OPINION: To protect our water and land, we must hold oil and gas accountable

Water is life. Food is medicine. As a traditional Indigenous farmer in Shiprock, I tend to our ancestral farmlands — raising corn, squash and melons the way our ancestors have done for millennia.

We do not just grow products, we grow traditions. It is our life, our identity. We are intrinsically connected to the land and the water. We have a troubled future with the climate crisis, but we know what we must do to rescue the future for our grandchildren. We must hold accountable the extractive industries that have been taking what they want and leaving behind devastation to the land and our precious water.

For generations, Indigenous and rural communities have lived with the consequences of abandoned oil and gas wells near our homes, our farms and grazing lands. We live with polluted air and poisoned groundwater. Across the state, there are thousands of unplugged or poorly maintained wells left by oil and gas corporations. Wealthy corporations take the profits, and our people bear the cost. They extract their profits and move on, but we stay.

Currently, New Mexico has outdated bonding rules, “cleanup insurance” that allow oil and gas operators to drill dozens or even hundreds of wells while posting bonds that do not cover the true cost of cleanup. I understand, on average it costs $163,000 to plug a single well — but operators can post as little as $250,000 for all the wells they own, no matter how many. When they go bankrupt or disappear, those wells are left to leak methane into our air and toxins into our water.

I know how extractive industry impacts our land and water systems. Our water tables don’t replenish quickly and the contamination permanently damages our lands. Many Indigenous and rural families still use water from wells near abandoned oil and gas infrastructure.

The New Mexico Oil Conservation Commission is considering updates to oil and gas bonding and clean-up rules to prevent abandoned wells. These rules haven’t been meaningfully updated in decades. The proposed changes would finally require oil and gas corporations to cover the real cost of their operations. Corporations must take responsibility for their pollution regardless of where they drill in New Mexico. Strong bonding rules will help ensure that water remains clean for our acequias and for our farmlands.

This rulemaking only asks oil and gas corporations to be responsible. If they are accountable as they say they are, they have nothing to fear from bonding reform. This isn’t just about economics; it’s about our food security, our culture and our right to live free of pollution. This is about honoring the land that has sustained our people since time immemorial. In my culture, we don’t make decisions just for today — we think for generations to come. We do not want our grandchildren to inherit poisoned lands. If we lose our water, we lose everything.

This is about justice. I respectfully urge the commission to adopt these rules to protect our land, our water for all of our grandchildren.

Chili Yazzie is a farmer in Shiprock. He served his Shiprock community and the Navajo Nation for 45 years in various administrative and elective positions from the local level to the Navajo Nation central government level.