Shiprock residents seek more answers about a crude oil spill on the Navajo Nation

Not far from where a school bus picks up and drops off school children on Indian Route 5071 near rural Shiprock on the Navajo Nation, a crude oil spill was discovered earlier this month.

The spill has raised concerns not only among parents and relatives of the children, but also residents living in the area with livestock and farms.

At a Wednesday news conference at the site, residents and local grassroots organizations expressed their uncertainty about the extent of the oil spill, its impacts and their dissatisfaction with how tribal leaders are handling the situation.

The spill highlighted what critics call the Navajo Nation's haphazard approach to fossil fuel extraction and lack of transparency with residents and communities where these activities take place.

“We actively are primary users, along with the wildlife in this area, and it's forever impacted,” said Beverly Maxwell, speaking of the land and water being tainted by the oil spill less than a mile from her home. “As of yesterday, I finally received two phone calls from Navajo Nation EPA and public affairs from Navajo oil and gas and Running Horse Pipeline. I still didn't get all the answers.”

The spill occurred close to Maxwell’s grazing land, and near a wash that drains into agriculture canals that farmers rely on. She found out about the incident on Dec. 11 from another community member, and three days later hard rain poured throughout the community.

As of Wednesday crews were in the area fixing the issue. According to the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency, a 16-inch pipeline that carries oil from Huerfano, N.M., to Aneth, Utah, was damaged when an employee from the Shiprock Chapter was grading Gravel Pit Road, causing an oil leak.

Pipeline repairs were in compliance with rules, officials say

A Navajo Nation EPA water quality field investigation on Dec. 11 and 12 found that the crude oil traveled about 550 feet down the roadside ditch and another 1,800 feet down the small, dry wash before berms were constructed to capture remaining flow near the roadside. The details were outlined in a news release from Navajo President Buu Nygren’s office after the community press conference and over a week since the spill was reported.

The Navajo Nation EPA was contacted about the situation on Dec. 11 at 1:15 p.m. and coordinated a response with the Navajo Nation Police Department. Navajo Nation Oil and Gas also responded to the incident, the Navajo Nation Speaker's Office said in an email to The Arizona Republic.

“Repair of the pipeline is in compliance with the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration regulations and Navajo Nation EPA requirements,” said agency director Stephen B. Etsitty in a news release. “Running Horse Pipeline has reported to me that work is expected to be done by this Saturday.”

Etsitty also noted that approximately 1,500 barrels of crude oil spewed from the ruptured pipeline. Of this total, approximately 800 barrels of oil were recovered and 700 barrels soaked into the soil along the flow path from the source.

At the time of the news conference, organized by community members and grassroots organizations, no one had answers regarding the spill. The quantity of oil spilled, including other critical details, remained unknown at that time. It was this lack of transparency that community members and organizers say they find frustrating and are eager to address.

“Just because this incident occurred in a rural area that affects Diné people, farmers, and landholders it doesn't excuse those that are responsible for alerting the community and bringing attention to this issue to drag their feet on this,” said Janene Yazzie, member of the NDN Collective and CEO of Sixth World Solutions. “A week later the community still hasn’t received information they need to understand how much oil was released and what the impacts are.”

She said the area is a “critical bread basket” for the Navajo Nation because of the extraction that continues, which leave farmers and ranchers to continuously “get impacted by different forms of environmental contamination, and aren't involved or informed at the extent of the contamination and what is actually going to be done to remediate the impact.”

'Why weren't we aware' of the oil spill sooner?

Joseph Hernandez, community organizer with the nonprofit group NAEVA, said in August 2022, a corroded pipeline owned and operated by Capitol Operating Group spilled up to 80 barrels of brine water near the Red Valley community, which he said flowed for over 3 miles. During the incident he said community members also were left in the dark by officials, similar to what people say happened in Shiprock.

“Lack of communication just like what happened in the Red Valley community, they were also saying ‘why wasn’t anybody telling us,’” said Hernandez. “Why weren't we aware of that? We are going through the same process of trying to find out information.”

