From:
Condor952 Sent: 12/9/2008 4:01:34 P.M. Pacific Standard
Time Subj: FYI: UPDATE: Navajo & Hopi Protest OSM in
DENVER!!
THANKS
to everyone who helped us make our point to the Office of
Surface Mining yesterday! OSM disconnected their phone
line because so many people flooded them with calls!
This
is just the beginning of this battle, we are more
determined than ever to not allow our homelands to be
turned into "minor" decisions for coal
interests! I hope you will continue to stand in solidarity
with Indigenous Peoples and the "front line"
communities that are taking a stand against these major
entities!
Please help us
get this update out and again thank you!! -Enei
Enei Begaye,
Co-Director
Black Mesa Water Coalition
PO Box 613
Flagstaff, AZ 86002-613
phone: (928) 213-5909
fax #: (928) 213-5905
www.blackmesawatercoalition.org
Friends of Black
Mesa,
I've
copied the press release we sent out this morning that
explains the situation with OSM's permit for Peabody. The
meeting yesterday was extremely powerful, including a big
rally and protest outside, hundreds of calls into OSM's
office, and a banner hang. Black Mesa Water Coalition also
generated good media, including page 2 of the Denver Post
this morning, two pieces in Grist, Gallup Independent, SF
Chronicle, Forbes and AZ Daily Sun and others from an AP
Story, Solve Climate, Indian Country Today, the Navajo
Times, mentions in a Politico and Huffpost piece and a
bunch of radio interviews.
But
it still looks likely that OSM will grant Peabody a
life-of-mine permit, expand their mining area, and give
them renewed access to Navajo Aquifer water...If any of
you have ideas about how to suspend or block the permit,
please let us know. We're running out of time...
Best, Billy
PRESS
RELEASE
For
Immediate Release: Tuesday December 9th, 2008
Contacts:
Wahleah Johns, (928) 637-5281 and Chelsea Chee, (928)
637-5592 *
Hi-res,
rights-free photos available at www.flickr.com (tagged:
navajo hopi denver protest) *
Navajo
& Hopi Tribal Leaders & Members Urge Office of
Surface Mining to Suspend Decision on Peabody Coal's
"Black Mesa Project"
Denver,
CO – A delegation of 35 Navajo and Hopi tribal members,
including Hopi Tribal Chairman Ben Nuvamsa, met with the
U.S. Office of Surface Mining (OSM) at their Denver
headquarters in hopes of delaying OSM's "Record of
Decision" until the next Presidential Administration
takes office. The "Record of Decision" (ROD) is
the final stage of the permitting process for the proposed
"Black Mesa Project," which would grant Peabody
Coal Company a "life-of-mine" permit-- expanded
mining operations and rights to tap the fresh water of the
Navajo aquifer.
For
three hours the Navajo and Hopi representatives met with
OSM officials and presented documents and petitions
ratified by their communities that urge OSM to suspend
their decision. Their unified statement read,
"Although we represent two different tribes, we come
today united to protect our shared land and water. Water
is the life source to both our peoples, and Peabody has
failed to understand this connection. If the Office of
Surface Mining grants a permit to Peabody, our way of life
and spiritual balance will be severely disrupted and
altered. Currently, we are already suffering the damage
this industry has caused over the past 30 years. We
believe OSM has been negligent in fulfilling the NEPA
process, and if OSM issues a "Record of
Decision" that would be a breach of the Federal Trust
Responsibility. United we ask the Office of Surface Mining
to stop the "Record of Decision" process."
OSM
Western Regional Director Al Klein stated, "The
Environmental Impact Statement process is finalized, the
decision before us is very minor, and we are on track to
release it on Dec. 15." The tribal representatives
expressed the weight of this decision and that it is not a
"minor" decision. They also gave testimony to
the many aspects of their life, culture, and spirituality
that would be severely impacted if the project was
approved. Gordon Isaac, a Navajo tribal member and veteran
of the Gulf War told the officials, "Peabody is not
just digging into topsoil. They are tearing into people's
lifeways."
While
most of the delegation was inside meeting with OSM
officials, 60 local supporters accompanied the rest of the
Navajo and Hopi delegation outside to rally, protest, and
show support, including dropping a 10ft by 16ft banner
from a nearby parking garage that read, "Navajo &
Hopi Say NO COAL MINING!" Support was not only
outside of the building. OSM's telephone and fax lines
were bombarded with calls of support and written requests
to postpone the ROD from across the country.
