The Rio Arriba County Commission has approved a 180-day extension on a four-month ban on new oil and gas drilling in the county.

Commissioners voted to extend the ban Monday to give the county more time to hone new regulations aimed at protecting the county’s watersheds.

Commission chairman Alfredo Montoya says the county also wants to see special rules Gov. Bill Richardson recently ordered the state Oil Conservation Division to write specifically for parts of the county.

The moratorium, approved in April, was drafted in response to plans by a Fort Worth, Texas-based company, Approach Resources Inc., to drill test wells for oil east of Tierra Amarilla.

The company owns mineral-rights leases on 90,000 acres east of Chama River and El Vado Reservoir.

source : AP

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