Hopi grassroots petition influences Peabody decision

<i>Rosanda Suetopka Thayer</i><br>
Kykotsmovi student and one of the signers of Hopi community petition protesting an extension be granted to Peabody Coal is Kyle Nutumya who gave public testimony regarding the Peabody LOM request. Seated (from left) are Clayton Honyumptewa (center), Director of Hopi Lands and Hopi Chairman LeRoy Shingoitewa.

<i>Rosanda Suetopka Thayer</i><br> Kykotsmovi student and one of the signers of Hopi community petition protesting an extension be granted to Peabody Coal is Kyle Nutumya who gave public testimony regarding the Peabody LOM request. Seated (from left) are Clayton Honyumptewa (center), Director of Hopi Lands and Hopi Chairman LeRoy Shingoitewa.

HOPI RESERVATION, Ariz. - News of the Jan. 5 decision by Judge Robert G. Holt ordering that the Dec. 22, 2008 decision by the Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation and Enforcement to grant a Life of Mine to Peabody Western Coal Company for the Black Mesa Mine be reversed reached Hopiland on Jan. 7, sending hopeful waves of excitement to stop any future discussion or consideration of granting a permit to Peabody Western Coal Company and further, to stop the continued pumping of millions of gallons of pristine Hopi water to transport Peabody coal off-reservation.

In his decision, Judge Holt said, "OSM violated NEPA by not preparing a supplemental draft EIS when Peabody changed the proposed action. As a result the Final EIS did not consider a range of alternatives to the new proposed action, describing the wrong environmental baseline, and did not achieve the informed decision-making and meaningful public comment required by NEPA.

Because of this Final EIS, OSM's decision to issue a revised permit to Peabody must be vacated and remanded to OSM for further action."

Originally in support of the LOM permit in 2008 was the Hopi Tribe's Water and Energy Team, headed by Nada Talayumptewa of Kykotsmovi Village, along with Scott Canty, the Hopi Tribe's General Counsel, and the Hopi Energy Team's water consultant JoLynn Roberson of Flagstaff.

The Hopi community never gave its authorization to either the Hopi Water-Energy Team, Canty or Roberson to move forward with approval for Peabody nor was the Hopi community consulted about the potential impacts that continued water pumping would cause to the Hopi reservation.

These issues were the primary topics at a Jan. 11 meeting at the Hopi Wellness Center conference room that hosted former attorney Joseph Pizarchik, OSM's new director, who came to meet with not just the current Hopi Council but also with the Hopi community.

Effects of massive Hopi water pumping were already being felt by Hopi residents, evidenced by sacred springs and wells drying up, serious land erosion, plant growth retardation and wild animals coming closer to villages and homes looking for drinking water.

Also, according to water samplings gathered in the past year, higher levels of contamination in Hopi drinking water sources were documented.

Former Hopi Chairmen Vernon Masayesva and Ben Nuvamsa have been protesting this 2008 approval by Hopi Water Energy Team and had made several personal visits to OSM and Department of Interior offices this past year to convince politicians to rescind the decision and shut down the Navajo Generating Station.

Both Masayesva and Nuvamsa recognized that power generation was a necessity for Arizona, Nevada and southern California and that return revenues for water were needed for both Hopi and Navajo tribes to provide essential government services to their people. They also wanted to show that the EIS was seriously flawed and that a new process must be started.

The meeting was hosted by Clayton Honyumptewa, Director of Hopi Lands, former Hopi Tribal Chairman Ben Nuvamsa and new tribal officials, Chairman Leroy Shingoitewa and Vice Chairman Herman Honanie. Four Council representatives were also there: George Mase, Alph Secakuku and Cedric Kuwaninvaya of Sipaulovi Village and Leroy Sumatskuku of Upper Moencopi.

Accompanying OSM Director Pizarchik was Bob Postal, from the Denver, Colo. OSM offices.

