Background information on BMT

Peabody pumps 3.3 million gallons of potable water a day from the aquifer, using almost two and a half times as much water each day as the entire city of Flagstaff, with a population of over 50,000 people and a thriving tourist industry. In just four days, Peabody Energy uses as much water as the entire Hopi village of Kykotsmovi uses in one year! By the time mining ends over 80 billion gallons of water will be gone. Enough to sustain the entire Hopi population of 8,000 for 500 years.

BACKGROUND

Central Arizona Project – Robbing Black Mesa to Fuel Phoenix

For a long time now, water, oil, uranium and natural gas wars have been fought on the battle-ground we know as the state of Arizona. Today, August 14, 2001, on this historic occasion, courageous Hopi runners concluded a grueling 4-day run bringing a message and asking that you join with them in the fight for water- the fight for life

This battle has been political, fought by politicians and corporations who stood to gain great wealth, at a great cost to the indigenous people of this state, at great cost to those of us who may not have enough to survive into the future.

The war began as early as 1922, when states with claims to water from the mighty river signed the Colorado River Compact.

By the 1940’s, Senator Carl Hayden of Phoenix entered the battle, he became the principle architect of the Central Arizona Project (CAP).

Having won the right to use the water from Colorado River in Arizona v. California, Hayden led the battle for funding of the proposed CAP, which could allow the state to use water through a system of pipelines and canals stretching over 300 miles from the Colorado River to Phoenix and on into Tucson.

CAP would deliver 1.2 million acre-feet of water a year. Because the project would force water uphill, through mountains, an enormous amount of electricity would be needed. The initial idea was to build a series of dams in the Grand Canyon to provide hydro-electric power for CAP. This was abandoned when the Sierra Club mounted a successful national campaign to kill the project. A compromise was born. We call it the Navajo Generating Plant (NGP) located in Page, Arizona. It is owned by Arizona Public Service Company and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

NGP would require its own fodder – coal. Enter Peabody Coal Company. In 1966, Peabody, the world largest coal mining operation purchased 380 million tons of coal to be mined underneath Black Mesa – the home of Navajo and Hopi people. The energy produced by NGP was dedicated to CAP.

The owners of another power source, the Mohave Generating Station, also made sweetheart deals to use Black Mesa coal. Unlike NGP, which receives coal by electric rail, the coal to MGP is delivered through a slurry pipeline, which uses 3.3 million gallons each day. Salt River Project is one of the principal owners of MGP.

In order to make coal production in a remote area economical the owners of the generating plant won the right to purchase an acre-feet of water for $1.67 per acre-feet. The price of coal was reduced to a fraction of the cost of coal sold on federal lands. Navajos were coerced to waive possessary tax b and severance taxes and the right to their share of the Colorado River for at least 50 years.

Today the Hopi and Navajo, who walk the land, are noticing seeps and springs drying up. Hydrologists now predict that within 20 years some of the Hopi village will no longer have water. The Bush – Cheney energy plan will accelerate this process.

The truth is, the political power in the state of Arizona lies far from Black Mesa home of the Navajo and Hopi people. And Phoenix, where the power does lie, desperately needs more energy. Water for the unnatural seas of grasses and golf courses, to water a high-density population in a land never designed to sustain it and electricity to light its massive concrete canyons. These great cities stretch beyond the boundaries of Arizona, into the neighboring states – and they are ravenous. All of this opulence, and greed is sustained at the cost of ancient cultures whose traditions require so little. It’s a simple life, living off of the bounty of the earth mother. It’s a life- style that deserves to survive. And it is important to know that when water is gone from Black Mesa, it will be found elsewhere, perhaps in your own community.

Today over 30 years later Peabody continues to pump 4,000 acre-feet annually from an ancient non-renewable aquifer that is the only source of potable water for Hopi and Navajo peoples. Mining is expected to continue for another 35 years. By the time mining ends over 80 billion gallons of water will be gone. Enough to sustain the entire Hopi population of 8,000 for 500 years.

Black Mesa: Tradition, Trust, and Responsibility

Western science operates by taking things apart and analyzing the pieces. It has produced enormously important technological and medical advances. Because of this world view, Western societies are generally able to control their environments and provide greater human comfort.

Traditional science operates by seeing the whole and studying the interaction of the parts. It has sustained Native peoples and cultures for millennia against near overwhelming odds. But, because of this world view, traditional peoples often find themselves ill-prepared to protect their own best interests.

Western science looks at the world in which we live, separates the human from the environment, and then studies the parts--the air, the water, the land, the animals--as if they had little to do with one another. The world is one in which the human is separate from the rest of the nature. The world is mechanistic and the human runs it.

Traditional science looks at the world in which we live, recognizes the essential connection of all of the parts--the air, the water, the land, the other animals, and the human--and from it develops culture and a way of being. The world is sacred and the human is its steward.

