The Big Gas Polluters coalition awards Enduring Resources the title of September Polluter of the Month, following Earthworks thermographers’ documentation of seventeen pollution events during nineteen well site inspections in just the last three months. Six of the captured pollution events occurred within one mile of schools.
Earthworks lodged fourteen complaints with New Mexico state regulators, prompting officials to investigate and take action. Accompanying the announcement is original art by Ezra Brown.
“Polluting operations from Enduring Resources are an example of why people in the Four Corners region need better protections and enforcement,” said Kendra Pinto, the Earthworks thermographer who documented the pollution events. “The Navajo Nation has an opportunity to do a lot more to protect our health and a future for generations to come against a polluter that pollutes mostly on Indigenous land.”
The company operates in some of the most under-regulated regions in the United States, with over 70% of its wells located on Navajo, Ute, or Apache land. Many of the wells were built in a regulatory gray area of the Navajo Nation known as “the checkerboard”, where jurisdiction shifts between federal, state, local, and Navajo ownership, allowing operators to often circumvent and evade enforcement. The fossil fuel infrastructure in the area surrounds communities and schools, one in particular, Lybrook Elementary, has at least 12 Enduring Wells within 1.25 miles of its classrooms. Research indicates children are more vulnerable to environmental contaminants, such as those released by the burning of fossil fuels.
Aside from the emission events captured by Earthwork’s methane pollution hunters, Enduring Resources has a history of dirty operations. In 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency fined the operator and subsidiary, DJR Operating, more than $600,000 for Clean Air Act violations related to their San Juan Basin assets. Since the start of 2023, the company’s New Mexico facilities have reported losing over 198,879 million cubic feet (mcf) of methane gas to venting or flaring.
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