Jeannie Nichols said she is “ready to fight” against impacts she said local communities face amid growing oil and gas production in Eddy County.

Nichols, 48, is a lifelong resident of Happy Valley, a rural community of about 600 people that borders Carlsbad City limits and the closest residential area to 10 oil wells recently drilled by Midland-based Permian Resources.

The county’s current ordinance – written in 1975 and unamended since – prohibits oil and gas facilities, such as drilling rigs, pipelines or tank batteries from being constructed within 300 feet of homes or other occupied buildings without consent of the owner of the adjacent property or structure.

During the Tuesday, May 5, Eddy County Commission meeting Nichols asked the county to enlarge the buffer zone to half a mile. Her proposal was included in the meeting’s published agenda as a “discussion” item, meaning no action was taken.

No one from the audience other than Nichols spoke for or against her proposal.

She said the closest oil well being drilled is slightly more than 400 feet from her house, and that she’s experienced abrasive noise, increased traffic and a lack of privacy as the drilling sites are operated all day and night.

“Until recently it was a quiet, peaceful neighborhood, and now we live in a literal war zone,” Nichols told commissioners. “The oilfield has infiltrated and surrounded us without so much as a courtesy phone call or letter or public meeting as to the intentions of our community.”

Carlsbad grants approval

The wells are being drilled within city limits, but most of Happy Valley is outside the city in Eddy County.

The Carlsbad City Council voted in June to approve permits for each of the wells and an associated tank battery as part of Permian Resources’ 17-well campaign the company calls its Water Buffalo Project.

The Water Buffalo wells are in an area near the intersection of West Texas Street and New Mexico State Road 524, targeting oil deposits in the Wolf Camp and Bone Spring formations about 8,000 feet beneath and within the broader Permian Basin.

The wells are in an area of the city known as its Wellhead Protection Zone, meaning oil and gas wells require the city’s permission and review due to possible impacts to the Sheep’s Draw wellfield in southwestern Carlsbad where the city draws most of its groundwater.

Permian Resources Regulatory Manager Stephanie Rabadue denied that the project would impact groundwater supplies. She also explained that pipelines associated with the project would be encased in steel and concrete, preventing any contaminants from leaking into groundwater.

“We are certainly compliant with local and state regulations,” said Permian Resources spokesperson Lindsey White.

All told, the company estimated the project would mark an $85 million capital investment in the community along with “tens of millions” in oil and gas royalties paid to the city and local mineral rights owners.

But it faced opposition during the June 17, 2025, City Council meeting when the plans were approved – a meeting Nichols also attended to speak against the proposal.

At the recent County Commission meeting, Nichols voiced similar misgivings as to the impact on safety of the local community, along with air pollution and noise concerns Nichols said Happy Valley would face when the wells were built and operated.

Community ‘blind-sided’

Nichols said she supported the oil and gas industry, and the economic benefits it brought to Eddy County. But Nichols was concerned, she said, as oil and gas developments continued to encroach on residential communities.

“My community has been blindsided with the latest invasion and for the safety of our families, and the decency and compassion for our quality of life, I am asking you, the county commissioners, to take action,” Nichols said. “I’m not trying to shut down the oilfield, and I’m not asking you to shut it down, either.”

County Attorney Cas Tabor pointed to the city of Carlsbad’s ordinance that places similar restrictions on facilities within 500 feet of homes.

County Manager Mike Gallagher, who served as Lea County manager until January 2025, said that county, which neighbors Carlsbad to the east, has no ordinance and relies on state regulations to ensure safety of communities alongside drilling operations.

There is no state law regarding oil facilities’ distance from homes.

District 4 Commissioner Bo Bowen said commissioners should gather more information on the Happy Valley situation and the county’s oil and gas regulations before considering any amendment.

“I think we need to look at this and come up with something that is better than what is in place,” he said. “We can come up with something that helps the residents but also keeps the industry that keeps Eddy County and the state moving still wanting to participate.”

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

The Republican Party of Lincoln County will host a Governor’s Forum on Thursday, May 14 at Alto Lakes Country Club.

Candidates for Governor include Gregg Hull, Doug Turner and Duke Rodriguez. All will be given 30 minutes to make a presentation.