Because of these differences, Native people, until recently largely untrained in Western science, have been at a considerable disadvantage in representing their own best interests in the protection of their lands and lifeways and in the creation of sound economies for their tribes and nations.

In recognition of the disadvantage under which Native America operates in this regard, the federal government recognizes a special trust responsibility with regard to the indigenous peoples of the United States. It has promised to take special care, to be sure the peoples are not cheated or taken advantage of in their dealings with the dominant culture they find so foreign. More often than not, however, the government of the United States has failed to meet even the most fundamental fiduciary and social responsibilities one legitimately expects of a trustee. Indeed, more often than not, it has been party to, and beneficiary of the cheating and the lying that have impoverished Native peoples, degraded their lands, and disdained their lifeways and sacred responsibilities.

Such is surely the case with regard to Hopi interaction with Peabody Energy regarding the use of waters extracted from the Navajo Aquifer, the water--the second breath of the human according to Hopi science--upon which the survival of Hopi people and Hopi culture depend. It was so when the federal government permitted a Peabody lawyer, John Boyden, to represent the Hopi people in their negotiations with the company regarding water and mineral leases in the 1960s. It was so in the 1980s and 1990s when it permitted agencies of the United States to disregard federally mandated studies and assessments of human and cultural impacts associated with Black Mesa mining.

In the Cumulative Hydrological Impact Assessment and Environmental Impact Study required for granting water and mineral mining permits on Black Mesa, cultural imperialism of the federal government has given virtually no standing to traditional science nor to anecdotal evidence of those who walk the land, who once swam its washes, and who, today, still honor its sacred springs. In the CHIA, the term "cumulative" was interpreted by Western science to include physical elements of the environment while excluding human concerns traditional science recognizes as part of the ecological whole. So, too, with the EIS which studied impacts affecting the world of plants and non-human animal life while largely ignoring impacts upon the belief systems and practices of the study area's human population. Such cultural imperialism, such failure to assess impacts from the point of view of peoples who live within study areas, such truncated notions of responsibility for those to whom one has sworn a trust must not be perpetuated in 21st century rulings regarding the perilous future of America's First Peoples.

Regard for the spirit of laws and trust responsibilities which guarantee protection of the American continent and its indigenous peoples demands scrupulous attention both to the letter of the law and the way these words are understood by those affected. Specifically, legal requirements for public comment and consultation in CHIAs and EISs must be addressed with sensitivity to the linguistic challenges and cultural understanding of those affected.

To most Native Americans and certainly to Hopi, words such as "cumulative" and "comprehensive" when used describe hydrological impacts do not refer to effects upon the physical world alone, but include as well impacts on the lifeways and religious practices of those who live and worship in areas under study. Failure to address such impacts compromises not only the letter and spirit of the law but also our religious freedom and practice. When springs cease to flow because of groundwater extraction, and pilgrimage to these sites becomes meaningless, our Constitutional rights are abridged.

To most Native Americans, indeed to most human beings of intelligence and good will, it is abundantly clear that invitations to "public comment" and requirements of "consultation" are not effectively served by the simple publication and limited distribution of massive technological reports. Arcane documents require sensitive explanation, translation, and community discussion under the best of circumstances. In Native America--where English is often a second language, where distances are great and travel is difficult, where knowledge of advanced Western science is limited--the need for such intervention to assure access and participation cannot be overstated. Indeed, the want of such intervention is tantamount to the denial of legal protections and the dismissal of legislative intent.

By way of specific example regarding issues of access and comment, consider Peabody's notion of public notice and invitation. Shortly after filing its recent mining permit application, Peabody placed notices in a few papers informing the public that copies of the application were available for review in Denver, Albuquerque, Kykotsmovi, and Forest Lake. If you asked a traditional Navajo why he did not respond to this "invitation," even if he managed to find a newspaper in which the notice was published, he would probably respond by saying only, "It's a very long road." By this , of course, he would mean much more than the physical distance between his hogan and the Hopi mesas or Albuquerque. He would be referring as well to the cultural differences which separate his home from the center of Hopi government or an urban office where a copy of the application was held. Such a notion of access, of access without true invitation and opportunity, is simply an empty concept, appearance without substance.

So, too, with one who might have made the journey only to confront a document which is virtually incomprehensible to non-scientists and written in English--a language many of the affected people neither speak nor read. Here, too, the appearance of access--access without translation, without illustration or guidance--is made to stand for the real thing. It is less than an empty gesture; it is disrespectful of person and dismissive of the significant effort that has been made.

