BY FRANCES MADESON

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES SANTA FE — Burning gas, losing sleep and risking disrespect, Navajo citizens and Diné representatives from the Sierra Club, San Juan Collaborative for Health Equity, Diné CARE, and other organizations concerned about the adverse impacts of continued fracking in the San Juan basin descended upon a Jan. 19 hearing of the New Mexico Oil Conservation Division like a flock of demanding herons.

They arrived at the 8:15 a.m. hearing to make sure that William V. Jones, Chief Examiner, Leonard Lowe, Technical Examiner and David K. Brooks, Legal Examiner, heard their objections to the continued approval of fracking wells, pools, and injection technologies.

Concerned especially about WPX Energy’s application for approval of its Rodeo Unit, in which WPX would be able to frack 6,247.39 acres of Federal and Allotted Indian lands six miles southwest of Nageezi, with only a 330-foot setback, the group was undaunted when WPX was granted a continuance until Feb. 16.

Having traveled hundreds of miles to have their say, they would offer their comments in connection with an application from Robert L. Bayless, Producer LLC for approval of the East Horseshoe Gallup Unit.

Elizabeth Ryan, Esq., a partner in the legal firm Carson Ryan LLC representing Bayless in the matter of the application, objected stating that “they’re not interest owners within the area.” But Legal Examiner Brooks allowed the public comments, noting it was not exactly in accordance with procedures, but that “they would in this instance “err on the side of allowing testimony.”

Approximately, three hours later, after the Bayless witnesses had been called and examined, the public comment period commenced with a forceful series of demands from Daniel Tso, an allottee, who bristled at Ryan’s earlier suggestion that they have no interest in the area under discussion. “You look at a map with lines on it, but there’s people who are living out there,” he said, his voice slightly quavering.

Tso cited the need for tribal consultation through the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act, and ticked off a litany of adverse community impacts of fracking including: flaring, venting, methane buildup, aquifer contamination, semi-truck traffic on substandard roads, and issues of school bus safety.

Kelly Swan, Media Relations officer at WPX wrote in an email to the Times that their permits stipulate, “We take care of the roads that lead to our drill sites. We do this with permission from the county.”

But according to Tso, these are not the roads in question. “WPX also intrudes on many other roads and this does not enhance community safety,” he said.  At the hearing, he addressed Messrs. Jones, Lowe and Brooks directly. “You are in effect unleashing, in terms of Navajo mythology, a monster – you need those thoughts to pervade through in your decision-making.”

The monster is very real for Kendra Pinto whose home is on one of the parcels that had been auctioned off by BLM on Jan. 25. She was there to remind the examiners that their decisions have real-life effects on living breathing people who have to endure many hardships of oil and gas activity, while receiving none of the benefits.

“There’s no point in talking about the well sites without talking about the people who have to breathe in these gases,” she insisted. “There’s no walls between these pieces of property, there’s no wall to keep us safe from the negative impacts.”

Ryan clarified that the Bayless site is not hear Pinto’s home.

“Frustration with the lease sale has nothing to do with Bayless, who is also concerned about air quality; they’re injecting gases instead of venting,” she said. “The concerns expressed may be valid and should be considered, but not in connection with our state application.”

After the July 2016 fire at the WPX facility in Nageezi, community members had expressed the need for half-mile setbacks to ensure safety in the event of future explosions. Swan advised that WPX negotiates the setbacks in agreement with allottees.

Tso, an allottee, was unaware of any such negotiations. “A Land Man arrives with a document already prepared, and asks for your signature,” Tso said.

With respect to the Rodeo Unit, the first drill site exceeds the community’s request.

“If approved,” Swan stated, “the first drill site in the unit is planned for this year, and the nearest structure to that particular location is roughly 4,700 feet away.” But their application seeks latitude to “allow for wells to be located anywhere within the proposed Unit Area so long as the completed interval is no closer than 330 feet from the outer boundary of the proposed Unit.”

Janene Yazzie, an enrolled member, also offered public comments and also responded directly to Ryan’s point of clarification. “Our point is not that we live on the site, but we still are concerned; we’re nearer in proximity than you all are,” Yazzie declared.

Yazzie also expressed grave concerns about potential earthquakes from injection. “Our area has no seismic activity, it’s very stable,” she advised Ryan. “Any seismic disruptions would cause great devastation to our community.” In the case of the Nageezi fire, the community was helpless to respond to the devastation. They have no fire department.

“Emergency management plans are kept and maintained by the county, by San Juan County Emergency Management,” explained Swan. His office made introductions between their personnel and the Nageezi Chapter leaders.

But according to Sam Sage, Secretary of the nearby Counselor Chapter, his requests to have a copy on hand at the Chapter house have gone unheeded. “The communication isn’t there. We see the WPX vehicles going up and down the road,” he said. “But no one from the company has said a word to us about future emergencies.”

By profession, a scientific researcher in soil, water, and environmental science, Yazzie expressed concerns for soil stability, which is at risk because of climate change. “As Navajo people, we ask for the record, as the oil companies and the state use us as resource colonies, why should we absorb these risks without help?”

Chili Yazzie (no relation) spoke next, not in his capacity as president of the Shiprock Chapter, but as a grandfather concerned for the viability of future generations. He told the hearing examiners and representatives of the oil producers, “I stand here in defense of my Earth Mother, on behalf of my beautiful grandchildren.”

He offered a statement of fundamental protest to the hearing process. “I first state for the record, my objection to the thought that somehow we as Indigenous peoples of these lands do not have the rights to speak on concerns relative to our aboriginal lands,” he stated. “My reciprocal comment is, I question the authority of BLM and such other agencies to determine the disposition of these lands. I question the validity of these boundary lines, the titles and deeds that purport ownership, because the fact remains that these lands were violently wrested away from my ancestors based on the unjust and illegal Doctrine of Discovery. Therefore, these boundary lines, land titles, and subsequent authorities may not have legitimate roots.”

His sweeping credo went on to assert the aliveness of Mother Earth who “thrives on love and suffers with pain” and to excoriate the oil and gas industry and governmental agencies that facilitate the extraction of fossil fuels for killing her.

“Proponents of this energy development cannot be so ignorant to deny that they are the cause of this impending demise,” he said. Reminding everyone that the operative Resource Management Plan of 2003 “doesn’t address horizontal fracking,”

Robert Tohe of the Sierra Club referenced the principles contained in the U.N. Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The principles, which were adopted by the U.S. in 2007, require the free and informed consent of Indigenous peoples before resource extraction.

Tohe issued a dire public warning to the examiners. “You’re rushing into a dark area where you’re going to plunge everyone into further chaos. But we want to come out of it,” Tohe said.

Donna House, a Navajo citizen, had traveled 250 miles to ask the hearing examiners one thing in particular about the aftermath of spills and toxic chemicals and despoiled water. “Who’s gonna be there?” The silence reverberated in the hearing room. “We’re gonna be there,” she continued, “our great-greatgrandkids are going to be there; so it’s important to us to make sure there are rules to protect our water and air.”

Standing in opposition to environmental racism, Hazel James, coordinator of the San Juan Collaborative for Health Equity issued a challenge to the examiners, one she hopes will prove constructive.

“These laws are being conducted upon us,” she told them. “We need to change that from today. The few of us that came have a lot to share; the leaders here need to learn our Indigenous ways, and learn about what’s harming us. We can’t have decision-makers that don’t know how to walk on earth in a good way.”

The hearing notice for the Feb. 16 hearing to consider WPX’s application for the Rodeo Unit is scheduled to be sent out by the Oil Conservation Division no later than Feb. 2.