It was noted on the record by the attending Hopi public, which included two formal representatives from the Phoenix area Hopi-Tewa Senom Group, that none of the current Hopi Water-Energy Team or Hopi's General Counsel Scott Canty were present to hear Hopi community concerns about the LOM permit at the public meeting.

With almost 60 Hopi community members in the audience, including several students and four specially invited Navajo representatives, each waited patiently to speak on the record.

The one consistent comment from each speaker was that no one wanted Peabody to have a LOM permit granted by OSM and that they also wanted to have the current Hopi Tribe Water-Energy Team disbanded because it was felt that they had become negligent in their moral and tribal obligations to protect Hopi resources.

Pizarchik responded by saying, "This LOM permit is about your own Hopi resources. I believe that OSM must go beyond its normal obligation to make sure that Hopi is safe. We must make the best decision possible for the Hopi people with the most accurate information possible."

Melvin George, a Kykotsmovi elder, said, "There are 52 names on our own petition from the mesas and I am proud to say, they are all elders. They fully understood when they signed it, that the petition meant that we wanted Peabody to stop using our precious water. I am here to ask Mr. Pizarchik to deny Peabody any more water from Hopi. We ... can't survive without water. I want this request to be seen as important, and I would like it to be addressed by OSM as important, so our children and grandchildren won't have to come back and request it themselves."

Kyle Nutumya, student from Kykotsmovi added, "How do you expect me to continue to grow up here on my own home reservation? To live here, to enjoy my future family here? I would like to grow up knowing that things like water and farmland will be for me when I get old. I don't want OSM to approve the LOM permit for Peabody."

Nuvamsa stated, "This recent decision by Judge Holt is a great moral victory for us at Hopi. Mostly because the final decision to vacate the permit was pushed through by a grassroots petition signed by our own Hopi and Tewa community people. We need to demand a full restoration and reclamation for all of the Peabody coal mined areas. Peabody has failed to address concerns from Hopi or Tewa people. Hopis also need to know abut how our coal revenues work, how do we tax, how do we get revenues? The US government as our trustee, they didn't look out for us."

Pizarchik told the attendees that he had a chance to personally check the levels of ground water over the past weekend at Hopi. "I can tell you personally that the N-aquifer is being re-established, its just two points under what it is normally, but at the current reclamation efforts, it won't be able to be replenished to its prior level so we will need to step up those efforts to show a significant change."

Victor Masayesva Jr, of Hotevilla, said, "Our own Hotevilla village petition was taken around in 2008. I became personally aware that I had the option of petitioning OSM by myself, as an individual tribal member, to ask for a denial from OSM in issuing a LOM permit to Peabody Coal. This was a good avenue of protest for me, since at Hotevilla village, we don't have Hopi tribal council representatives, we are a traditional village. I don't have to go to Hopi Council to protest for me in this kind of action. Hotevilla village had over 100 signatures to say we weren't being informed by our own Hopi Tribal Council or the formal Hopi Water-Energy Team about these OSM activities and now I want all Hopis to get involved and say in the next EIS, "yes! I was harmed by the OSM decision."

Kevin Nash, one of the Hopis who went to the OSM offices in Denver, Colorado last year, said, "a lot of the permit issuance is not just about economics for Hopi people. Its about psychological, social and cultural issues too. We as tribal people, deserve fair and equal treatment when it comes to major resource decisions like this. It affects everyone on our reservation and to make it worse, our own tribal Energy Team, who is supposed to be looking out for us, is helping these outside corporations. Peabody is the main reason for a lot of the current political turmoil here at Hopi. Also our current General Counsel Scott Canty and Jolynn Roberson are also responsible. I don't know if you, Mr. Pizarchik are sworn into office, but we hope you are a man of integrity and that your OSM office will be honest with us. That you will do what you say and that you will be honest when it comes to dealing with us at Hopi."

Pizarchik promised accountability; he gave everyone attending his personal office phone number and e-mail. If you would like to make your own comment about the OSM permit, you may contact Joseph Pizarchik, OSM Director at (202) 208-4006 or e-mail jpizarchik@osmre.gov.

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