WildEarth Guardians 350.org New Mexico Albuquerque Center for Peace & Justice Chainbreaker Citizens for Fair Rates and the Environment Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment Earth Care Earthworks Eric Oppenheimer Family Foundation Food & Water Watch Frack Free Four Corners Frack Free New Mexico The Global Warming Express Great Old Broads for Wilderness Honor Our Pueblo Existence Indigenous Cultural Concepts Indigenous Life Ways Interfaith Leadership Alliance of Santa Fe Interfaith Worker Justice - New Mexico Laguna Acoma Coalition for a Safe Environment Las Vegas Peace and Justice Center Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment New Energy Economy Native American Voters Alliance New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light NM MoveOn.org New Mexico Story Power Northern New Mexico Climate Activists Our Revolution New Mexico Physicians for Social Responsibility New Mexico San Juan Citizens Alliance Securing Economic and Energy Democracy Stop Fracking the Rio Grande Valley Southwest Native Cultures Southwest Organizing Project Temple Beth Shalom Tewa Women United To Nizhoni Ani Veterans for Peace Chapter 055 Senator Tom Udall 531 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 120 South Federal Place, Suite 302 Senator Martin Heinrich 303 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 123 E Marcy St. December 18, 2017 Re: We Need Your Support to Protect the Greater Chaco Region Dear Senators Udall and Heinrich: Thank you for your leadership around the Greater Chaco region of northwestern New Mexico. As you know, this culturally significant landscape is facing increased pressure from unchecked oil and gas development. Historic ruins, wildlands, Indigenous communities, and health are all at risk. We ask that you continue this leadership by supporting a moratorium on new fracking related activities in the region and to convene a group of key stakeholders to support economic prosperity by advancing a transition from reliance upon fossil fuels.
While some progress has been made to advance greater conservation and better planning in this beleaguered region, we are writing to urge you to assert additional and vitally necessary leadership that will work to assure its lands, its people and culture, its economy, and its future are steered in a more sustainable and prosperous direction. The Navajo Nation, the All Pueblo Council of Governors, National Congress of American Indians, and countless other constituents have requested a moratorium on new hydraulic fracturing-related activities in Greater Chaco. Yet since these requests have been made, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has issued more than 35 new drilling permits within the immediate area of Chaco Culture National Historical Park, the heart of the Greater Chaco region. And now, in March of 2018, the agency is planning to auction off nearly 4,500 acres for more drilling and fracking. Already, 91% of the Greater Chaco region has been leased for oil and gas development. As the attached map shows, this includes nearly 70,000 acres of oil and gas leases within the immediate vicinity of Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Other significant public lands, including parts of the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness, Ah-Shi-Sle-Pa Wilderness Study Area, and the North Road Area of Critical Environmental Concern, have all been subject to leasing as well. The potential for irreparable damage to Greater Chaco s past and present cultural heritage is enormous. Additionally, there is growing angst over the adverse effects of unrestrained oil and gas development to clean air and water, the climate, and fish and wildlife. The country s largest methane hot spot, is situated over Farmington caused by the cumulative effect of the fracking wells and the San Juan Coal Mine, the single largest source of methane pollution in the state. With these impacts, there are environmental justice concerns related to adverse health impacts, infrastructure degradation, and negative economic consequences within Navajo communities in the region. All this is occurring while the fossil fuel industry is in a downturn in the Four Corners area. Utilities are shuttering coal-fired power plants and the oil and gas industry has contracted precipitously due to low oil and gas prices. Far from doom and gloom, we feel this moment represents an opportunity for a new vision, a shift in paradigm, and lasting solutions for the Greater Chaco landscape. As leaders in the movement to defend and protect Greater Chaco, we are calling on you to develop and secure the passage of legislation that helps this region transition to a more sustainable and prosperous economy, that upholds and defends the past and present cultural significance of the region, and that secures protection for the region s irreplaceable wildlands. We believe that passage of the San Juan County Settlement Implementation Act, S.436, is critical. This legislation is an extremely important step toward resolving coal lease applications that have been pending for decades near Chaco Culture National Historical Park. It would also enhance protections for nearly 10,000 acres of wildlands in the Greater Chaco area and open the door for 15,000 acres of lands to be returned to the Navajo Nation.
