Anti-Fracking Group Runs 80 Miles in NM Heat

from KOB

June 26, 2017 08:26 PM

FARMINGTON, N.M. – A group in the Four Corners area is on an environmental mission. Members went on an 80-mile run in the June heat to deliver a message to federal authorities.

“They said it was about 103 yesterday. It was rough, but it wasn’t rough enough to keep us away,” runner Kendra Pinto said.

Kendra Pinto was one of about a dozen runners that ran the 80 miles, relay-style, from Counselor, New Mexico to the Bureau of Land Management Farmington Field Office in three days. The group wants people to know about the effect they say fracking has on the land and people who live in it.

“These health issues we are having, all these people that are having to deal with (it) without any punishment going to any of the corporations that are causing harm to our people,” said Lauren Howland, another runner.

The group delivered a letter to Bureau of Land Management officials asking for an immediate moratorium to fracking in the greater Chaco Canyon area.

“We are not only fighting for ourselves,” Howland said. “We are fighting for everybody around here to save not only us, but them, too.”

In addition to inside the national monument, there is a 10-mile buffer zone outside of Chaco Canyon that is off-limits to oil and gas production, but the entire region is considered “Greater Chaco.”

The BLM is updating the resource management plan for the district, which will have guidelines for how BLM land can be used. The new plan could include rules for hydraulic fracking to extract oil and gas.

The period for public input is over, but the group hopes its concerns are heard.

“This is our home. Now we see these tanks going up, these pipelines being put in (and) they are making big scars that will never go away,” Pinto said.

New Mexico Oil and Gas Association officials told KOB that fracking has been used in New Mexico more than 50,000 times in the last 50 years with no documented cases of groundwater contamination. They added that fracking is considered very safe.

In a statement, a spokesman for NMOGA said, in part, “Fracking allows oil and natural gas to provide one-third of the budget for schools, roads, public safety and health care. Chaco Canyon is a cultural treasure for New Mexico and the world, and preserving this site goes hand-in-hand with the history of responsible oil and gas development in the area.”

Nonetheless, the runners hope that now, with the new resource management plan, fracking can end.

“It starts with us,” Howland said. “That’s what we are trying to tell everybody – it starts with you. You can’t expect everybody to get on board. You have to start yourself.”

In a statement from BLM District Manager Victoria Barr on the group’s efforts, she said “BLM appreciates these young people’s interest in their public lands. We encourage everyone to stay involved in issues that are important to them.”

To read the letter delivered to BLM, click here.