After
listening to three hours of emotional testimony, OSM was
asked if they would simply consider suspending the record
of decision. Director Klein replied, "We have a set
of regulations, and when a company puts on paper in their
application how they will fulfill the requirements, we do
not have discretion. We have to grant them a permit...At
this point we will not be changing the calender of events
on this decision."
This
decision comes in the midst of Hopi political turmoil.
Chairman Nuvamsa came to represent the Hopi and Tewa
people in the battle to protect the water and lands from
further coal mining in Black Mesa, AZ. "Due to lack
of representation on the Hopi Tribal Council, the Village
of Tewa was never afforded the opportunity to participate
in any discussion of the Draft EIS as it applies to Hopi
people and land," stated Chairman Nuvamsa.
"Hopis
believe that this time of year is a very sacred and
sensitive time that prevents us from stepping outside our
home area, because it's the time of renewal for all life.
We are taught not to be disruptive and confrontational
during this time. It is such a big sacrifice for us to be
here in Denver, but OSM continues to release critical
decisions during this time; so many of our people have not
been able to to voice their grave concerns about this
Black Mesa Project. We feel an obligation to our families,
clans, and future, so we have come here despite our
cultural restrictions." says Racheal Povatah, a Hopi
tribal member.
Navajo
and Hopi citizen's were given 45 days to comment on a
revised "Black Mesa Project" Draft Environmental
Impact Statement (EIS) and were never offered a public
commenting period. Requests for commenting period
extensions were denied by OSM as well as requests for OSM
to come to Navajo and Hopi lands for question and answer
meetings.
Arizona
Congressman, and leading candidate for Secretary of
Interior in the Obama Administration, Raúl M. Grijalva
has asked current Secretary of the Interior Dirk
Kempthorne to suspend further consideration of Peabody's
permit. "At present, OSM is rushing to approve a
life-of-mine permit, first without making the permit
revisions sufficiently available for public review, and
then without adequate environmental review."
"Mining
at Black Mesa has caused springs on Hopi lands to dry up
and jeopardized the sole source of drinking water for many
Hopis and Navajos," stated Grijalva. "The
Secretary, as the trustee for Native American tribes, must
ensure that mining is done responsibly on tribal lands and
that tribes actually want mining to occur. This project
does not meet that test."
In
addition, the power plant that previously used Black Mesa
Mine coal shut down, and there is no other proposed use
for the coal whose mining would be permitted by OSM. As a
result, there is no actual proposed project involving
Black Mesa Mine coal to be analyzed-- making the pending
decision not only premature-- but in direct conflict with
the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act.
According to former Hopi Tribal Chairman, Vernon
Masayesva, "No customer means no project – you
can't do an EIS unless you have a real project, yet OSM is
going ahead with getting a life-of-mine permit."
Black
Mesa Navajo and Hopi residents are concerned about how
this project will impact the future of their homelands
given the history of Peabody's unwise use of the Navajo
Aquifer. "For decades coal and water from our lands
have been taken to power Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Yet,
we have have suffered the loss of our sole source drinking
water to accommodate the over consumption of these
areas," says Wahleah Johns, Co-Director of Black Mesa
Water Coalition.
Black
Mesa is the ancestral homelands to thousands of Navajo and
Hopi families and is regarded as a sacred mountain to the
Navajo people and plays an integral role in the cultural
survival for the future generations of both the Navajo and
Hopi people. ###
--
Billy Parish www.greenforall.org
/ www.powervote.org
/ www.blackmesawatercoalition.org
/ www.1sky.org
/ www.ashoka.org
billyparish@gmail.com / (203) 887-7225 (cell) / (928)
527-1493 (land) / billyparish (skype) 2512 Whispering
Pines Way / Flagstaff, AZ 86004
"One
of the great problems of history is that the concepts of
love and power have usually been contrasted as opposites—polar
opposites—so that love is identified with a resignation
of power, and power with a denial of love…. What is
needed is a realization that power without love is
reckless and abusive, and that love without power is
sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love
implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its
best is power correcting everything that stands against
love." — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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