Judge Halts Oil Search at Colorado Monument

DENVER — U.S. District Judge Lewis Babcock said oil exploration at a national monument in southwestern Colorado poses a substantial threat of irreparable harm, and he temporarily blocked the work Tuesday.

His ruling gives four environmental groups a chance to seek a permanent end to oil exploration in a section of the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument.

A hearing on a preliminary injunction against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the monument, was set for Aug. 27.

“We’re happy and relieved the project won’t be going forward immediately,” said Jay Tutchton, director of Earthjustice Environmental Law Clinic, which is representing the groups.

Environmentalists claim the BLM’s approval of the oil exploration, set to start next week, violated the National Environmental Policy Act because it didn’t adequately evaluate the potential effects on the land and wildlife. They also argue the BLM didn’t follow Interior Department guidelines for new oil and gas development in the 164,000-acre preserve.

Monument director LouAnn Jacobson has said the BLM carefully reviewed the project. She declined to comment Tuesday because the matter is in court.

Former President Clinton created the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in November 2000. The Interior Department has said it has the highest known density of archeological sites in the country, more than 20,000, and in some places more than 100 sites per square mile.

The remnants include cliff dwellings, large circular rooms known as kivas, farm sites and rock carvings dating back thousands of years.

The land also has an abundance of oil and gas. A report prepared for House Republicans by the U.S. Geological Survey in 2001 said the monument could have moderate to high volumes of oil and gas.

The Bush administration considers opening more public land to oil and gas development a key part of its national energy plan. The Interior Department said when the area was declared a national monument that established roads and trails would remain open to previously authorized uses.

Jacobson approved the oil exploration in the disputed area Aug. 9 after finding the work would have no significant effect, according to the lawsuit.

The process will involve four 60,000-pound trucks that will periodically stop to lower a vibrating plate to the ground.

Wire strung on the ground will detect the vibrations in the earth and record the data to determine where oil might be found.

Babcock said in his ruling that the environmental groups will likely be able to show the BLM and Interior Department violated the terms of the presidential proclamation that created the monument.

The San Juan Citizens Alliance, the Wilderness Society, the Colorado Environmental Coalition and the Oil and Gas Accountability Project filed the lawsuit.