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.

read more: https://ictnews.org/outside/proposed-hydrogen-pipeline-could-diminish-navajo-nations-water-supply