However, we believe additional stepping-stones are needed and that now is the time to begin convening stakeholders and crafting a more durable, long-term path forward for Greater Chaco. This path should be guided by the following key principles: There is a need to provide economic support to communities in the Greater Chaco region to advance the development of more sustainable and prosperous economies that are not dependent on fossil fuel development. Investing in alternatives to oil and gas, such as clean energy development and eco-cultural recreation, is key to the long-term stability and security for the region. The deployment of renewable energy projects in the Four Corners could provide critical job creation and economic development. There is a need to restore justice for Navajo communities and all Indigenous peoples for whom the Greater Chaco region is spiritually and culturally important. Respect for sovereignty, restoration of Tribal lands and rights, meaningful consultation, and even land management authority could all make significant strides toward achieving justice. There is a need to weave together a more cohesive and landscape-based approach to protecting the region s cultural resources. Currently, Greater Chaco exists as a patchwork of protected ruins and other culturally significant locations. Taking care to achieve a landscape level-approach to protect the region s archaeological resources, through an expanded Chaco Culture National Historical Park or the designation of a new Greater Chaco National Cultural Landscape, could be viable approaches. There is a need to continue helping resolve existing oil and gas leasing and development that encumber public and Tribal lands in the region. Ensuring that non-operating leases are expeditiously retired consistent with federal laws and regulations, advancing a regionwide mineral withdrawal, buying out priority producing leases (such as those within Areas of Critical Environmental Concern and Wilderness Study Areas), and ensuring successful land reclamation and cleanup, are all critical means of resolving problems which stem from some existing leases. Our request is that these concepts be developed into specific legislative proposals. Overall, there is a need to more comprehensively protect Greater Chaco s cultural significance, to honor and empower its present-day Indigenous peoples, to provide the means for communities to grow and thrive, and to acknowledge the need to guide the region away from dependence on the fossil fuel development that is exacerbating the climate crisis. We believe that with your leadership, we can begin to move toward this vision. In the near-term, we believe it is critical to ensure the Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Indian Affairs embrace these concepts and vision as part of their efforts to amend the Farmington Field Office Resource Management Plan Amendment. We strongly urge you to continue weighing in on this process and share your support for the agencies efforts to protect the Greater Chaco region, its people, and its places.
We believe that any next steps should include the convening of a summit of constituents, including experts, Tribal representatives, local, state, and federal government representatives, and other stakeholders. Such a summit would provide a forum for drawing the contours of a more comprehensive approach to address the Greater Chaco region. Again, we thank you for your leadership and support for Greater Chaco and the Four Corners region. Together, we have an immense potential for conservation, transition, economic progress, and for justice. We look forward to a response from your office with plans for how we may work together to turn these and other ideas into reality. Thank you. Sincerely, John Horning