The conversation that OK Energy Today had recently with Pawnee Nation executive director Andrew Knife Chief is worth continuing as he expressed his concerns over a lack of full cooperation he wants with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission and the Oklahoma Water Resources Board.
“It has been a long and tortured process for us to get the information that we should have had in the first place,” said Knife Chief. “And if the communication doesn’t improve, we’ll be forced to do more tracking.”
The Pawnee Nation has three rangers who go out and do the enforcement for the entire tribal jurisdiction. They are the ones who have learned of new drilling sites and operations of wastewater injection wells.
“We just don’t have enough bodies in the field to get the information,” he said, explaining much of it has come from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
Earthquakes around Pawnee have left his nation’s headquarters with damage. This week’s 4.5 magnitude quake resulted in bigger cracks and more plaster falling from the ceilings and walls of the historic headquarters.
“If the Oklahoma Corporation Commission and the Water Resources Board don’t do a better job of communicating, we’re going to find ourselves in a continuous cycle and we don’t want to be in that position.”
Hear more of Jerry Bohnen’s interview of Andrew Knife Chief.