If there is one thing that the Army Corps of Engineers has learned from the Standing Rock Sioux and public resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline, and that the Bureau of Land Management’s Farmington Field Office staff would be wise to heed, is that the agency should have done a more thorough environmental analysis and had better tribal consultation from the beginning.

That the government failed to consult adequately with the tribe and the environmental review was not thorough enough is the basis of the lawsuit filed late last summer to stop pipeline construction. Had the Corps done a better job, the whole drama – costly to industry and potentially affected communities – might have been avoided altogether and an alternative found.

The lessons from Standing Rock for the BLM’s Farmington Field Office, as they apply to Indian lands and rights and future energy development near Chaco Canyon, are many.

Fortunately, Tuesday’s deadline to comment has been extended to Feb. 20, 2017, affording the agency additional time to remedy a false start on tribal outreach and the public additional time to respond.

In early November, staff from the BLM’s Farmington Field Office walked out on the first of eight public meetings planned in partnership with staff from the Bureau of Indian Affairs Navajo Regional Office across the Navajo Nation. That first meeting took place in Shiprock and was planned to seek input from tribal members about the management of the checkerboard of public, tribal and Indian allotment lands in Northwest New Mexico, and to respond to concerns regarding drilling and fracking on lands sacred to the tribe near Chaco Canyon, a National Historic and international Dark Sky Park and UNESCO World Heritage site.

Shiprock Chapter President Duane Chili Yazzie asked BLM staff if tribal members could comment orally instead of in writing to better fit the Navajo’s communication style as traditional people, and so all in attendance could hear one another’s concerns. Insisting that oral comments did not fit the BLM’s scoping process, Richard Fields, BLM Farmington Field Office manager, told the public, “If you want a consultation, we’ll have to come back later.” He did, wasting government resources and people’s time.

This is not the first time. On Feb. 25, 2014, the BLM announced intent to prepare a Resource Management Plan Amendment and an Environmental Impact Statement to update the 2003 plan that made no allowances for oil and gas drilling around Chaco because the fracking technology did not exist then.

Now that it does, the potential impacts and range of alternatives must be developed and evaluated for such a culturally and environmentally sensitive area. There is also not just the Navajo to consider. Because 91 percent of BLM lands managed by the Farmington Field Office have already been leased for development, the Pueblo Council of Governors representing 20 New Mexico Pueblos passed a resolution in November in support of the preservation of Chaco Canyon from energy development.

The extension will allow the public additional time to comment and adds two scoping meetings, but almost three years later, industry, the tribes and the public await a legitimate environmental analysis and adequate tribal consultation process.

Sound familiar? History repeats itself, but another federal agency does not have to. It is incumbent upon the BLM to complete the RMPA and EIS and get these documents out for public review. To learn more, visit the BLM’s website at https://www.blm.gov/nm.