Three Navajo County residents made a passionate appeal to the Navajo County Board of Supervisors regarding the prospective oil and gas leasing of nine tracts of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands within two townships in Navajo County located three to six miles south and southeast of Woodruff at the June 12 board meeting.
Concerns regarding the potential of fracking drove the conversation, as the board was asked for their help. Tony Tangalos, resident manager of the Kerr-Cole Sustainable Living Center in Taylor said, “There is an existential threat to the future of Navajo County from a BLM proposed lease scheduled for September for 4,200 acres near the Town of Woodruff in the heart of the Coconino Sandstone Aquifer. We are asking that the lease be postponed until studies can be done as we feel if this lease is approved, it will invite the opportunity for fracking into our area, which could destroy our aquifer and our way of life.”
Lisa Test, a resident of Chevelon Canyon Ranch, talked about the mosaic of destruction that comes with fracking, when she shared, “Fracking companies will destroy the land, water and air, while bringing in an energy that will bring a massive overload to our communities. There will be an increase in traffic, environmental problems, as well as possible earthquakes. There will be an army of people who come who are disproportionately reckless and don’t care about what we care about, when it is over, they will leave to follow the next shiny penny.”
Monte Cunningham, a resident of Snowflake, asked that the board to help give guidance through this issue, citing the need to view this through the eyes of seven generations as was often the wisdom of the Native Americans.
As the matter wasn’t on the agenda, Board Chairman Steve Williams requested that staff look into some of the issues that were presented and see if there could be a conversation on this in the future.
In a later interview, Arizona BLM spokesperson Adam Eggers said that the BLM had received five expressions of interest from the public through their website requesting that these lands be made available for oil and gas leases. “Once we receive those, we must respond,” said Eggers.
Eggers broke the process down into three steps, with the first being that the BLM researches to make sure the lands are within their land management as not all lands that are requested are BLM lands.
“Then we have to check the existing resource management plan that the BLM has developed,” said Eggers. In the case of the land in question, the Phoenix Resource Management Plans said they were potentially available.
The second step is posting a notice of sale. “All this means at this point is that the lands are going to be made available for bidding,” noted Eggers. “The lands are not being sold. It is a 10-year lease for someone to have the potential rights to drill.” According to the website, these lands are scheduled for posting on Friday, July 20.
Once the land is posted, a 10-day public comment period is opened up, with information as to how people can email, mail or fax their concerns. The posting date has to be 45 days before the sale date, which is expected to be around Sept. 6.
“Just because we make the lands available, doesn’t mean that the leases will be purchased,” Eggers commented. “And that still does not mean that drilling will occur on that land. Whoever purchases a lease must submit an application for a permit to drill.”
Eggers cited four oil and gas leases near Flagstaff that have never received application to drill. “A long time ago, we used to do the public protest and the environmental impact studies before the lease sales, but in an effort to save taxpayer money, we now do that when we receive an actual application for drilling,” said Eggers, who went on to say, “From my perspective, when all that work needs to be done before the sale occurs, you are talking about thousands and thousands of taxpayer dollars with hundreds of hours spent on a project where nothing occurs. Doing our due diligence when we receive the drilling application makes more sense.”
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) filing for this lease is: DOI-BLM-AZ- G0101-2018-0027-DNA.
The website where this lease can be located is https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-office/eplanning/nepa/nepa_register.do. Users will have to click on the map to find the number five bubble on Arizona that goes directly into this lease.