Doors open at 4:30 p.m. and dinner is served at 5:30 p.m. The forum is at 6 p.m. Deadline to reserve attendance for the event is Thursday, May 7. Admission to attend the event is $20, with an additional $20 if the reservation includes dinner.

To make reservations, visit www.rplcnm.org or call 575-729-0020.

Political opponents from within her own party turned to the courts in their efforts to force Amy Barela to step down as state chair of the Republican Party.

A pair of lawsuits filed April 30 and May 1 challenged Barela’s right to serve as leader of New Mexico’s GOP while also running in the June 2 primary to retain her seat as District 2 representative on the Otero County Commission.

The suit filed April 30 by Barela’s primary opponent Jonathan Emery argued her position as party chair gives Barela an unfair advantage in the race for the Republican nomination to run for commissioner in the Nov. 3 general election.

The May 1 lawsuit, filed by a group of Republican county chairs, claims Barela’s candidacy in a contested primary disqualifies her from serving as state chair and asks the court to declare the chairmanship vacant.

Neither lawsuit has been scheduled for a hearing or any subsequent court proceedings.

Both cases cited a section of the New Mexico Republican Party’s bylaws:

“In the event the state chairman or any other state officer of the Republican State Central Committee files as a candidate for public office and there is another Republican who has filed for the same office, the state officer shall immediately vacate the party office.”

The litigation is the latest development in a months-long effort by Republican leaders in Sandoval and Bernalillo County to remove Barela as state chair.

Chairs Beth Dowling of Sandoval County and Daphne Orner of Bernalillo County were joined as plaintiffs in their lawsuit by county chairs from Chaves, Los Alamos, Valencia and Torrance counties.

Emery filed his case in the 12th Judicial District, covering Otero and Lincoln Counties, while the party chairs filed in the Second District, which covers Bernalillo County.

The stage was set for the dispute at 9:06 a.m. on Candidate Signing Day, March 10, when Barela signed up at the Otero County Clerk’s Office to run for the Republican nomination to seek reelection as county commissioner.

Two minutes later, at 9:08 a.m., Emery filed to run for the District 2 nomination. Emery, who said he plans to retire this year as a deputy with the Otero County Sheriff’s Office, had announced his candidacy in January.

Barela was first elected to the Otero County Commission in 2022 and is running to win a second four-year term. She was elected GOP chair by the party’s state central committee in 2024, succeeding former Congressman Steve Pearce.

Commissioners are compensated with a $30,000 salary along with health and life insurance. The job of state chair is an unpaid position.

Barela said the argument over her eligibility to continue serving as state chair comes down to the bylaw’s wording, “… and there is another Republican who has filed for the same office,” meaning to her that she would have to vacate the chairmanship only if she were challenging a fellow Republican who had filed to run in the primary before she did.

Barela entered the race first, she said, and thus she did not violate the rule.

“Any officer can declare her office and then another Republican can declare for the same office just to get rid of me,” she said. “The rule was written that way for a reason so that another Republican cannot declare to remove an officer from their seat.”

Dowling and others have tried multiple times to convene a meeting of the state central committee to remove Barela as chair but have failed to generate the support needed to call such a meeting.

Unable to oust Barela using party procedures, the county chairs looked to the court system.

“It is the duty of Republicans to uphold our rules, and we believe there will be a confirmation by the judicial process that a vacancy exists,” Orner said.

Albuquerque-based attorney Robert Aragon, who represents the plaintiffs and is also a member of the state central committee, said the lawsuit was not initiated to seek monetary damages but was intended to force Barela to recuse herself from party leadership during the election.

“We hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but in reality, litigation is now our only recourse,” Aragon said. “It’s clear that Amy Barela refuses to follow the rules, and when it was suggested to her that she recuse herself from running for public office in a contested race in Otero County, she refused to take it under consideration.”

Barela accused those who are calling for her to step down of “weaponizing” the party’s internal rules to replace her with a leader from one of the state’s urban areas around Albuquerque in the northern part of the state.

“I’m not sure there is a Republican in Bernalillo County,” she said. “They don’t have the same value system as in southern New Mexico. That’s very apparent. They dictate everything.”