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SANTA FE, N.M. — A coalition of local and national environmental groups say they intend to sue the federal Bureau of Land Management if that agency moves ahead with a lease sale of Santa Fe National Forest lands Wednesday for oil and gas hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking.

The oral auction will be at the BLM State Office at 9 a.m. at 301 Dinosaur Trail in Santa Fe. “Parcels will be awarded to qualified bidders offering the highest acceptable bid” with a minimum bid of $2 per acre, according to a BLM news release.

The environmental groups oppose the sale because “the environmental assessment that BLM put out for this refused to take a look at any of the environmental and cultural impacts that the oil and gas development might have,” said Kyle Tisdel, attorney and director of the Western Environmental Law Center in Taos, which is representing Amigos Bravos, Chaco Alliance, Earthworks, Rio Arriba Concerned Citizens, San Juan Citizens Alliance and WildEarth Guardians.

“BLM received more than 100 letters protesting the sale and challenging the agency’s failure to consider potentially serious impacts to the area’s air, water, wildlife and surrounding communities,” he said in a news release. A BLM public information officer could not be reached for comment late Monday.

The almost 20,000 acres in question are mostly contiguous parcels in Rio Arriba and San Juan counties on the western side of the Santa Fe National Forest along the Continental Divide, said Tisdel.

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“These parcels were nominated for leasing, and the BLM received consent from the U.S. Forest Service to go forward with the sale,” the agency said in its news release.

An final action or “lease issuance” rather than just Wednesday’s sale must proceed a lawsuit, said Tisdel. While the U.S. Forest Service has control of the surface resources on national forests, the BLM has jurisdiction over the subsurface resources, he explained.