An Open Letter From Hopi Chairman Wayne Taylor, Jr. Concerning Black Mesa <br>

April 7, 2002

On April 5, 2002 during a Flagstaff press conference, members of the Black Mesa Trust expressed opposition to the proposed Hopi-Reliant power plant project announced by the Hopi Tribal Council on March 22, 2002. In this letter, I hope to lay out for your consideration, a number of facts, which point to the proposed Hopi-Reliant Project as a potential solution to many of the problems facing the Hopi Tribe.

First, the Hopi Tribal Council Resolution approving further Hopi-Reliant discussions expresses the desire of the Council “to explore the possibility of developing an electric generating plant” and that “a final decision concerning…such a power plant cannot be made until definitive studies and analysis have been conducted in order to determine project feasibility.” And most importantly, the Resolution specifically declares, “The Hopi Tribe…is under no obligation to proceed with the Project until such time as feasibility is affirmatively determined and the Hopi Tribal Council approves definitive contractual agreements.” During the Tribal Council meeting on March 22, many Hopis who attended learned firsthand about the project and its potential opportunities for the Hopi people. They heard about the plans of the Tribal Council’s Energy Team to launch in April a series of village meetings aimed at providing project information and obtaining the views of all Hopis who wish to express their views.

The problem of groundwater pumping from the Navajo Aquifer, important as it is, should not be viewed as a single isolated problem nor should we see it as a problem with only one simple solution. The problem is not just Peabody’s pumping of 4000 acre-feet of water annually from the N-Aquifer. Simply stopping the pumping may provide short-term relief, but it will not make the deeper long-term problem go away. All of us must pause and give consideration to assisting the Tribe in achieving broader objectives. Shortsighted and simplistic approaches ignore the larger and more significant problem we face: how to ensure the long-term social and economic survival of the Hopi Tribe and its people.

We cannot ignore the fact that there can be no long-term survival and prosperity for the Hopi, even if Peabody’s pumping stops tomorrow unless two even more fundamental problems are resolved: 1) the N-Aquifer, with its limited recharge and unique geology, is incapable of supplying the long-term future municipal and industrial needs of the Hopi Tribe. The only lasting solution for the Tribe is to find a stable long-term source of water to augment the limited resources of the N-Aquifer, and perhaps even more importantly, 2) there is currently nothing even remotely resembling a sustainable Hopi economy. Without a viable Hopi economy, we are only biding time on our mesas. Without an economy that offers our people choices and opportunities for personal and family fulfillment, any truly meaningful life at Hopi will remain only a dream.

There are a number of points that might be overlooked if we only focus on the N-Aquifer as the single most important problem facing the Hopi. What about the operating revenues that will be lost to the Tribe if the mine closes? The Hopi Tribe is a governmental organization. The Tribe has a responsibility to provide essential governmental services-health, education, law enforcement, etc.-to its people. These services are funded in large part by the revenues generated by the Tribe through coal sales at the Peabody Mine. With a growing Hopi population, the demand for these services only increase. A comprehensive solution must provide a way to replace these lost revenues. How will we provide for the many Hopis who will lose their jobs as a result of lost mine revenues? What replacement jobs are available now in our communities? The toll on the 500 plus Hopi individuals who hold jobs with the Tribe would be devastating.

What about the growing non-Hopi population surrounding the Hopi, a population that will continue to draw on the N-Aquifer for its municipal/industrial water needs in ever-larger quantities? These uses will quickly take up the slack provided by any cessation of pumping by Peabody. How will we solve that problem? Will we simply tell all non-Hopi, including surrounding Navajo communities to stop pumping as well? How likely is it that they will stop their pumping from the N-Aquifer? We no longer live in a world where the Hopi are the only people using groundwater for drinking water and as a necessary ingredient for economic development.

Over the past 100 years, the Hopi villages have become surrounded by many non-Hopi communities all of which depend largely upon groundwater for their domestic and economic development needs. Vows made by some Hopi not to pump water from the N-Aquifer will do nothing more than make the Hopi unintended guarantors of water for non-Hopi water users at the expense of the legitimate future needs of the Hopi people themselves.

The objections of the Black Mesa Trust to the Hopi-Reliant Project were apparently based on a conclusion that the plant will use unreasonable amounts of water from the N-Aquifer. While it is not a foregone conclusion that the power plant’s entire annual requirement of 2,500 acre feet will come from groundwater, lets suppose for the purpose of argument that it did. Under the views of those who object, this would be improper. Those who object believe that not even the Hopi should be able to use N-Aquifer water, except for municipal drinking water. My question to you is this: if the Hopi cannot use N-Aquifer water for a Hopi owned project with direct benefits to the Hopi people, then who can use that water?

The Hopi-Reliant Project will not draw water away from the reservation, never to be seen again, we are instead talking about an on-reservation use that will create many jobs for Hopi people, significant revenue for tribal governmental operations and essential services and investment capital for tribal and village economic development. By embracing an unfettered ultra-conservative water policy rather than a policy of reasonable use of the water resource, as I have proposed, the Hopi are condemned to a life of mere survival when it has always been their right to seek a reasonable measure of prosperity.

Water use by the Hopi people is already restricted to a meager 15-30 gallons per capita per day, well below average uses taken for granted in local reservation border towns like Flagstaff, Winslow and Holbrook where average uses of 120-160 gallons per capita per day or more are the common rule. In the Phoenix metropolitan area those average uses typically exceed 200 gallons per person per day. Why should the Hopi deny themselves the basic necessities of daily life such as running water and indoor plumbing? Instead, shouldn’t we be looking for solutions rather than running down the same old dead ends as previously suggested? Doesn’t it make more sense to find ways of producing the economic resources that will allow us not only to solve the water crisis, but also to improve the quality of life for our people? We don’t need any more dead ends.

How will our children maintain a meaningful connection with their families and their culture when they are increasingly forced to move in ever-larger numbers to the local non-Hopi border towns and to Phoenix in the face of no jobs and no opportunity at Hopi? How will we prevent our Hopi homeland from becoming a retirement community, a national park or worse yet, a ghost town? Shouldn’t we as Hopi leaders pursue a policy that will enable our children to make their future homes and raise their families here on the Hopi Mesas rather than in the suburbs of Phoenix?

Donate to nhonews.com Report a Typo Contact
Most Read