Have my crack reporter on it now
"WE WANT ANSWERS!"
Posted on 05/23/2003 2:39:59 PM PDT by chance33_98
Files Found In Search For Secret Records
Target 7 Reports Mysterious Dig In The Desert Gets Results
POSTED: 7:33 p.m. MDT May 22, 2003
HOBBS, N.M. -- The KOAT Target 7 investigative team reported new developments Thursday night in last week's Target 7 story that exposed a massive desert dig for secret papers in southern New Mexico.
The digging resumed Thursday near Hobbs, and late in the afternoon, workers unearthed some files about 40 to 50 feet underground. The excavation was begun earlier this month by a Texas energy company called Eott.
The state stopped the dig because Eott didn't have the proper permits. The company says it's looking for missing environmental records, and has agreed to pay a penalty for the improper digging.
Excavation with heavy equipment has been halted until Friday morning, when state officials will be on hand to examine whatever is found.
Have my crack reporter on it now
"WE WANT ANSWERS!"
Saddam's WMD? :-)
IT'S not unusal for energy companies to dig holes in the ground, but Houston-based EOTT Energy has been burrowing in the desert near Hobbs, N.M., in search of something other than oil.
Since last week, the former Enron Corp. subsidiary has been scouring barren land at the former site of an oil spill in search of what may be a stash of missing documents related to the operation of a nearby pipeline EOTT acquired in 1999 from Texas-New Mexico Pipeline Co., said Dan Dolan, an Albuquerque attorney who represents EOTT.
The New Mexico State Land Commission stopped the digging on the public lands on Wednesday, saying the company lacked the proper permission to do the work, but it is expected to continue Monday under the supervision of the Land Office and police.
"There were clear gaps in the records, and subsequently a guy who worked for Texas-New Mexico told EOTT that he witnessed boxes of documents being buried at the site in 2001 by Texas-New Mexico workers," Dolan said. "We don't know if the effort to bury the documents was surreptitious, and we still don't know if they're even there."
At the time of the alleged document burial, EOTT owned the pipeline and was working with ChevronTexaco to clean the site after an oil spill. That process included removing truckloads of contaminated soil and bringing in clean fill.
The missing documents could include records of other oil spill remediation efforts, soil contamination reports, groundwater level studies and other documents relating to the day-to-day operation of the pipeline.
Such information is important for companies to maintain in the face of changing laws and lawsuits.
EOTT was using as many as a half-dozen front-end loaders, bulldozers and other machines in the excavation of the two-acre site this week, and had reached a depth of about 40 feet. Dolan said workers believed they were close to reaching the buried documents.
A spokeswoman for the State Land Commission said the company needed to get permission for the work first and could face fines. The company must cover the costs of returning the site to its original state.
Dolan said the company has grazing and pipeline right-of-way rights to the land, so it didn't believe it needed to ask permission to access the site to search for the documents.
Lawsuits against pipeline companies are a cottage industry in some parts of the Southwest, where claims are often made that the pipelines damage property values. An attorney representing Hobbs-area residents who are suing a unit of Royal Dutch/Shell plans to observe the excavation in hopes that records related to his clients' case are turned up at the site.
EOTT was formerly an Enron Corp. subsidiary that gained independence in 1996. It went into bankruptcy last year but reemerged in February of this year after Enron gave up the 37 percent equity stake it still had in the company.
EOTT operates 8,300 miles of crude oil pipelines in 19 states and employs about 950 workers.
URL: http://www.abqjournal.com/news/39122news05-17-03.htm
Saturday, May 17, 2003Dig on State Land for Documents Stopped
By Kate Nash Journal Capitol Bureau
SANTA FE — Digging on state land near Hobbs hasn't unearthed the documents a Houston-based energy company believes are buried in the southern New Mexico desert.
But the move, which State Land Office officials call illegal and mysterious, has led to mounds of speculation about what exactly is buried about 50 feet below the ground — and why.
The land office earlier this week said EOTT Energy LLC, a former subsidiary of Enron Corp., didn't have a permit to dig on the land and ordered them to stop, which it did.
EOTT officials have grazing and pipeline leases and didn't think they needed to contact the State Land Office before digging, an attorney for the company said.
Officials from the State Land Office and EOTT were negotiating Friday over a plan to allow the company to resume digging, possibly to be supervised by state officials, said Assistant Land Commissioner for Communication Kristin Haase.
"Obviously we want to resolve this as quickly as possible," she said.
"Today our attorneys are drafting a right of entry to allow (EOTT) to continue their project," she said Friday.
Both sides are expected to continue talks next week.
EOTT attorney Daniel Dolan, of Dolan & Domenici in Albuquerque, said EOTT believes the Tex-New Mexico Pipeline — from which EOTT bought a pipeline near the digging site — may have buried some documents that could help EOTT complete its environmental records.
Those records may be related to a 2001 remediation project; they may be related to something else; or there may be no records at all, he said.
"We have a strong (suspicion) that the records are there," Dolan said. "We couldn't say that they're absolutely there, and we certainly can't tell you absolutely what the contents of those records are. They could be trash; they could be valuable."
At least one other attorney also is interested in seeing whatever documents are unearthed.
"I think a lot of people are interested in what might be out there," said Lovington lawyer Michael Newell.
Newell, who represents plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Shell Oil, said he's "interested in observing whatever goes on out there."
He declined to say why.
Newell planned to ask a Roswell judge Friday for access to the site, to see what was going on.
But the hearing was canceled because he is in talks with the State Land Office to be able to see the digging, if and when it resumes.
Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons, who visited the two-acre excavation site earlier this week, said he hopes to resolve the situation as soon as possible.
Lyons also said the state could fine the company for its digging. Dolan said EOTT has agreed to pay to restore the land disturbed by the digging.
"We want full cooperation from the company and we want to know what they're looking for," Lyons said. "And what is found here is found on state land and belongs to the New Mexico taxpayers and New Mexico citizens, and we want to know what it is."
Lyons pointed to lights surrounding the excavation area as an example of the project's urgency.
"It's very obvious they're desperate to find what they want," he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.Copyright 2003 Albuquerque Journal
URL: http://www.abqjournal.com/news/40981news05-23-03.htm
Friday, May 23, 2003Box Dug Up on State Land May Contain Firm's Papers
Journal Wire Report
SANTA FE — Workers on Thursday found at least one box believed to contain documents that EOTT Energy LCC has been digging for on state land near Hobbs.
Kristin Haase, assistant state land commissioner of communication, said the find remained in the ground on Thursday.
Haase said Commissioner of Public Lands Patrick Lyons wants the box locked up until attorneys from the State Land Office and EOTT discuss the matter.
"The commissioner wants whatever they find to be moved to a secure area," Haase said.
The State Land Office last week said EOTT was illegally digging on the site, and the Houston-based company has agreed to pay fines for its actions, Haase said. The company resumed digging on Thursday.
EOTT has pledged to restore the land to its original condition and posted a $500,000 letter of credit in case the office isn't satisfied with the job, Haase said.
EOTT, a former subsidiary of Enron Corp., has grazing and pipeline leases on the land.Copyright ABQJournal.com and Albuquerque Journal
(p.s. Going to add Texas to the list of topics)
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