Groups challenge EIS
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK National and tribal environmental
watchdog groups have asked the Office of Surface Mining to redraft
the Black Mesa Project draft Environmental Impact Statement.
Citing a number of shortcomings, including an allegation that the
Draft EIS fails to meet the most basic requirements of the National
Environmental Policy Act of 1969, the Natural Resources Defense
Council, the Black Mesa Water Coalition, the Sierra Club and the
Center for Biological Diversity have asked OSM to address their
concerns and then recirculate the document for comment.
The groups say the EIS failed to analyze the environmental impacts
of massive water withdrawals on the Navajo and Hopi reservations,
concluding that four decades of water withdrawals have not harmed
the Navajo aquifer to date and asserting that another two decades
would have negligible impacts.
Springs flowing from the N-aquifer are sacred to Navajo and Hopi
residing in the area, but many of those springs have run dry since
Peabody Western Coal Co. began operations at Black Mesa, the groups
allege.
The Black Mesa mining operation is the sole coal supplier for the
Mohave Generating Station in Laughlin, Nev., and Mohave Generating
Station is its sole customer.
Salt River Project, a 20 percent owner of Mohave, announced Tuesday
that it was ending efforts to return the plant to service. Tuesday
also was the deadline for comments on the draft EIS.
After failing to reach a purchase agreement with majority owner
and operator, Southern California Edison, SRP determined there was
not enough time to make it economically feasible to bring Mohave
back into service with the environmental emission controls required
by a 1999 consent decree.
The decree was issued following a 1998 complaint filed by Grand
Canyon Trust, Sierra Club, and the National Parks & Conservation
Association Inc. over Mohave's emissions. It gave Mohave owners
six years to install the necessary pollution-control devices.
"The federal government must take a hard look at the environmental
and cultural impacts of these mining and power-plant operations,
and explore less-polluting alternatives," according to Andy
Bessler of the Sierra Clubs Tribal Partnership Program.
OSM cannot ignore renewable energy as a viable alternative to reopening
the Mohave Generating Station, the groups said. The coal-fired plant
closed Dec. 31, 2005.
The Navajo, Hopi and others in Northern Arizona threatened by climate
chaos and drying wells deserve better, said Bessler. "OSM fast-tracked
this plan without any consideration of the massive amounts of greenhouse
gases that Mohave would belch into the atmosphere every year."
The Grand Canyon Trust challenged the Black Mesa EIS in separate
comments to OSM, saying it believes that the Statement of Purpose
and Need should explicitly address and account for Mohave's suspended
operational status.
The Trust also contends that the statement should acknowledge "the
contingent nature of a Mohave restart," saying three of Mohave's
four owners have announced they would not continue to resume operation
of the power plant.
"There is no indication that a new group of partners has formed
or is prepared to invest more than a billion dollars needed to reopen
the plant, and the DEIS should inform the public and decision makers
of this state of affairs when describing the purpose of and need
for the Black Mesa Project," the Trust said in its comments
to OSM.
Restoration would cost about $1.1 billion including $500,000 for
pollution-reduction equipment.
Wahleah Johns, a Navajo citizen and community organizer of the Black
Mesa Water Coalition, said, "This draft EIS marks the end of
hydrology and the beginning of mythology."
This EIS ignores over four decades of hard facts and the eyes of
thousands of our elders who have witnessed our springs run dry,
she said.
The Mohave closure came after years of protests about the mines
environmental impacts, "and had the effect of shuttering one
of the dirtiest coal-fired power plants in the West," the groups
said.
Tim Grabiel, an environmental justice attorney with NRDC, authored
"Drawdown: An Update," a report issued last year that
found use of the N-aquifer for mining purposes clearly violated
the governments own safety criteria.
"The federal government is working hand-in-glove with powerful
interests to reopen a mine that would suck precious drinking water
right out from under the feet of thousands of people in dozens of
communities," Grabiel said.
No community, no river, no fish need be wiped out forever to produce
electricity in the 21st century, said Erik Ryberg, staff attorney
at the Center for Biological Diversity, "no matter how much
Peabody stands to pocket."
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February 9, 2007
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