Proposed hydrogen pipeline could diminish Navajo water supply

BLACK MESA, Ariz — Jessica Keetso remembers running through puddles with her cousins during the monsoon seasons of her childhood in the Black Mesa (Dził Yijiin) region on the Navajo Nation in Northeastern Arizona. Their muddied legs would ache after a day’s worth of adventures, but they’d return each day until the puddles dried up to enjoy the times they used water “for recreation.”

Forty percent of families on the reservation live without access to running water, according to the Navajo Nation Water Management Branch, and Keetso belongs to one of those families. Her family fills up 5-gallon buckets each day and separates the water into cups and pitchers for specific purposes like bathing or washing dishes.

“I grew up hauling water from long distances,” Keetso said. “It takes half a day to go out and drive out on the dirt roads… to fill up and bring it back home since most of our roads are unpaved and notoriously rough. It makes you very aware of your water consumption. It makes you appreciate water.”

Keetso, now 34, holds an environmental science degree from Northern Arizona University and was a volunteer for Tó Nizhóní Ání (TNA) in high school. She became a staff member of the water protection nonprofit in 2017. Now, she travels the reservation attending chapter meetings and hosting informational sessions to educate citizens on the environmental impacts of a proposed hydrogen pipeline TallGrass hopes to construct throughout the Navajo Nation.

TallGrass, a multi-billion-dollar energy infrastructure company bought by the private equity giant Blackstone, has been attending chapter meetings — local meetings for communities with their elected Navajo delegate — over the past two years to advocate for its plan to produce blue hydrogen and construct a hydrogen pipeline across every region of the Navajo Nation.

“Our flagship development in the Four Corners region involves our ownership of Escalante H2Power,” said Steven Davidson, Tallgrass vice president of government and public affairs. “We are advancing the world’s 100% clean hydrogen power generation facility at the Escalante Generating Station near the Navajo Nation, in Prewitt, New Mexico. There, we have taken a coal-fired power plant — whose closure has deeply impacted the community — and are working to retool it to run off only decarbonized and renewable fuel bringing back jobs, tax revenues, and opportunities to the local area.”

TallGrass has not yet given an estimate as to how much water would be needed to sustain the hydrogen pipeline or where it will be sourced. However, the company said it would not be from the Coconino Aquifer, located in the four corners region. Though, the amount of water will be significant as the production of blue hydrogen is dependent on steam methane reforming, which requires long term access to water and methane. The company will also use carbon capture sequestration by storing the leftover carbon from production deep underground, which will deem the project net-zero for carbon emissions.

During a presentation in Gallup, Keetso explained the biggest blue hydrogen plant in the United States, which will be constructed in 2026 in Louisiana, will use approximately the daily water intake of 65,000 American families in order to produce nearly 2 million kilograms of hydrogen per day.

According to Keetso, TallGrass has stated that they are still in negotiations with the Navajo Nation Minerals Department over what benefits the central government will get from the pipeline project. Of course easement payments are on the table but as far as what chapters and communities will see directly is “uncertain,” she said.

“Across two Navajo presidential executive administrations and two different legislative bodies of the 24th and 25th Navajo Nation councils, we have heard the same call,” said Davidson. “Developers like us must strive to bring new sources of revenue to alleviate the negative employment and economic impacts from the transition away from the use of traditional energy resources. We must bring those solutions in ways that are sustainable and respectful.”

In the past two years Keetso has had several discussions with Tallgrass and Greenview, a subsidiary of Tallgrass that has been working with the Navajo Nation since 2021. Most interactions are cordial where opposing sides are respected and even shortcomings of hydrogen are acknowledged, Keetso said.

Keetso met with Adam Schiche, vice president of international development at TallGrass, to talk about climate change drivers related to the extraction of hydrogen. Keetso said Schiche acknowledged the problems that occur from extraction and he said TallGrass is “working on them.” Schiche also said he wants the project to be “Navajo centric,” and at the end of their interview, Schiche offered her a job. She declined.

