After a Century, Oil and Gas Problems Persist on Navajo Lands

 

...These days, on his visits home, while looking for memories of the past, he also looks for leaking oil wells. A few years ago, the wells near the hogan changed owners from one in Colorado to one in Texas, and Jay says with that came a reduction in maintenance. “They’re neglecting it as far as I’m concerned,” he says. When he finds leaks, Jay says he reports them to Navajo environmental agencies, but even when the spills are obvious and undeniable, cleanup has been slow and erratic.

It’s an old story. This October marks the 100th anniversary of the first oil leases on the Navajo Nation. In that time, outsiders have shown up looking for uranium, coal, oil and other minerals, taking resources and money while leaving contamination and poverty behind.

Today, the wells surrounding Jay’s old home are but one sign of the lingering tensions between commercial mineral extraction and the health and well-being of the Navajo. Twenty-five miles to the south, a proposed pipeline would carry hydrogen made from natural gas tapped in the region. Seventy miles to the south and east, new gas and oil development around Chaco Culture National Park pits Navajo against Navajo. And everywhere on the Navajo Nation, people tell stories of health problems linked to work in extractive industries.

...The New Mexico Oil Conservation Division has records of nearly 300 wells within four miles of Jay’s old home, including the one Jay rode with his brother. It still pumps — slowly — and that makes it special. Many of those wells were drilled in the 1950s during the region’s second big oil boom, and most are now plugged — but not all.

...A collection of tribal, state and federal agencies handle different aspects of well regulation on the Nation, including the Navajo Nation EPA, the Navajo Nation Water Quality Program, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Land Management and the New Mexico Oil Conservation Division.

Allison Sandoval, a spokesperson for the BLM, says that the Navajo Nation EPA has primary jurisdiction for facilities and enforcement on the Nation. But operators are also required to report “undesirable events” to BLM when spills exceed certain amounts and/or are within sensitive environmental areas. The spills that Jay and Hernandez saw would seem to meet those guidelines — all are next to or in waterways — but Sandoval says that the agency has no records of spills at those locations and no record at all of the tank farm. Emails to the Navajo Nation EPA about the spills went unanswered...more