{"id":72954,"date":"2017-01-13T22:38:05","date_gmt":"2017-01-14T05:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/oil-and-gas-lease-sale-near-chaco-canyon-scheduled\/"},"modified":"2017-01-14T05:38:05","modified_gmt":"2017-01-14T05:38:05","slug":"oil-and-gas-lease-sale-near-chaco-canyon-scheduled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/oil-and-gas-lease-sale-near-chaco-canyon-scheduled\/","title":{"rendered":"Oil and gas lease sale near Chaco Canyon scheduled"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Bureau of Land Management on Wednesday decided to proceed with an oil and gas lease sale on about 840 acres near Chaco Culture National Historical Park.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

An oil and gas lease sale that would auction off about 840 acres near Chaco Culture National Historical Park will proceed on Jan. 25 after five years of challenges from opponents.<\/p>\n

The Bureau of Land Management announced this week that four parcels spanning Rio Arriba and Sandoval counties in New Mexico will be in an online auction at 9 a.m.<\/p>\n

In 2012, the parcels were authorized for leasing by the Mineral Leasing Act and the BLM\u2019s Farmington office\u2019s 2003 Resource Management Plan, spokesman Zach Stone said.<\/p>\n

The proposed sale immediately was met with opposition from a coalition of tribal members as well as environmental groups, who say energy development would affect sacred lands and adversely affect communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the purpose and reason for fighting it all along,\u201d former Torreon council member Daniel Tso said of drilling\u2019s risk to local residents. \u201cThey are opposed to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a result, the proposed sale was delayed three times over the past five years, and spurred the BLM office to launch an extensive community outreach effort to garner feedback.<\/p>\n

After a review of Wednesday\u2019s proposed lease sale, Tso and Shiprock Chapter President Duane \u201cChili\u201d Yazzie said the BLM did not effectively take public input into consideration.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an amazing contradiction to me,\u201d Yazzie said. \u201cThey say they are getting input into the process from the local people, but at the same time they seem to be proceeding with the sale, regardless of what comments they generate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tso said tribal leaders will meet with BLM\u2019s New Mexico state director, Amy Leuders, on Tuesday to plead their case again, with the hopes of delaying the sale for the fourth time or canceling it.<\/p>\n

The tribal activists argue the BLM\u2019s \u201cenvironmental assessment\u201d does not fully evaluate the impact of drilling in the area, whether it be health impacts to residents or damage to sacred lands.<\/p>\n

And they are quick to point out the BLM\u2019s 2003 Resource Management Plan was drafted before fracking technology became a commonplace form of extracting oil and gas reserves.<\/p>\n

The BLM states in its environmental assessment that energy development in the region \u201cis not expected to have significant impacts on the environment,\u201d and that further evaluation is not necessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel like there needs to be one,\u201d Tso said of a more intensive evaluation of oil and gas extraction. \u201cThis assessment didn\u2019t and does not address environmental justice aspects.\u201d<\/p>\n

The area around Chaco Culture National Historical Park, the cultural center of the ancestral Puebloan people from about 900 to 1150 A.D., has become a hotbed for the dueling interests of energy development and conservation.<\/p>\n

The closest parcel included in the BLM\u2019s lease sale comes within about 20 miles of the park boundaries, the BLM spokesman Stone said, and the total 843 acres are surrounded by oil and gas development.<\/p>\n

According to Emily Bowie of the San Juan Citizens Alliance, 91 percent of the land known as the Greater Chaco area \u2013 the area around the park, rich in archaeology but not protected \u2013 is leased to oil and gas interests.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the BLM had done a better job with the environmental analysis, people wouldn\u2019t be this upset,\u201d Bowie said.<\/p>\n

Stone said all leases within 10 miles of the Chaco Culture National Historical Park boundary have been deferred, and that there are stipulations on leased parcels that may address additional concerns.<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

3 delays, about 840 acres up for auction<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[2367,221,1655,195],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-72954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-chaco-culture-national-historical-park","tag-gas-and-oil","tag-navajo-nation","tag-u-s-bureau-of-land-management"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72954"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=72954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}