By Electa Draper
Denver Post Four Corners Bureau
Thursday, February 05, 2004 -
FOUR CORNERS - Navajo Nation chapters, environmental groups and ranchers are suing the Department of the Interior for approving industry plans for almost 10,000 new oil and gas wells on public lands in northwestern New Mexico.
The coalition alleges that the 20- year development plan for one of the largest natural gas reserves in North America would destroy the region's air quality, thousands of Native American cultural sites and the local ranching economy.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, claims that Interior and the Bureau of Land Management violated federal laws protecting the environment and cultural resources by deciding in December to allow that many wells and more than 12,500 new compressors, 1,000 miles of new roads and 75,000 tons of air contaminants. This would be added to existing development, which includes 18,000 active wells and more compressors.
"The BLM is approving massive new development, yet they are clearly not able to handle the soil, range, water, air and wildlife impacts that are overwhelming communities throughout the basin from existing development alone," said Treciafaye "Tweeti" Blancett, one of two ranchers who are plaintiffs in the suit.
BLM officials have said they cannot comment on pending litigation. But they defended approval of the plan last year by saying that development of the energy resource will occur incrementally over 20 years, and that the BLM will not allow full development if impacts violate federal standards.
Blancett and another New Mexico rancher, Don Schreiber, allege that the BLM's lax permitting practices and failure to enforce its own rules have imposed an extreme hardship on their operations, from the uncontrolled spread of noxious weeds to ruined roads and unfenced hazards.
Two Durango-based environmental groups, the San Juan Citizens Alliance and the Oil and Gas Accountability Project, have joined with the Natural Resources Defense Council and Dine Care of the Navajo Nation to make a case that existing oil and gas operations already threaten to emit ozone in excess of federal safety limits.
More development, they say, ensures that will happen. They also say such expansive operations scar entire landscapes, destroy ecosystems and ruin grazing lands.
Officials of three Navajo chapters, which are units of local government on the reservation, said they object to proposed drilling on two mesas sacred to them, Gobernador Knob and Huerfano.
"The BLM's proposal will directly impact thousands of cultural sites, many of which hold great importance to the members of the Dine (Navajo people), yet we were not consulted," said Sam Sage of the Pueblo Pintado Chapter. The other two chapters bringing the suit are Counselor and Huerfano.
Environmentalists said the BLM's environmental study was flawed and incomplete. They said it did not look at the big picture for the region, which, they said, is staggering in terms of cumulative impacts such as air pollution.
The BLM plan that drew the lawsuit is out of its Farmington, N.M., field office. It calls for the 10,000 new wells on 1.4 million acres of public lands, and is just one development plan among many.
The BLM and Forest Service are studying development plans for 300 new gas wells on federal leases in southwestern Colorado. And the Southern Ute Tribe has planned for more than 700 new wells on its reservation in southwestern Colorado.