Beyond such intentional efforts to circumscribe notions of consultation and comment there are the unavoidable but correctable misunderstandings that occur between cultures. Consider the use of the word "mitigation" as it applies to the "mitigation of impacts during the operation of the mine." To Western scientists and most Anglo people this phrase likely means to reduce the negative results of operating a mine. To Hopi considering the operation of the Black Mesa mines, such a phrase likely means that if a burial site or kiva or remnants of ancient village are encountered in mining, the operation will be moved to protect the ancestral site. In fact, just the opposite is true: the exposed bones of grandfathers are crated up and shipped to museums while, the stones of kivas and homes of those long passed are scooped up in the massive jaws of gigantic earth moving equipment and dumped in some more convenient location, exposed to the elements and the often disrespectful gaze of the mine workers. Given such differences of understanding, how can it truthfully be said that the traditional people of Black Mesa, even those who have traveled the hundreds of miles that separate their villages from sites where mine applications and reports are housed, have been truly consulted or invited to comment. Indeed, had they in fact been informed and consulted, can anyone doubt how they would have responded to Peabody's proposals or the findings of the Office of Surface Mining?

In summary, then, the respect for life and persons, the need for sustainable decision-making, and the requirements of trust relationship which inform land use and Indian law have been and continue to be denatured in the application of these laws with regard to Peabody Energy's use of Navajo Aquifer water. Such violation must not continue. The U.S. Office of Surface Mining, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Secretary of the Interior must be called to account, must be required to enforce the spirit and the letter of law intended to protect not only our natural resources but also our religious sites, our identity and authenticity as discrete peoples within a pluralistic state, and our inalienable right to self-preservation as unique individuals and cultures.

Drawdown Fact Sheet

The Navajo Aquifer (N-aquifer) lies beneath the Black Mesa plateau and the Hopi and Navajo reservations.

The N-aquifer is the most significant source of water in the region and is the only aquifer in the area that naturally meets the EPA's standards for drinking water. Concentrations of total dissolved solids (TDS) in unfiltered N-aquifer water are generally less than 400 milligrams per liter (mg/l). The EPA's standard for drinking water is 500 mg/1.

Water from the N-aquifer feeds springs in the area which are essential to the religious practices of members of the Hopi Tribe.

Peabody Energy, which is the largest private coal producer in the world, operates two strip mines on Black Mesa, the Kayenta and Black Mesa mines. Collectively, these mines constitute the most extensive strip mine operation in the United States. During fiscal year 1998, Peabody removed just under 11.8 million tons of coal from its Arizona mines. Coal from the Black Mesa mine is used to power the Mohave Generating Station in Laughlin, Nevada.

In order to transport its coal from Black Mesa to Laughlin, Peabody mixes it with water (creating "slurry") and pipes the coal in liquid form. Peabody withdraws over 4,000 acre-feet of water from the N-aquifer per year to fuel its slurry operation. One acre-foot of water is equal to 325,851 gallons, enough liquid to fill a football field one foot deep. Four thousand acre-feet comes to more than 1.3 billion gallons of water per year. Put another way, the pipeline consumes an average of 120,000 gallons of water per hour, with 43,000 tons of coal slurried per day.
According to documents filed with the EPA, the Black Mesa pipeline failed 12 times between 1994 and 1999, and at least eight of those failures resulted in discharges of coal or coal slurry into local washes.

The Natural Resource Defense Council’s report "Drawdown: Groundwater Mining on Black Mesa" reviewed data reported by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Office of Surface Mining.

NRDC's report shows that:

• water levels have decreased by more than 100 feet in some N-aquifer wells;

• discharge has dropped by more than 50% in the majority of monitored N-aquifer springs;

• some localized contamination of the aquifer may be taking place;

• the federal government has a "trust duty" which obligates it to protect the N-aquifer; and

• the hydrologic models the government uses to monitor the aquifer are outdated and incomplete.

NRDC's review indicates that at least one of the government's four criteria that are used to asses when "material damage" to the N-aquifer has occurred (known as the "CHIA" criteria) has already been exceeded. Further, data suggest that at least two more criteria may have been surpassed.

NRDC recommends the following steps be taken to preserve the N-aquifer:

• Peabody should cease groundwater pumping from the N-aquifer no later than 2005;

• Peabody should immediately implement an N-aquifer use-reduction plan,

• the Interior Department should complete the three-part study of coal transport alternatives that it began in the early l990s;

• the Department of Interior should recalibrate its model and improve its monitoring of the N-aquifer;

• though implementing one or more effective, environmentally sensitive alternatives, the Department of the Interior should ensure a viable, stable long-term supply of water for the Hopi and Navajo reservations;

• the Department of the Interior should adopt "safe yield" as its management goal for Black Mesa;

• with tribal consent, the Environmental Protection Agency should designate the N-aquifer a "sole source aquifer" pursuant to the Federal Sole Source Aquifer Protection Program; and

• tribal sovereignty must be respected, and federal and tribal governments should work cooperatively to manage aquifer resources.

