THOMPSON

get close to covering the costs. e Bureau of Land Management, for example, requires an operator to put up just $10,000 per individual well. Bigger operators can take out a single, $150,000 blanket bond that covers all of their wells — whether it’s ve or 500 — on public lands nationwide.

Yet the average cost to plug and reclaim a single oil and gas well, according to a 2021study, is a whopping $76,000, with costs for deeper wells shooting up into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. at would add up to a $3.8 million cleanup bill for Chuza Oil’s 50 wells in the Horseshoe Gallup eld.

Court records show the company’s reclamation bonds with the Navajo Nation and federal government add up to less than $130,000, or about $2,500 per well. at means federal taxpayers — you and me — are on the hook for the remaining $3.7 million and change. And that’s just for

Burn notice

EL RANCHO – Lights a-blaze and sirens a-blare, deputies raced to Hotel Way on the evening of Feb. 11 following panicked 911 reports of a major re at the RV storage lot. ey arrived to nd Moe, Curly and Shemp standing in the parking lot with giddy grins on their faces and, possibly, singed eyebrows. As it happens, Moe recently purchased “a ame thrower online” and had been demonstrating his perilous new plaything for the entertainment of his envious entourage. Moe assured the o cers he’d directed the infernal plume “up the hill” and had damaged no artifacts of Man. Since using a ame thrower in a storage facility parking lot is not prohibited by law, deputies doused the case.

Tough customer EVERGREEN – It should have been a nice little piece of business for the Bergen Park eatery. e woman who sat down at the bar on the evening of Feb. 5 opened a tab and worked it hard. While her custom was appreciated, her constant “complaining” and nasty “berating” of the sta was not, and the manager eventually asked her to settle up and scoot. She might have even done that if her credit card hadn’t been repeatedly declined, setting up a protracted confrontation and a call to JCSO. e manager told deputies he just wanted her gone, and after giving the o cers an angry taste of what the sta had endured she got into her car (after rst trying to get into a similar car parked next to her own), and left the restaurant holding her $238.00 bag. Needless to say, the disagreeable diner is now persona non grata.

Sheri ’s Calls is intended as a humorous take on some of the incident call records of the Je erson County Sheri ’s O ce for the mountain communities. Names and identifying details have been changed. All individuals are innocent until proven guilty.