“We will succeed when the Navajo Nation sees pronounced, generational economic value from our projects and when the chapters themselves likewise see significant direct and indirect benefits from our work together,” said Davidson. “To this end, GreenView — and by extension Tallgrass — could not be prouder to offer the Nation Nation ownership in GreenView in exchange for the grant of a right-of-way across the Nation.”

But not all people on the Navajo Nation are against the pipeline. The government itself is an affiliate of the Southwest Clean Hydrogen Innovation Network (SHINe) formed in November 2022 under Arizona State University’s Center for an Arizona Carbon-Neutral Economy with a goal to create a major hydrogen hub in the state.

“Hydrogen is a carbon free energy carrier with an important role to play in decarbonizing the economy especially in difficult to electrify applications,” said Ellen Stechel, executive director for the Center for an Arizona Carbon-Neutral Economy. “There are always environmental concerns with siting any large project and hydrogen is no different.”

The Navajo Nation has been exploited for mining fossil fuels and minerals throughout a decades-long battle to assert its water rights, and sites have often been left abandoned. This has led to contamination of water, radiation near residential homes and — at its worst — experiences of neuropathy among citizens.

“Arizona, the Navajo Nation and Nevada are in the nation’s sunniest region, with a significant presence of available, undeveloped land and abundant clean energy resources,” said Sandra Leander, assistant director of media relations at ASU, in a press release when SHINe submitted an official proposal for development.

Keetso worries this project will be another environmental disaster left for Navajo people to manage on their own.

“It’s going to be like Peabody all over again,” Keetso said, referencing the coal company that mined the Navajo Nation for nearly 50 years and used “45 billion gallons of groundwater” to transport the fossil fuel, according to the National Resources Defense Council.

President Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a bipartisan bill, will support six to 10 hydrogen hub developments through $8 billion in funding. Other hubs are located along the Gulf Coast and in Los Angeles and Utah. The selection of hubs will be announced in fall 2023. If SHINe is selected for funding, hydrogen extraction from the Navajo Nation is virtually guaranteed.

Since this article was published both SHINe and the New Mexico WISHH hubs were denied federal funding for hub implementation, but Davidson said the success of the Tallgrass hydrogen pipeline “was never tied to hydrogen hub funding.”

BLACK MESA, Ariz — Jessica Keetso remembers running through puddles with her cousins during the monsoon seasons of her childhood in the Black Mesa (Dził Yijiin) region on the Navajo Nation in Northeastern Arizona. Their muddied legs would ache after a day’s worth of adventures, but they’d return each day until the puddles dried up to enjoy the times they used water “for recreation.”

Forty percent of families on the reservation live without access to running water, according to the Navajo Nation Water Management Branch, and Keetso belongs to one of those families. Her family fills up 5-gallon buckets each day and separates the water into cups and pitchers for specific purposes like bathing or washing dishes.

“I grew up hauling water from long distances,” Keetso said. “It takes half a day to go out and drive out on the dirt roads… to fill up and bring it back home since most of our roads are unpaved and notoriously rough. It makes you very aware of your water consumption. It makes you appreciate water.”

Keetso, now 34, holds an environmental science degree from Northern Arizona University and was a volunteer for Tó Nizhóní Ání (TNA) in high school. She became a staff member of the water protection nonprofit in 2017. Now, she travels the reservation attending chapter meetings and hosting informational sessions to educate citizens on the environmental impacts of a proposed hydrogen pipeline TallGrass hopes to construct throughout the Navajo Nation.

TallGrass, a multi-billion-dollar energy infrastructure company bought by the private equity giant Blackstone, has been attending chapter meetings — local meetings for communities with their elected Navajo delegate — over the past two years to advocate for its plan to produce blue hydrogen and construct a hydrogen pipeline across every region of the Navajo Nation.

“Our flagship development in the Four Corners region involves our ownership of Escalante H2Power,” said Steven Davidson, Tallgrass vice president of government and public affairs. “We are advancing the world’s 100% clean hydrogen power generation facility at the Escalante Generating Station near the Navajo Nation, in Prewitt, New Mexico. There, we have taken a coal-fired power plant — whose closure has deeply impacted the community — and are working to retool it to run off only decarbonized and renewable fuel bringing back jobs, tax revenues, and opportunities to the local area.”

