Proposed power plant faces opposition
BURNHAM-The Desert Rock Power Plant, a Sithe Global L.L.C. & Diné Power Authority (DPA) project, is a proposed 1,500-megawatt coal-fired power plant that will be located near the Four Corners area on the Navajo Reservation. The proposed area already has two other coal-fired power plants that are not only contributing to the environmental hazards of that area, but also putting a huge amount of stress on local natural resources.
Local Navajo residents have been strongly opposing the new Desert Rock power plant. The Desert Rock plant is still in the environmental review process, and has not yet been given the green light to start water drilling of the area.
However, in November, Desert Rock officials began drilling efforts in the Burnham Chapter community in New Mexico. In addition to the Burnham Chapter opposition, the surrounding chapters of Sanostee and Nenanezah have also voiced opposition to the Desert Rock power plant.
The Burnham Chapter area where the proposed power plant will be located is halfway between Gallup and Shiprock. Despite the cold winter weather, several families, including elderly women and young children, have been camping out near a makeshift blockade to stop Desert Rock officials from entering the people's lands to start the preliminary drilling.
According to eyewitness Lori Goodman, the group at the blockade was put in serious bodily danger on Tuesday, Dec. 12, when DPA official Suzie Baldwin, the Navajo Energy policy writer, rushed at the blockade of elderly women and several witnesses with a four-wheel drive vehicle.
"This issue did not happen overnight. This issue has been around for about two and a half to three years now when the power plant was first proposed to the Burnham Chapter. The community asked repeatedly for more information regarding the plant from the Navajo Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but we were not answered," stated Diné Care and Doodá Desert Rock Committee member, Lori Goodman.
"We had a major concern with having another power plant in such close proximity to the other two power plants, from which we feel that are causing high numbers of asthma and cancer among our communities. Since we got no response from the Navajo EPA, we began a petition to request a cumulative health impact survey done on for this proposed power plant, and in July…we hand delivered it to Ron Curry, the New Mexico Environmental Secretary. Since then the issue has had several other incidents added to it," she said.
"This past summer, our elders in our community have had multiple visits by DPA officials and Arlene Arviso to have them sign their grazing permits over so…the power plant can proceed. We started this blockade on Tuesday, Dec. 12 to bring this unauthorized drilling to a stop until more attention can be given to the issues that we as a community have. We were also visited by Frank Dayish Jr. yesterday, and he set up a meeting…on Monday, Dec. 18 at the blockade," Goodman said.
Doodá Desert Rock committee member Dailan Jake Long added, "It's an absolute shame that our elders are sitting out there 24 hours a day. It's cold; many of them are getting sick; one of the ladies had her dog brutally mutilated just to intimidate her, proponents of DPA/Sithe almost ran over one of the elders with their truck, and they are still being ignored."
"We [have all] voiced our opposition from the beginning of the project and it's appalling that we must go to this extreme just to protect our health, our land, our sacred/religious sites, and many of our burial sites. Our civil rights are being violated left and right and we are calling our Navajo people to help us battle this act of terrorism."
"This is cultural genocide in its purest form. We are not going to be the targets of environmental injustice anymore," Long said.
"We have said 'No' since the beginning and we're still being walked over. DPA/Sithe keep coming around and making us sign documents that we know little about. They're offering us money and exploiting us for a project that has absolutely no benefits. They get the power, we get the pollution," Long stated.
At the center of this dispute is Alice Gilmore, who has not given consent to the DPA to be on her property, and has not signed over her grazing rights to the land that the DPA is now trying to build the plant on and drill into.
This elderly woman, who has never approved of the idea for the power plant (even since it was first proposed), said that she has "had enough."
Gilmore and the Doodá Desert Rock group asked for the disclosure of the drilling permits that would be necessary for the drilling to take place, but were met with avoidance by the DPA.
Members of Diné CARE/Doodá Desert Rock Committee met Dec. 13, at the Shiprock Tribal courthouse seeking answers about drilling permits. The Dine Care/Doodá Desert Rock members and other concerned residents said Navajo Tribal Police Lieutenant Demsey denied Gilmore and other residents access to view the permits.
The group is now asking for copies of the categorical exclusion allowing the drilling activities to begin. They also want copies of the Clean Air and Water Act-Sections 401, 402 and 404-in order to prove that the DPA and the Desert Rock power plant officials are in compliance with regulatory requirements.
The proposed area for the drilling is home to several extended families, but arbitrarily drawn political boundaries by the Navajo Nation and Desert Rock company representatives have the families separated into the three chapters: Burnham, Sanostee and Nenahnezad. The boundary defining Burnham and Nenahnezad has been moved further south for the benefit of the DPA and Sithe Global L.L.C. as recently as two years ago, cited the group.
The Doodá Desert Rock group also cites the existence of high numbers of chronic illnesses (such as asthma, cancer and organ failures) that have been directly linked to the other two existing power plants in the area.
The power plant blockade is occurring as Navajo Nation leaders are fighting in the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to protect the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff from the desecration of using recycled wastewater to make snow for tourism. The mountain is sacred to 13 area Indian tribes. However, both Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. and the Navajo Nation Council support the construction of the Desert Rock Power Plant and accompanying coalmine, which Navajos say would add more pollution to the air, land and water, already saturated with disease-causing toxins.
Elouise Brown of Sanostee Chapter and one of the Dine Care/Doodá Desert Rock group said, "The local residents are not protesters but are resisters. Who would be happy if a well is being dug in their backyard especially when it is done in secrecy? So, how can those residents be considered protesters when they are simply standing up for their rights to have clean air, [clean] water, and [a clean] environment."
The Dine Care/Doodá Desert Rock group is in need of donations of firewood, financial assistance, and any other types of help that would serve useful to resolve the matter.
For more information on what the specific requests are, please contact Lori Goodman at 970-259-0199. For more information on the Navajo blockade, please contact Lori Goodman at Diné CARE via phone at 970-259-0199 or fax 970-259-2300 or email kiyaani@frontier.net.
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