In late 2021, the Biden administration announced plans to stop oil and gas drilling on all federal lands within 10 miles of New Mexico’s Chaco Culture National Historical Park to protect sacred Indigenous sites from damage and industrialization. Activists who sought such a ban for years were hopeful, but Navajo landowners receiving royalty checks from oil companies were incensed. Both camps doubted real change was imminent, jaded by years of legal wrangling as drilling proliferated and fracking technology revived exhausted oil fields. But earlier this month, the Department of the Interior defied all doubters.

Bolstered by 110,000 public comments and numerous public and private meetings, on June 2, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced that the 10-mile buffer zone would be in in effect for the next 20 years.

The decision is part of a larger Bureau of Land Management (BLM) initiative called Honoring Chaco that aims to “to develop a broader cultural approach to all land management decisions across the Greater Chaco Landscape” — an 8,000-square-mile region surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park. It puts more than 336,400 acres of public land off limits for mining and oil drilling.

The oil and gas industry has been rapidly degrading this high-desert landscape that currently has some 22,000 active oil and gas fracking wells releasing methane and other noxious byproduct gases into the air. Native American activists and conservation groups have long been fighting to halt further drilling in the region.

“Today marks an important step in fulfilling President Biden’s commitments to Indian Country, by protecting Chaco Canyon, a sacred place that holds deep meaning for the Indigenous peoples whose ancestors have called this place home since time immemorial,” said Haaland in a statement announcing the ban.

Initial reception to the news has been mixed among groups on both sides of the fence. While most Indigenous and environmental groups — including New Mexico’s entire congressional delegation and the All Pueblo Council of Governors — welcomed the new policy, some say a 10-mile buffer is not nearly enough to protect those living near drilling sites.

“Some of our communities are at mile 11 or mile 12, so what about us?” asks Mario Atencio a member of the Navajo group Diné Citizens Against Ruining the Environment (Diné CARE). Atencio’s group has documented high levels of methane, a cardiovascular and reproductive health toxin, in and around the many wells that dot the landscape beyond the national park. Greater Chaco sits beneath one of the most concentrated methane plumes in the United States.

“As far back as 2013, the Eastern Agency [one of five geographic subsets comprising the Navajo Nation] passed a resolution requesting a drilling moratorium until public health impacts were assessed,” Atencio adds. He believes that well-funded oil industry players have played a part in swaying attitudes in favor of royalty recipients.

Meanwhile, pro-drilling groups, including some Navajo Nation members, have been quick to object to even the 10-mile setback. Former Navajo Council delegate Mark Freeland claims that the buffer zone impacts 53 individual mineral parcels that generate $6.2 million a year in royalties for approximately 5,462 allottees.

“The Secretary’s action undermines our sovereignty and self-determination,” Navajo President Buu Nygren said in a statement. “Despite my concerns and denunciation, the Department of Interior has moved forward, which is highly disappointing.”

Until last year’s election and change of leadership (Buu Nygren is the council’s new president), the Navajo Nation Council had officially supported a buffer zone, albeit a five-mile rather than 10-mile one. But even while many Navajo citizens — including some who do receive royalty checks — say 10 miles is not enough, the Council now says any buffer zone is too much regulation. In April, Navajo Nation lawmakers passed legislation opposing any buffer zone at all.

“What about the Navajo Nation’s sovereignty over the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Safe Drinking Water Act?” asks Atencio. “No one’s talking about the Honoring Chaco Initiative which is supposed to expand discussion about drilling’s impact across the region. These frack wells use over a million gallons of water each, and this amidst a megadrought.”

Meanwhile, the BLM says that formalization of the buffer zone will protect some 5,000 known archaeological sites while still allowing wells and drilling on existing lease sites. Which means most of those currently receiving royalty checks will continue to do so. The BLM has not approved leases within 10 miles of Chaco Park for nearly a decade, but environmental organizations still see the agency as pro-oil, given that the agency continues to support drilling elsewhere in the state.

“The Chaco withdrawal is a welcome and very helpful first step towards improving protections for northwest New Mexico, but it doesn’t ameliorate the impacts from already leased lands and ongoing development,” says Mark Pearson, executive director of San Juan Citizens Alliance (SJCA).

SJCA and allied environmental groups object to the BLM’s approvals of hundreds of additional wells farther east beyond the withdrawal boundary. They have won decisions in federal lawsuits confirming that the agency failed to adequately account for environmental impacts, including the consequences of hazardous air pollutants on nearby residents.

The critical blueprint for BLM lands beyond the buffer zone, spanning much of the San Juan Basin, is called the Farmington Mancos-Gallup Resource Management Plan Amendment (RMPA). With over 90 percent of this region already leased by oil companies and over 40,000 existing wells, sparing the little that is left doesn’t seem like a big ask. Yet a final version of the RMPA has been under review for 10 years now.

Despite waning profitability and the exit of larger oil companies from the region, low-cost petroleum operators are pushing BLM to open up new leases across 45,000 acres of fragile, relatively untouched high desert chaparral known as the Sisnaateel Mesa Complex south of Chaco Park.

“I sure hope that BLM listens and follows the Secretary’s announcement instead of coming up with the excuse that no one has contacted them about the announcement,” Samuel Sage, a community services coordinator in the Navajo Counselor chapter said in a statement. Sage has watched the BLM approve leases for years while the RMPA languishes in its offices.

“The frontline communities need relief from all the extraction activities,” he said.