Saving H₂OPI Water

For many decades now, Hopis have reported a tragedy occurring deep within Mother Earth. Their ancient springs and seeps, which are fed by the N-aquifer underlying Black Mesa, are drying up.

Black Mesa Trust was organized in 2001 by a group of concerned Hopis to begin researching all aspects of Peabody Energy’s Black Mesa coal and water mining operations, which use more than 4,000 acre feet of N-aquifer water each year.

Peabody Energy, an international corporation and the world’s largest coal company, has leases with the Hopi and Navajo Tribal governments to mine coal on Black Mesa and to use N-aquifer water to slurry coal from a strip mine there to the 1,570-megawatt Mohave Generating Station in Laughlin, Nevada, 273 miles away.

The unique N-aquifer system consists of "confined and unconfined" aquifers that underlie all of Hopi and the Western Navajo Reservation; it is approximately 35,000 years old. This ancient water, filtered through sandstone over the millennia, exceeds all federal standards for drinking water.
Michael Adair-Kriz, an NAU anthropology graduate student and member of Black Mesa Water Coalition, a student group formed to support the Trust, notes that the aquifer water is so pure that using this water to slurry the coal is the monetary equivalent of "bathing the pulverized coal in Evian the entire 273 miles to Laughlin."

Over the course of the 34-year-old lease agreement, the coal company has so far mined more than 40 billion gallons of water. That water is gone forever.
Hopis believe that all aquifers and springs are interconnected. The aquifers and springs not only sustain human bodies, but they behave like a human body, a living, breathing, complex organism that will die if part is severely damaged.

Hopis also believe the underground water is directly linked to natural forces; for example, the underground water attracts the rain by "sucking" it from the clouds.

Western science consistently disregards this wisdom, and the Office of Surface Mining’s 1990 Environmental Impact Study of Black Mesa failed to assess the critical importance of the knowledge and values of those who know the N-aquifer best. The U.S. Geological Survey’s 1983 water model is a mathematical model that can only use quantifiable data, not unmeasurable cultural values and beliefs, considered inferior to Western science.

In the early 1980s, the Office of Surface Mining asked the U.S. Geological Survey to assess the impact of Peabody pumping on groundwater under Black Mesa. OSM drew a line south to north through Shonto (between Tuba City and Kayenta) and told USGS to study the area south and southeast of Shonto. Shonto region was chosen because it is the main recharge area for the entire N-aquifer, but OSM did not ask USGS to look at the vast region west and northwest of Shonto, even though it too is part of the N-aquifer system.

OSM’s boundary created an arbitrary ridge, artificially separating the aquifer into two unconnected systems. The study assumed that recharge from Shonto flows only toward Black Mesa and Hopi when in fact it flows in all directions, and it assumed that Black Mesa is not connected to the vast region west and northwest of Shonto when in fact it is. It also assumed that the portion of the N-aquifer under Black Mesa is "tightly confined," sealed off from other aquifers, springs and washes.

In October of 2000, the Natural Resources Defense Council issued a report based on a hydrogeological assessment of all available government data monitoring water pumping from the N-aquifer. The report, "Drawdown: Groundwater Mining on Black Mesa," concluded that pumping three million gallons of water a day to slurry coal from Black Mesa to the Mohave Generating Station was not an appropriate use of the pristine drinking water in the N-aquifer, the sole source of drinking water for the Hopi Reservation, which receives only nine inches of rainfall annually.

The NRDC report found that water levels in some monitoring wells on the aquifer had dropped by more than 100 feet and that discharge from most of the springs fed by the aquifer had slackened by more than 50 percent. It also noted signs that the aquifer is being contaminated in some places by low-quality water seeping in from overlying aquifers as the pressure in the N-aquifer is decreased by pumping.

Peabody Energy responded to this report by maintaining that it was based on erroneous data and by publishing a validation study of its new 3-D model of the aquifer.

Concerned Hopi farmers and leaders then founded Black Mesa Trust, which is fighting for the life of the N-aquifer. The Trust maintains that the new Peabody model is based on assumptions (such as recharge rate) that cannot be justified; however, that is not the most basic issue.
"We can debate this study and that study forever," says Vernon Masayesva, director of the Trust, "but the fundamental question is, ‘Is this the best way to use water in the desert?’"

The Trust is demanding that Peabody Energy find an alternative source of water for slurrying coal, or an alternative transportation method for the Black Mesa Mine coal by the end of the year 2005.

The Trust’s position is in keeping with the Hopi Tribe’s commitment not to renew the Tribe’s mining lease with Peabody in 2005 unless the company can find a new source of water for the pipeline or a new coal transportation system. The Trust is working with its partners to bring legal, public and political pressure to bear to support the Tribe’s position.