"You're selling us down the river," said Bart Wyatt, a Nara Visa rancher and prominent spokesperson for the opposition.

Most of the borehole opponents then left the room, but some stayed to hear Frost propose his plan.

Frost said the moratorium would have no effect at all on impeding the progress of federal involvement.

Instead, he asked the commission to authorize the hiring of AECOM, a Los Angeles-based consulting firm that specializes in the Environmental Protection Act. AECOM has an office in Denver.

"When the Department of Energy sees that we're putting up that kind of opposition, they are probably going to say, 'we don't want to mess with this site anymore,'" Frost said.

He said getting into the environmental process early is the best way to combat the borehole project now.

Frost said he learned that lesson when the village of Logan sued unsuccessfully to stop the construction of the intake structure on the south side of Ute Lake for the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority's $550 million project to pipe Ute Lake water to Curry County.

"The court told us the arguments were all there, but we had gotten involved a little too late," he said, and that was the mistake he wants to avoid with the borehole project.

Despite opposition from the county commission, the Tucumcari City Commission, and county commissions in Union and Harding counties in New Mexico, the contractors bidding for the Nara Visa borehole for the Department of Energy are pushing ahead with the project's next phase, borehole opponents said Monday.

Chip Cameron, a spokesperson for Enercon, which is bidding to be the project manager for the borehole project, said the next phase, Phase 2, will only involve more public outreach and education.

In this phase, he said, the contractors will continue to hold public information meetings and work with public schools and Mesalands Community College on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education programs that the borehole would bring to the county.

The contractors, Enercon and DOSECC Core Drilling Services, are already sending information to the DOE to prepare for an environmental assessment study, Cameron said. The DOE would present a proposal to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which would make the decision whether to approve the project or order a full environmental impact study.