TallGrass has not yet given an estimate as to how much water would be needed to sustain the hydrogen pipeline or where it will be sourced. However, the company said it would not be from the Coconino Aquifer, located in the four corners region. Though, the amount of water will be significant as the production of blue hydrogen is dependent on steam methane reforming, which requires long term access to water and methane. The company will also use carbon capture sequestration by storing the leftover carbon from production deep underground, which will deem the project net-zero for carbon emissions.

During a presentation in Gallup, Keetso explained the biggest blue hydrogen plant in the United States, which will be constructed in 2026 in Louisiana, will use approximately the daily water intake of 65,000 American families in order to produce nearly 2 million kilograms of hydrogen per day.

According to Keetso, TallGrass has stated that they are still in negotiations with the Navajo Nation Minerals Department over what benefits the central government will get from the pipeline project. Of course easement payments are on the table but as far as what chapters and communities will see directly is “uncertain,” she said.

“Across two Navajo presidential executive administrations and two different legislative bodies of the 24th and 25th Navajo Nation councils, we have heard the same call,” said Davidson. “Developers like us must strive to bring new sources of revenue to alleviate the negative employment and economic impacts from the transition away from the use of traditional energy resources. We must bring those solutions in ways that are sustainable and respectful.”

In the past two years Keetso has had several discussions with Tallgrass and Greenview, a subsidiary of Tallgrass that has been working with the Navajo Nation since 2021. Most interactions are cordial where opposing sides are respected and even shortcomings of hydrogen are acknowledged, Keetso said.

Keetso met with Adam Schiche, vice president of international development at TallGrass, to talk about climate change drivers related to the extraction of hydrogen. Keetso said Schiche acknowledged the problems that occur from extraction and he said TallGrass is “working on them.” Schiche also said he wants the project to be “Navajo centric,” and at the end of their interview, Schiche offered her a job. She declined.

“We will succeed when the Navajo Nation sees pronounced, generational economic value from our projects and when the chapters themselves likewise see significant direct and indirect benefits from our work together,” said Davidson. “To this end, GreenView — and by extension Tallgrass — could not be prouder to offer the Nation Nation ownership in GreenView in exchange for the grant of a right-of-way across the Nation.”

But not all people on the Navajo Nation are against the pipeline. The government itself is an affiliate of the Southwest Clean Hydrogen Innovation Network (SHINe) formed in November 2022 under Arizona State University’s Center for an Arizona Carbon-Neutral Economy with a goal to create a major hydrogen hub in the state.

“Hydrogen is a carbon free energy carrier with an important role to play in decarbonizing the economy especially in difficult to electrify applications,” said Ellen Stechel, executive director for the Center for an Arizona Carbon-Neutral Economy. “There are always environmental concerns with siting any large project and hydrogen is no different.”

The Navajo Nation has been exploited for mining fossil fuels and minerals throughout a decades-long battle to assert its water rights, and sites have often been left abandoned. This has led to contamination of water, radiation near residential homes and — at its worst — experiences of neuropathy among citizens.

“Arizona, the Navajo Nation and Nevada are in the nation’s sunniest region, with a significant presence of available, undeveloped land and abundant clean energy resources,” said Sandra Leander, assistant director of media relations at ASU, in a press release when SHINe submitted an official proposal for development.

Keetso worries this project will be another environmental disaster left for Navajo people to manage on their own.

“It’s going to be like Peabody all over again,” Keetso said, referencing the coal company that mined the Navajo Nation for nearly 50 years and used “45 billion gallons of groundwater” to transport the fossil fuel, according to the National Resources Defense Council.

President Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a bipartisan bill, will support six to 10 hydrogen hub developments through $8 billion in funding. Other hubs are located along the Gulf Coast and in Los Angeles and Utah. The selection of hubs will be announced in fall 2023. If SHINe is selected for funding, hydrogen extraction from the Navajo Nation is virtually guaranteed.

Since this article was published both SHINe and the New Mexico WISHH hubs were denied federal funding for hub implementation, but Davidson said the success of the Tallgrass hydrogen pipeline “was never tied to hydrogen hub funding.”