Paul Ellertson, staff writer
Within the last few months, the Navajo Nation has been fighting a proposal for a new hydrogen pipeline that has the potential to seriously diminish the reservation’s already scarce water supply. According to ICT news, TallGrassEnergy, a multi-billion-dollar infrastructure company, has been proposing this pipeline for the past two years. The purpose of the pipeline would be to mine blue hydrogen and build a transportation pipeline that follows about 200 miles of existing pipeline across Navajo land, which would be the largest hydrogen pipeline in the country.
Jessica Keetso, who grew up on the reservation, recalls constantly making long journeys just to go get water in her youth, a story that her family and many others tell today. “I grew up hauling water long distances…It takes half a day to drive the dirt roads…It makes you very aware of your consumption… makes you appreciate water,” Keetso recalled in an interview with ICT news. According to the Navajo Nation Water Management Board, it’s estimated that 40% of Navajo families on the reservation do not have running water in their homes, and have to make daily trips to get water for food, cleaning, and plumbing.
Keetso, now 38, has since become a board member of the non-profit, To Nizhoni Ani (TNA). TNA has been a player in negotiating the pipeline project with TallGrassEnergy. While TallGrassEnergy has been talking to Navajo leaders across the reservation for the last couple of years – trying to convince the leaders to let the company mine there – Keetso has been taking that same amount of time to travel across the reservation herself and make her argument against the pipeline. In a quote from Source NM, Keetso said, “Do not let them mine on our land, our land has already suffered enough from other mining projects and climate change.”
The Navajo Nation also has been in a long battle over mining and their water rights. According to NPR News, uranium mining from 1944 to 1986 and its poisonous run-off from the abandoned mines contaminated the reservation’s water supply, causing increased rates of kidney failure and cancer on the reservation. According to CNN, in June 2023, the Supreme Court ruled against the Navajo Nation on a signed 1868 treaty that the federal government is required to give the people a detailed outline of supplying water. As Justice Kavanaugh said in a quote from CNN, “The 1868 treaty doesn’t impose a duty of the United States to take outlined steps to secure water for the tribe.”
According to ICT News, the pipeline itself could be very dangerous, as hydrogen is extremely flammable and climate-warming methane will be released as a by-product. According to the Rocky Mountain Institute, “On average, it takes 9 liters of water to produce a single kilogram of hydrogen.” When it comes to water and this pipeline, TallGrassEnergy has not yet come up with an estimate of usage.
According to ICT news, on top of TallGrassEnergy’s proposal, there is already a project plan being laid out for 2026 to build the country’s largest hydrogen plant in Louisiana, that will consume more water daily than 65,000 American families in order to produce 2 million Kilograms of hydrogen daily. Negotiations for the TallGrassEnergy pipeline are still in progress, the decision made could have potentially damaging effects for the Navajo people and their water.