BLM Threatens Mesa Verde with Oil and Natural Gas Drilling

Earth First! Newswire

By Scott Streater / E&E reporter

The Bureau of Land Management is proposing to offer eight parcels near southwest Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park in a November oil and natural gas lease sale, a move that has sparked concerns from local government leaders who fear drilling could degrade air quality and other natural resources in the region.

The eight parcels just east of the national park were among 12 covering about 12,000 acres that BLM’s Tres Rios Field Office deferred from a February lease sale. The agency pulled the parcels after the National Park Service, park advocates and conservation groups objected on the grounds that oil and gas drilling could negatively affect air quality and natural resources at the park.

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