WildEarth Guardians 516 Alto Street James McKenzie & Tom Solomon Co-Directors 350.org New Mexico 202 Harvard Dr. NE Albuquerque, NM 87106 Susan Schuurman Outreach Coordinator Albuquerque Center for Peace & Justice 202 Harvard Dr. SE, Albuquerque, NM 87106 Tomas Rivera Chainbreaker P.O. Box 31666 Santa Fe, NM 87594 Tom Manning Director Citizens for Fair Rates and the Environment 406 S. Arizona St. Silver City, NM 88061 Joni Arends Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety P.O. Box 31147 Santa Fe, NM 87594-1147 Carol Davis Coordinator Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment (Diné CARE) HCR 63 Box 272 Winslow (Navajo Nation), AZ 86047 Victoria Atencio Youth Allies for Sustainability Program Earth Care 6600 Valentine Way, Building A. Santa Fe, NM 87507 Bruce Baizel Energy Program Director Earthworks P.O. Box 1102 Durango, CO 81302
Lisa Oppenheimer Vice President Eric Oppenheimer Family Foundation Ojo Caliente, NM Eleanor Bravo National Pipeline Campaign Manager Food & Water Watch 7804 Pan American Freeway E NE #2 Albuquerque, NM 87109 Margarita Mercure Hibbs Frack Free 4 Corners P.O. Box 646 Estancia, NM 87016 Rebecca Sobel Frack Free New Mexico 516 Alto St. Genie Stevens The Global Warming Express 2300 W. Alameda St., Apt. B1 Santa Fe, NM 87507 Stephanie Smith Co-Leader Great Old Broads for Wilderness 18 W Cold Springs Ranch Road Silver City, NM 88061 Maria Naranjo Honor Our Pueblo Existence (H.O.P.E.) 627 Flower Rd. Espanola, NM 87532 Louise Benally Director Indigenous Cultural Concepts 143 Leupp Road Flagstaff, AZ 86004 Anna Rondon President Indigenous Life Ways P.O. Box 5058 Gallup, NM 87305 The Rev. Holly Beaumont, D. Min. Organizing Director Interfaith Worker Justice - New Mexico P.O. Box 23468 Santa Fe, NM 87502 Petuuche Gilbert Representative Laguna Acoma Coalition for a Safe Environment P.O. Box 373 Pueblo of Acoma, NM 87034 Pat Leahan, Co-Director Las Vegas Peace and Justice Center P.O. Box 716 Las Vegas, NM 87701 Susan Gordon Coordinator Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment P.O. Box 5424 Albuquerque, NM 87179 Laurie Weahkee Native American Voters Alliance P.O. Box 35698 Albuquerque, NM 87176 Mariel Nanasi New Energy Economy 343 East Alameda St. Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 Sr. Joan Brown, osf New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light P.O. Box 27162 Albuquerque, NM 87125
Mitch Buszek Coordinator NM MoveOn.org P.O. Box 23051 Santa Fe, NM 87502 Asha Canalos Co-founder, Co-editor New Mexico Story Power 220 Vineyard Rd NW Albuquerque, NM 87107 Nomi Green Northern New Mexico Climate Activists Jenni Siri Our Revolution New Mexico 133 Damon St. Unit 5 Belen, NM 87002 Robert M. Bernstein, MD. President Physicians for Social Responsibility New Mexico 1580 Cerro Gordo Road Mike Eisenfeld Campaign Director San Juan Citizens Alliance 1309 East 3rd Ave., Suite 5 Durango, CO 81301 Debaura James Representative Securing Economic and Energy Democracy (SEEDs of SW NM) 2232 Cottage San Road #9 Silver City, NM 88061 Javier Benavidez Southwest Organizing Project 211 10 th St. SW Albuquerque, NM 87102 Elaine Cimino Co-Director Stop Fracking the Rio Grande Valley 907 Nyasa Rd SE Rio Rancho NM 87124 Rabbi Neil Amswych Rabbi of Temple Beth Shalom, and President of the Interfaith Leadership Alliance of Santa Fe Temple Beth Shalom 205 E. Barcelona Rd. Santa Fe, NM 87505 Beata Tsosie-Peña and Kathy Sanchez Environmental Health and Justice Program Tewa Women United 912 Fairview Lane Española, NM 87532 Nicole Horseherder To Nizhoni Ani P.O. Box 657 Kykotsmovi, AZ 86039 Kenneth Mayers President Veterans for Peace Chapter 055 7 Avenida Vista Grande #117 Santa Fe, NM Terry A. Sloan Director Southwest Native Cultures 8205 Spain Rd NE Suite 204 Albuquerque, NM 87109