"Last night, an explosion at a WPX Energy oil well pad near Counselor, 
in the Chaco Canyon area, ignited a massive fire that enveloped 36 
large oil storage tanks and burned through the night, causing evacuations 
and the temporary closure of Highway 550.  The event demonstrates the 
increasing dangers of modern fossil fuel development, highlights the 
environment damage of the industry, and serves as a sobering reminder 
of the urgent need to build safe, clean renewable energy in place of 
fossil fuels. 

“For years, our community has dealt with the impacts of this industry – 
the noise, the light, the air pollution, and knowing that each well 
drilled locks in years of climate changing pollution,” said Samuel 
Sage, Counselor Chapter Community Services Coordinator. "But today, 
we reached the end of our rope as we watched the biggest
disaster yet pollute the skies and blacken the earth.”
 
The explosion comes as the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees 
much of the development in the area, continues to approve additional 
wells for development.  Already, over 90% of the lands within BLM’s 
Farmington Field Office have been leased to oil and gas companies yet 
BLM plans to auction off additional acres for fracking during the 
January 2017 lease sale. 
 
“Enough is enough,” said Kendra Pinto, Counselor Chapter Outreach 
Intern.  “It seems like every month we see more wells here, and things 
are going to get worse if the drilling doesn’t stop.  At this rate, 
what will be left here for our children?  The land has changed.”
 
“I know people want jobs,” continued Sage.  “But why must they come 
at the expense of our air, water, and climate?  Many other places are 
building clean energy generation and creating well-paying jobs in the 
process.  That is our future, not this dirty industry.”

“Unfortunately, this may be the tip of the iceberg,” said Rebecca Sobel, 
Senior Climate & Energy Campaigner at WildEarth Guardians.  “The Obama 
Administration has already leased more than 10 million acres of public 
land to oil and gas drilling, and BLM continues to lease more land in 
New Mexico to fracking interests without studying these impacts. How 
many more explosions and evacuations will it take before we seriously 
consider the cost of these dirty fossil fuel industries and simply end
this leasing program?"

The Bureau of Land Management is responsible for administering oil and 
gas operations across Federal, State, Navajo Trust, and Navajo Allottee 
lands. BLM Farmington has yet to complete an Amendment to the 2003 
Resource Management Plan, which currently fails to analyze the impacts 
of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing in the Mancos shale.