The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation in North Dakota hosts more than 1,000 fracking wells. Photo by Talli Nauman / Native Sun News
The Southern Ute Tribe will continue to regulate fracking on its reservation after reaching a settlement with the Obama administration. The tribe went to court last year to challenge a new Bureau of Land Management regulation that imposes hydraulic fracturing standards in Indian Country. The lawsuit said the rule violated federal law and was developed without adequate consultation But the two parties have since reached an agreement that recognizes the tribe's role as the primary regulator of its lands in Colorado. They will submit the settlement to the court and ask for the case to be dismissed. “We filed a lawsuit against the Department of the Interior challenging the BLM rule because we felt that tribal input had been ignored. Once we had the chance to sit across the table from each other in meaningful discussion, we recognized that we shared many of the same goals, including the exercise of sovereignty by the tribe over Southern Ute lands," Chairman Clement Frost said in a press release. "We are glad that we have resolved this dispute in a government-to-government manner.” The settlement does not affect a different case that resulted in the rule being put on hold by a federal judge. The Ute Tribe in neighboring Utah is part of that lawsuit, which is pending before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. The Utes advanced some of the same arguments as their relatives in Colorado. A federal judge agreed that the fracking rule violates federal laws that were written to address energy development in Indian Country. The Southern Ute Tribe's Department of Energy has developed regulations to address fracking. As part of the settlement, the BLM agrees that the rules "meet or exceed" the federal standards. Bureau of Land Management Hydraulic Fracturing Documents:
Press Release | Final Rule Federal Register Notice:
Oil and Gas; Hydraulic Fracturing on Federal and Indian Lands (March 26, 2015)
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