A new animated video from the Navajo Methane Coalition claims methane on the reservation accelerated climate change, threatened public health and caused the Navajo Nation to suffer a loss of revenue.
However, chapter house leaders and others say the industry has not caused this and has helped in many ways through allotment payments.
The video is narrated in English by Diné artist, Radmilla Cody, and in Navajo by Lydia Fasthorse. The goal is making the coalition’s message accessible to people of all ages, said Ali Tsosie-Harvey, communications specialist for the coalition.
Methane is released into the air through leaks and venting and flaring, which the news release said is “accompanied by toxic air pollutants like benzene and hydrogen sulfide, which could cause cancer, respiratory disease, and other health problems.”
In a 2019 report from the Environmental Defense Fund, in 2018 oil and gas companies emitted “22,000 tons of methane per year, the equivalent of 1.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas.”
“Most modern wells are horizontal, allowing operators to reach more of the underground resources from a single surface location,” said Andrea Felix, New Mexico Oil and Gas Association Vice President of Regulatory Affairs.
This has less environmental impacts and limits surface disturbances, according to Felix, who said that “compared with traditional vertical drilling, which often requires multiple well pads to reach different parts of a reservoir, horizontal drilling can reduce land clearing, road construction and visual and physical disturbance at the surface.”
Despite these changes, the coalition in a news release said tribal, state and federal government officials “must work together to cut methane waste and pollution.”
“In New Mexico, 150,000 people live within half a mile of a well site – including 26,000 Native Americans and over 11,000 children under five,” said Wendy Atcitty, an environmental scientist who works with the coalition and was quoted in a news release about the video.
Atcitty was raised in the Huerfano chapter on a home site with several well pads within a two-mile radius.
“They always looked like huge grasshoppers that went up and down,” she said.
The only interaction Atcitty had with the oil and gas companies as child was a visit they made to her middle school to inform students to be cautious around the oil pumps.
Today oil and gas companies are participating in community and educational activities across the San Juan Basin, although programs at individual schools can vary from year to year, according to Felix
Atcitty said she always remembers pollution, because as a child looking to the west she saw a haze in the direction of the Four Corners Power Plant and the San Juan Mine.
“I just thought that was kind of the end of what was bad in our atmosphere, but little did I know that all these oil and gas pads were bad,” she said. “I knew nothing of the technology and none of my family worked in the oil and gas industry so there’s no thought process to that but you just saw them everywhere.”
Danny Simpson, Navajo Nation Council Delegate, said the oil and gas industry has had a positive impact in communities, and he believes that families are not being polluted.
“It’s been very positive for them where they were able to put food on the table on a daily basis,” he said.
Atcitty said she believes health problems in her family were the direct result of oil and gas operations in Huerfano.
She came back from college and would always notice “my mom and dad not feeling well,” she said. “Nosebleed, headache, dizziness, because they were outside all day.”
Atcitty also said that she believes there is a connection between the wells and the need for both her and her son to use an inhaler.
Nageezi Chapter House President Ervin Chavez said since 1974 he has seen more benefit from the oil and gas industry than negative.
“I’m 73 years old and I don’t have asthma. To me it’s a blessing that we live in an area like this,” Chavez said. a
The majority of community members are allottees, according to Chavez.
Delora Hesuse, of Nageezi, is a third generation allottee and said she is not aware of any community members getting sick and did not have any health conditions herself after attending Lybrook Elementary School as a child.
Hesuse said the wells are located a distance from her families homestead and they have had no issues.
“We always have that communication,” she said about her relatives. “I tell them that if you’re concerned about any kind of issues call the contact numbers.”
The royalty payments have been “a God send,” she said, adding allottees have used money to pay for gas and send relatives to school. “Like right now my granddaughter, she’s going to school … that helped too.”
Other community members have benefited from leasing include a man who was able to purchase a trailer and vehicle after living in a shack, according to Hesuse.
“I’m going to be honest it really helped us,” she said. “We’re all upgraded or we’re living OK.”
According to Felix, NMOGA plans to do outreach in October with the Nageezi chapter. During the outreach, community members can receive educational materials on the industry and be screened by the American Heart Association.
The video’s producers said its launch came as the Trump Administration halted enforcement of the EPA 2024 Methane Standards, “which limit methane pollution from oil and gas leaks, venting and flaring” by 18 up to months, according to a news release from the Environmental Defense Fund.
alee@tricityrecordnm.com