He said organizations like NAEVA, Sixth World Solutions, NDN Collective, Diné Center Research and Evaluation are trying their best to give critical information to community members since they aren’t getting that from leaders.

“We are wanting people to know the facts and the truth about the impacts that occur with oil and gas activity,” said Hernandez. “We are going to see a lot more of this stuff of human error because of these pipelines.”

The Speaker’s Office said the oil pipeline was not owned by Navajo Nation Oil and Gas. “A private company who owns the pipeline” is currently working with the Shiprock EPA to remediate the land.

“What we also know is the company that operates this Running Horse Pipeline, they're a subsidiary of the Navajo Nation Oil and Gas company, which is a tribal enterprise,” said Hernandez as he encouraged people to get involved at local government meetings.

He believes Navajo Oil and Gas has a tendency to withhold information from the public. Many of the communities they operate in aren’t aware they even have a pipeline running through, he said.

“When these energy projects are getting pushed through our communities we are told time and time again that it is for the benefit for our people,” said Yazzie. “That there are little to no risks, and yet when something like this happens, we have to work as community members, as community organizers to bring awareness to this and get people to respond and take this seriously.”

Spill raises new concerns about helium, hydrogen proposals

Kyle Jim, founder of nonprofit group Diné Introspective and a Shiprock community member, said when he first learned about the spill it reminded him of the 2015 Gold King Mine Spill, which occurred in Silverton, Colo., where an estimated 3 million gallons, one foot deep, of mine water spilled out.

The mine water contained acid, salts, and toxic metals such as lead and arsenic impacting Navajo communities as it flowed into the Cement Creek, a tributary of the Animas River and part of the San Juan River and Colorado River watershed.

“What is happening here is a lot of unknown factors and with the continuation of wanting to propose much of our land to the helium, hydrogen that we are going to have a pipeline running all over valleys,” said Jim. “Anything is known to happen, whether it's a crack or landscape issue. We are going to further contaminate our land if our leaders continue to choose this way of living.”

Like Maxwell, Broderick Mark doesn't live far from the contaminated site and expressed concerns for both animals and future generations of kids in the area. Mark noted that during the news conference, community leadership was absent. Disappointed by their failure to communicate information about the spill, Mark voiced his frustration, emphasizing that leaders should have been present to inform community members."

“Our leaders are absent, they should be here talking to all of us and the rest of the community… but they're not,” said Mark.

He said the way he found out about the spill was when he woke up one morning and smelled the oil, thinking it was propane or a gas leakage nearby. He drove to where crews were fixing the pipeline and learned of the spill.

“Even then, information wasn't being shared and there was no transparency,” said Mark. “As a community member, as someone who lives a stone throw away, the fact that I had to wake up and come out here and find there was an incident near my house is infuriating.”

According to Nygren’s office, the pipeline company contractors pumped up the pooled crude oil the same afternoon when the leak occurred and secured a clamp over the damaged section of pipe that evening.

The following day, an additional berm was placed at the bottom end of the release. Excavation of the contaminated soil began in the dry wash.

“The nearby Hogback Canal was not impacted and will not be impacted because the drainage flows under it via a culvert,” said Etsitty of Navajo EPA.

“Navajo EPA will continue to monitor remediation and make repairs at the spill location”, he said. “This includes coordination with a pipeline company contractor on sample collection to determine the effectiveness of remediation of the dry wash.”

When it comes to the cleanup, Yazzie emphasized that the community has the right to know whether the crew performing the cleanup is qualified for the task. Residents should be informed about the data guiding the work to ensure mitigation of any impacts on the land, plants, animals and water system.

"How do we take care of our land from here forward with things that are happening like this in our backyard. I don't see elected leaders here and they should be just as concerned as the people here," said Hazel James Tohe, a member of the Diné Center Research and Evaluation. "We are not taking care of Mother Earth, Father Sky, the air, the water and all the beauty that Creator has made for us. We have to do a better job."

Arlyssa Becenti covers Indigenous affairs for The Arizona Republic and azcentral. Send ideas and tips to arlyssa.becenti@arizonarepublic.com.

Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Shiprock residents say Navajo leaders responded slowly to oil spill