Chris Velasquez
Northwestern New Mexico

My family has been ranching in northwest New Mexico since 1922. We run cows on our ranch and on surrounding public lands managed by the BLM’s Farmington Field Office. We have problems all the time with oil company workers leaving gates open, driving across our pastures and generally causing erosion as well as other problems.

A few years ago, these gas well guys went into a pasture and left the gate open. I’d had enough. It had happened so many times, that I parked my pickup and my horse trailer across the road and wouldn’t let them out. They proceeded to call the state police. Afterwards, BLM told the oil company to keep all the gates closed on our grazing allotments.

I complained repeatedly to BLM about a shallow pit filled with “black gunk” near a gas well operated by Williams. The pit was on my grazing lease and I found cattle tracks to the pit and feared animals might be drinking the oily water. I’ve found dead cows near oil pits before, and seen lots of dead birds and other wildlife floating in the oil. I was concerned for the well being of the cows and afraid their lives would be threatened by the pit. I have lost eight to ten cows each year because of the oil field activity.