Op Ed

BY JOAQUIN RAY GALLEGOS
SANTA ANA PUEBLO

It’s time for New Mexico to keep the beast out of the garden by stopping
the Bureau of Land Management from exploiting the Chaco Canyon area.
The $ 3 million BLM sale of drilling permits for 843 acres surrounding
Chaco Canyon aims to unlock access to a holy part of the San Juan Basin, the
oil-rich region that also holds the nation’s largest natural gas field.
But because Pueblo Indian nations maintain a millennia-old relationship
with this architectural wonder and surrounding environment, any destruction or
pollution to the area will cause permanent harm with no possible redress.
The BLM Farmington Field Office advances a suspect history. Current office
manager Rick Fields says that ” improving ” industry partnerships and ”
streamlining ” procedures are a top priority, a dog whistle for serving
extractive interests.

The office refuses to update the 2003 Mancos-Gallup Resource Management
Plan and Environmental Impact Statement. Because the 2003 versions do not
account for hydrologic fracturing and associated consequences, corporations
are effectively operating without accurate oversight. Lack of transparency,
willful ignorance and expediting complex decisions is not future-focused land
management.

The Chaco Canyon affair fits with the Trump administration’s effort to
install a free-form regulatory system and to allow the petroleum industry to
experience a windfall at the expense of public and tribal lands and waters.
For example, the administration stayed the Consolidated Federal Oil & Gas
and Federal & Indian Coal Valuation Reform Final Rule, which was set to
raise the royalty rates corporations pay to the federal government, Indian
Nations and individual Indians for oil, gas and coal extraction.

Also, the administration ( delayed for two years ) the Methane and Natural
Gas Waste Prevention Rule, which requires corporations to lower the amount
of flaring, venting and leaking of natural gas from operations on public
and tribal lands. The rule is smart because it is estimated that over $ 100
million is lost annually from public and tribal lands in New Mexico solely
because of wasted natural gas.

Because San Juan Basin extraction accounts for over 14. 5 percent of total
U. S. methane emissions, a massive methane ” hot spot” hovers over the Four
Corners.

Yet the extractive industry is signaling an increase in San Juan Basin
activity. For example, in December 2016 BP announced that it is moving its
Lower 48 regional headquarters to Denver, closer to its growing Colorado and
New Mexico investments, as part of its ” commitment to the San Juan Basin. ”

It is apparent that the BLM has a lot of deference in its decision-making
because 91 percent of federal lands surrounding Chaco Canyon are already
leased for oil, gas and mineral operation. But deference does not mean
abdication ; the BLM must carry out its legal obligation to protect our lands and
waters.

Ultimately, we must hold the BLM and extractive corporations accountable,
and fight the finalization and release of the drilling permits because Chaco
Canyon deserves to last forever.

Joaquin Ray Gallegos, of Santa Ana Pueblo and the Jicarilla Apache Nation,
is a law student and delegate to the United Nations Permanent Forum on
Indigenous Issues.