HOTCHKISS, Colo. (KKCO) - Thirty thousand acres of public land in Delta County could soon become drill sites for oil and gas. The Bureau of Land Management will ultimately make the decision in whether to lease 22 parcels of land to drillers.

Zephyros Organic Farm is surrounded by serene mountains, but the sprawling scenery in Delta County might soon change. The BLM is considering leasing 30,000 acres of land to oil and gas drillers.

"We do a lot of agro-tourism, and if you're smelling rotten eggs, or you're drinking water that gets lit on fire...is that what we want for our community?" says Don Lareau, owner of Hotchkiss.

The answer across much of the North Fork Valley is, "no." Don Lareau fears that the water supply will become tainted, sickening farms and homes in Paonia, Hotchkiss and Crawford.

"There's a video of a goat in Garfield County that gave birth to a head," says Lareau, describing the affects he says he believes drilling has had in other areas of Colorado.

Robyn Morrison and her group, Citizens for a Healthy Community, also worry about traffic from heavy machinery. "Gas drilling and fracking is a dirty business, and it produces air pollution," says Morrison.

Concerned residents here in the North Fork Valley say that the BLM is basing their decision to lease on land use assessments that are twenty years old.

"The BLM Uncompahgre Field Office is currently in the process of revising their resource management plans, where we'll once again look at all their parcels," says Lori Armstrong. However, the BLM says its not sure whether they'll wait for the new resource management plans to be completed before granting or denying the leases.

The BLM says they will weigh the environmental effects versus the economic gain of giving rigs the right of way. "It's more what are the impacts and what are the resources, and what are the values that are there," says Armstrong.

Meantime, those who live in a quiet, rural community will continue to deter drilling at their back door.

Wednesday night, hundreds of people in the North Fork Valley attended a town hall meeting with the BLM over the potential leases. There will be another meeting Thursday night at 6:30 pm at the Crawford Town Hall.