The majority of water contamination linked to oil and gas spills in New Mexico happens in a county that includes much of Chaco Culture National Historical Park, a culturally and spiritually significant site for many Pueblos and tribes that the Trump administration is proposing to open up to more oil and gas operations, an environmental advocate told state lawmakers on Thursday.

(The Center Square) - Opposition has grown against federal plans to allow oil and gas drilling at a more than 1,000-year-old Indigenous UNESCO site, which features the ruins of an ancient New Mexico community.

Joey Sanchez, the chair of the All Pueblo Council of Governors, stood outside the U.S. Capitol Wednesday with dozens of tribal leaders and New Mexico’s entire federal delegation to protest a Bureau of Land Management proposal to unwind mining protections around Chaco Culture National Historical Park as just a week remains for the public to weigh in on the plan.