The Native Black Mesa Water Coalition is celebrating a victory in their long running battle for water rights in the Native Four Corners, where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah meet, on land belonging to Hopi and Navajo people. Peabody Coal has already wasted nearly half the drinkable, accessible water at Black Mesa, slurrying coal along a 273 mile slurry line to Southern California Edison's Mojave Generation Station, in Laughlin, Nevada. One of the grassroots members of the Black Mesa Water Coalition takes the name C-Aquifer for Diné, claiming rights to the remaining Cococino Aquifer, and the coalition has long been identified with the rallying cry "Water is life."
Peabody sought partners to reopen the Mojave Generation Station after George Bush's EPA finally closed it, in June 2006, in response to a native and environmentalist lawsuit over its multiple unremediated violations of the Clean Air Act. However, on June 11, 2009, Southern California Edison announced that the plant will be permanently decommissioned, and should be dismantled by 2010, though this is the sort of promise that native peoples and environmentalists have all learned to believe when they see it. After many years of environmental activism, Navajo and Dine CARE leader Lori Goodman knows enough to warn, "They'll always be back."
The 01.05.2009 decision is cause for celebration in the Four Corners, but anyone who reads Judge Robert G. Holt's 01.05.2009 order canceling Peabody's Life of Mine permit will also note the right to appeal:
Any party aggrieved by this decision may file a petition for discretionary review with the Interior Board of Land Appeal, or seek judicial review pursuant to the provisions in 43 CFR Section 4.1369.
Peabody Coal's financial resources are enormous, but the Black Mesa Water Coalition has, during its many years of struggle, won the support and admiration of environmentalists, indigenous rights, and social justice activists all over the world, for their extraodinary determination and organizing skills, in harrowing circumstances, and on shoestring budgets, if that.
In July 2009, the Navajo Nation Council all but unanimously passed legislation creating the the Navajo Green Economy Commission and Fund proposed by the Navajo Green Economy Coalition:
Comments
thanks for this article. I was along for the support caravan this year. The Elders resisting relocation need all of our support!
My Group CAlifornians for Renewable energy, Inc. (CARE) actually filed the first Appeal DV 2009-1-PR representing CARE member Vernon Masayesva who is Hopi. Over 40 other Hopi where represented by Dave Abney as Counsel for Kendall Nutuma, et al. The Judge actually ruled in favor of the Motion for Summary Judgment from Counsel for Kendall Nutuma, et al. All the other Parties' motions where denied including the one of BMWC, although CARE supported both Counsel for Kendall Nutuma's and BMWC's Motions in its answer. So the winners are Counsel for Kendall Nutuma, BMWC, CARE, The Forgotten People, Coal Mine Chapter, Tonalea Chapter, Leupp Chapter, Laura Watchempino, Victor Masayesva, Jr., Norman Benally, and the losers are SRP, Peabody, Navajo Nation, and Scott Canty.
My Group CAlifornians for Renewable energy, Inc. (CARE) actually filed the first Appeal DV 2009-1-PR representing CARE member Vernon Masayesva who is Hopi. Over 40 other Hopi where represented by Dave Abney as Counsel for Kendall Nutuma, et al. The Judge actually ruled in favor of the Motion for Summary Judgment from Counsel for Kendall Nutuma, et al. All the other Parties' motions where denied including the one of BMWC, although CARE supported both Counsel for Kendall Nutuma's and BMWC's Motions in its answer. So the winners are Counsel for Kendall Nutuma, BMWC, CARE, The Forgotten People, Coal Mine Chapter, Tonalea Chapter, Leupp Chapter, Laura Watchempino, Victor Masayesva, Jr., Norman Benally, and the losers are SRP, Peabody, Navajo Nation, and Scott Canty.
To Michael Boyd: All I said was that the Black Mesa Water Coalition is "celebrating a victory," as they are. As you said, the winners include BMWC. I could not possibly explain the complexity of the lawsuits and numbers of litigants in a summary like this. The main points I was trying to share were that the Native Four Corners have won a victory here, that the slurry line which wasted most of the Navajo Aquifer, for 34 years ran 273 miles, crossing almost the entire State of New Mexico, to generate electricity in Nevada for California, that the decision could be appealed, and that natives--in the example I used, the Navajo--have an alternative vision: clean energy, solar and wind, and green jobs.
i just saw you on democracy now and you were awesome.I thought it was refreshing listening to your responces . then i searched you and read this article. Some of my friends live on the reservation . thanks for your commitment to truth. not many seem to have that these days. you have a great fire and intensity, i will look for more things you write . thanks
good artical
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