Protecting Chaco is necessary and right
While it is historic that Interior Secretary Deb Haaland plans to protect an area around Chaco Culture National Historical Park from oil and gas drilling, I continue to be disappointed by the managing federal agencies’ reluctance to consult with community members in the process.
After President Joe Biden and Secretary Haaland announced plans for a 20-year moratorium on new drilling and leasing of federal lands within a 10-mile radius of Chaco Culture National Historical Park, the Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Indian Affairs held three public meetings to gather public input on the mineral withdrawal and yet-to-be-defined “Honoring Chaco” initiative. Two of these public meetings were held in Farmington and the other online.
Unfortunately, the public meetings failed to uphold principles of engagement and were far from any semblance of tribal collaboration and consultation. Public comment was not allowed, and agency officials simply held a question-and-answer session. To add insult to injury, when members of the public provided questions that included historically significant information about the cultural relevance and importance of the greater Chaco landscape, they were rebuffed and asked to limit the length of their “questions.”
Tribes, community members and stakeholders have long articulated their concerns about drilling impacts in the Greater Chaco region from degraded air and water quality, desecration of cultural resources, unsafe road conditions, unregulated activities by oil and gas operators, increased illness from pollution, and more. Oil and gas extraction causes harm to our communities, the climate and is a source of political instability around the world. The only solution to offset these impacts is to transition off fossil fuels and invest in clean, renewable energy. A temporary prevention of new leasing and drilling near Chaco is a good first approach, but meaningful protections must go further to mitigate the harms of decades of mineral extraction.
Any initiative to truly honor Chaco must address the legacy impacts for which the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management are directly responsible. These include orphaned and abandoned wells that leak methane; produced water and oil spills that contaminate the soil and aquifers; the desecration of sacred sites; and compounding public health impacts. Communities, the environment, land, air and water have suffered enough.
This is why the agencies must extend protections from new oil and gas development beyond a 10-mile radius throughout the greater Chaco landscape, which cannot be defined by lines on a map. To truly understand, the greater Chaco region is a living and ancient cultural landscape that encompasses over 75,000 acres across four states in the Southwest with over 200 known Chacoan outliers that are sacred to Indigenous people.
The Biden administration made a commitment to strengthen tribal consultation and collaboration, prioritize environmental justice in its climate policies, and reduce pollution to combat the climate crisis. The time is now for the administration’s actions to meet its rhetoric and cease from continuing to lease more lands for drilling in the greater Chaco landscape. The pause in fracking and extension of the comment period on mineral withdrawals through May 6 are important steps.
To truly “honor Chaco,” the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Indian Affairs need to hear directly from communities impacted by oil and gas development. Holding meetings in Farmington and online when many don’t have internet connections further marginalizes those most impacted by federal agency decisions. Before any decision is made, meaningful engagement with tribes and impacted communities is central to ensuring permanent landscape-level protections are in place throughout the broader greater Chaco landscape so the legacy of this place is preserved for generations.