UPDATE Omnibus Bill Carried Protection For Chaco Culture National Historical Park

By Kurt Repanshek - December 23rd, 2020 11:33am



A measure of protection from oil and gas exploration was provided Chaco Culture National Historical Park in the omnibus spending bill approved by Congress/NPS file

Editor's note: This updates with reaction from National Parks Conservation Association, adds more detail regarding the provision.

Buried within the thousands of pages of the omnibus bill that will fund the federal government for the rest of the fiscal year is a run-on sentence that provides a measure of protection from oil and gas development for Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico.

It was back in 2014 when the U.S. Bureau of Land Management began to consider opening lands near Chaco Culture for oil and gas leasing. In 2018 the agency dropped the plan, with then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke saying there was a need for more consultation with tribes to understand their concerns over how the sale could impact cultural sites.

Come forward to 2020 and the BLM has been looking to grant as many as 3,100 oil and gas leases in the area. Cultural groups, archaeologists, and environment and conservation groups have protested that proposal, citing the spiritual nature of the park and surrounding lands, as well as possible damage to ruins. The Navajo Nation has been highly critical of the proposal.

As groups sifted through the nearly 5,600-page omnibus bill, they found the following language:

CHACO CANYON 13 SEC. 430. None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to accept a nomination for oil and gas leasing under 43 CFR 3120.3 et seq, or to offer for oil and gas leasing, any Federal lands within the withdrawal area identified on the map of the Chaco Culture National Historical Park prepared by the Bureau of Land Management and dated April 2, 2019, prior to the completion of the cultural resources investigation identified in the explanatory statement described in section 4 (in the matter preceding division A of this consolidated Act).