An environmental assessment of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s withdrawal from mineral leases on national land around Chaco Culture National Historical Park indicates that fewer than a dozen Navajo allotments would be significantly affected by this decision.
This is based on past analysis of where potential development could occur.
The withdrawal is intended to protect sites sacred to the Pueblo and Navajo, or Dine, peoples of New Mexico.
The process began about a year ago when Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of Laguna Pueblo, issued a secretary order calling for a 20-year moratorium on new oil and gas leases near the Chaco Culture National Historical Park. It started with
Fewer than 12 assignees will be significantly affected, while another 39 assignees may be moderately impacted by the withdrawal. The majority of over 1,000 quotas will not be affected at all by the withdrawal, and 177 quotas will be less impacted.
Revocation only affects new leases of federal minerals and does not prevent assignees from leasing mineral rights. However, as some of the assignees have pointed out, the checkered nature of land titles means that closing the assignee’s new lease option could reduce the oil companies’ interest and ability to pursue the assignee’s minerals. Limited.
The 160-acre allocation is often a checkerboard with federal mineral estates, according to environmental assessments, and withdrawing federal minerals effectively prevents companies from extracting oil and gas from their allocated mineral rights. It could mean that you can’t
The total area is about 960,000 acres, but only 338,960 acres of it will be affected. Because the rest are tribal, state or private. A state moratorium on oil and gas leases around Chaco expires next year.
At the BLM Public Comment Meeting in Farmington on Monday, the allotments spoke about colonialism and how their ancestors were forced from their lands and homes.
Grace Newton Begay was born in what is now the Chaco Culture National Historical Park. She said her family was forced to move to a new lot when the park was built.
Now the federal government is trying to prevent quotas like her family from making money from oil, she says.
“It’s been too long for my people to suffer there,” she told BLM officials.
Many quotas have to haul water and firewood down rough dirt roads in trucks.
Opponents of the withdrawal say the oil companies are good managers and that development will not occur if evidence shows that the wells affect important cultural and archaeological sites.
However, not all assignees are against withdrawal.
When the withdrawal was announced last year, anti-oil exploitation advocate Dine Allotte applauded Harland’s order to temporarily ban new mining.
Mario Atensio attended a meeting in Farmington on Monday. He said his family is assigned to the Chaco area.
“Assignees are not monolithic,” he said.
Atencio advocates for a buffer zone around Chaco and often talks about the impact of emissions from oil and gas on people living in the area.
He expressed some concerns about the environmental assessment, which he felt did not adequately highlight its impact on public health.
“A withdrawal would actually have a significant impact on public health,” he told BLM.
said caution NM Political Report He wants to see human health analysis.
Possibility of oil and gas development
Farmington environmental activist David Fosdek analyzed where oil and gas wells are located within the proposed withdrawal area. He found that much of the current development is along the Great North Road. The Great North Road is an ancestral Pueblo road that connects Chaco with suburban communities.
Mr. Fosdek said there was little interest in the areas of exit from oil companies.
He found that more than half of the 911 wells in the evacuation area were blocked. Only 35, or 4%, of them are considered new wells, and they are mostly wells that one company inherited when it bought another company’s property, he said.
This included state, tribal and private land sites as well as federal lands.
There are 80 existing leases within federal withdrawal areas according to environmental assessments. Of these leases, 78 have at least one well. This will allow you to renew those leases. Two other leases will expire next year if the wells are not developed. Withdrawal does not preclude the development of these leases.
An environmental assessment estimates that the withdrawal could result in 47 fewer wells being developed. These wells include 20 horizontal wells and 27 vertical wells. This leads to a loss of 49 jobs, representing less than 6% of total employment in the region’s fossil fuel industry.
The environmental assessment also estimates a lost economic contribution of $12 million per well per year.
These figures are likely to be higher than what actually occurs, as the environmental assessment does not take into account future developments of existing leases unaffected by exits.
Most of the oil drilling in the Chaco region takes place east of the proposed drilling areas.
Navajo Nation Council President Daniel Tso represents the non-secession region, which has been greatly affected by recent oil and gas drilling. Tso is concerned about the health impacts of the extractive industry, including methane and volatile organic compound emissions.
“In this case, the microenvironment basically has a footprint of hundreds of miles,” Tso said.
He said methane plumes from oil and gas development can affect communities miles from the site, and carbon emissions are impacting climate change.
While oil and gas development has benefited the state, the nation, and San Juan County, the Navajo have made energy sacrifices that have not benefited from the paved roads, parks, or pools that oil and gas revenues have allowed in places. It remains a zone, said Tso, like Farmington.
He said there is still a lot of potential for oil drilling in places like the Permian Basin that won’t affect sacred sites.
He has pushed for what he calls landscape-scale conservation of the Greater Chaco region.
The Environmental Assessment states that there are 125 known Chaco outliers within the Farmington Field Office. Of these, 21 are on BLM-controlled land and 9 of the 21 are within the proposed withdrawal area. Two of the outliers outside the withdrawal region would benefit from proximity.
Landscape protection can mean protecting outliers and other sites. This could also include protecting the Dinetah defense site. These sites are located in the Navajo Dam area, which includes Largo Canyon and Crow Mesa, where much mining is currently taking place.
Uranium and Coal Mining
Even with limited interest in developing oil and gas leases within the proposed withdrawal area, Tso said the withdrawal remains important because it has implications beyond oil and gas. I was. He will also ban coal and uranium mining for 20 years.
On the map, Tso pointed out areas where coal mining had been proposed in the past or where uranium mining contamination remained within the withdrawal area. BLM’s environmental assessment determined that there is little potential for future coal or uranium mining, although deposits exist within the withdrawal area.
Environmental assessments indicate that approximately 294,000 acres within the exit area are suitable for coal leasing, but BLM does not expect any new coal operations within the next 20 years.
Uranium mining ceased in New Mexico in 2002, but the Grants Uranium District was once one of the nation’s largest uranium producers. This district includes areas within the retreat that include parts of the Nose Rock, Chaco Canyon Church Rock Crown Point, Lake Smith, and Lake Ambrosia sub-districts. Some mines are still decommissioned.
Tso talked about the mining that took place near Crownpoint. He said water pumped from the valley ran down a dam near Lake Valley.
“Its environmental effects hadn’t been studied,” he said.
According to the Environmental Assessment, recent exploration for uranium has taken place southwest and southeast of the proposed withdrawal. The Environmental Assessment further states that uranium can be extracted at a lower cost in other states or foreign countries.
However, over 100 unpatented uranium mining rights are in dispute within the withdrawal zone.
He said there may be an economic impact from the withdrawal, but an environmental assessment would also be beneficial.
“By reducing exploration activities that contribute to noise and emissions over the next 20 years, the proposed withdrawal could have a positive impact on the landscape and cultural values of the Chaco region, increasing the experience of recreational users. It could benefit quality,” it said.
This could include reducing light pollution. Chaco Culture National Historical Park is recognized as an international Dark Sky Park.
Gillian Aragon, spokesperson for BLM’s Farmington Field office, said the office will submit a withdrawal package to Harland. Haaland will consider it and if approved, she will issue a public land order and BLM will file a report with Congress.
