Oil drilling, mining blocked from southeast New Mexico cave system

An area of Lincoln National Forest known for a complex cave system was protected from oil and gas drilling and other mineral extraction, with the block on development extending for 20 years.

The Bureau of Land Management published its final decision May 23 to withdraw the Guadalupe Cave Resource Protection Area from consideration for mineral development to protect the area for recreation and its sensitive cave ecosystems.

Here’s what we know about the Guadalupe Cave area’s protections from drilling.

How much land is protected?

The Guadalupe Cave Resource Protection Area is made up of 28,513 acres in the southern portion of Lincoln National Forest in Eddy County and amid the Permian Basin region of southeast New Mexico.

The area is about 30 miles southwest of Carlsbad.

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What effect does the mineral withdrawal have on oil drilling?

Withdrawing the area would block any federal approval for mineral development like oil drilling or mining from the designated area. Existing, valid mineral rights remained in place. No new prospecting permits or mineral leasing would be authorized within the area for 20 years.

This was intended to protect the area for recreation and its "scenic integrity," read the announcement.

Was the area protected before?

The BLM first blocked development from the area in 2001 for a 20-year period, which expired in 2021. Since then, the BLM undertook a regulatory process to extend the protections for another two decades.

The U.S. Forest Service applied for the withdrawal through the BLM in December 2020, and the Bureau filed a notice in January 2022 that it had accepted the application, implicating a two-year temporary withdrawal amid the regulatory process.

A public hearing was held in February 2022, and the environmental analysis (EA) was published July 21 of that year.

Why is the block on development needed in the cave system?

The Guadalupe Cave area is know internationally for some of the best cave resources in the world, read a BLM report, known for examples of exposed Permian Age reef. There are 88 known caves and the BLM said there were several unexplored karst landforms.

Drilling and other extraction in this area could imperil sensitive species and underground aquifers that provide water to the surrounding areas. An environmental analysis conducted by the BLM described 26 threatened or endangered species in the area, warning they could be impacted by development in the area.

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What is the Permian Reef?

The Permian Reef formed about 299 million years ago during the Permian Period when all Earth’s continents were joined together in a “super continent” called Pangea, read a report from the National Park Service.

What is now New Mexico and Texas were on the western edge of Pangea near the equator, where an inlet connected the Permian Basin – then a massive sea – with the ocean. There were three “arms” of the Permian at that time, read the report, the Marfa, Delaware and Midland basins. The middle arm, the Delaware Basin contained the Delaware Sea about 150 miles long and 75 miles side on what is now southeast New Mexico and West Texas.

The Delaware Sea was host to several aquatic species like urchins, corals and trilobites and today the remaining dry land, especially in the Western Escarpment where the Guadalupe Cave system is situated, provides evidence of life forms millions of years old, the report read.

Has the area ever been mined or drilled for oil?

Two mining claims remain in the area, records show, and mining for metals like gold, silver and copper dates back to the 1900s.

A uranium mining pit was established in 1954 but was closed the same year. No subsequent mining for uranium was expected. The Forest Service said no active oil and gas leases exist in the area, and no company has shown interest. The Forest is closed to the Permian Basin oilfields, the U.S. most active, but the federal government did not anticipate drilling in the cave resources area for the foreseeable future.

Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, achedden@currentargus.com or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.

This article originally appeared on Carlsbad Current-Argus: Oil drilling blocked from Lincoln National Forest cave system