RECENT ARCHIVES
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RECENT ARCHIVES - SENAA West
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Opponents of Desert Rock gain time
The EPA gives 30-day extension to comment on plant’s air permit
By Ted Holteen, Durango Herald, AUGUST 22, 2008
  Opponents of the proposed Desert Rock power plant in northwest New Mexico won a small victory Thursday when the Environmental Protection Agency granted a 30-day extension to allow several groups and the state of New Mexico more time to review and appeal Desert Rock's air-quality permit.
  The new deadline to file an appeal is Oct. 2..
  Thursday's decision also allowed Desert Rock representatives to participate in the appeals process, and it also denied a request by the opponents to stay a decision by the EPA on carbon-dioxide emissions by Desert Rock.
  The EPA issued the Prevention of Significant Deterioration, or PSD, air-quality permit July 31. By law, the EPA allows 30 days from the issuance of the permit for appeals to be filed, but Mike Eisenfeld, the energy coordinator for San Juan Citizens Alliance in New Mexico, said the Desert Rock case is an exception to the regular rules....

Plaintiffs in Peaks case considering appeal
By Cindy Yurth, Tséyi' Bureau, Navajo Times, AUGUST 21, 2008
  CHINLE - Following a reversal of fortune in the courts, eight plaintiffs in the lawsuit to prevent the use of treated wastewater to make snow on the San Francisco Peaks are considering whether to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to spokesmen for President Joe Shirley Jr. and the Sierra Club.
  In an en banc ruling published Aug. 8, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a previous ruling by a three-judge panel that would have prevented the snowmaking scheme at the Arizona Snowbowl ski area.
   Among the appellants were the Navajo Nation and three other tribes who claim the use of reclaimed sewage effluent, even if cleaned up enough to meet federal drinking water standards, would defile a sacred mountain, render the area's medicinal plants unusable, and nullify some of their ceremonies....

Environmental groups challenge Desert Rock decision
By Cornelia de Bruin, The Daily Times, AUGUST 15, 2008
  BURNHAM — A coalition of seven environmental groups, represented by Earthjustice attorney Nick Persampieri, Thursday filed a challenge to the federal Environmental Protection Agency's July 31 decision to grant an air permit for Desert Rock.
  Desert Rock Power Plant is the 1,500 megawatt pulverized coal-burning plant proposed near Burnham, about 30 miles southwest of Farmington on the Navajo Nation.
  Even so, Horn Creek eventually splashes its way to the canyon bottom and into the Colorado River, a vital water source for 25 million people from Las Vegas to Los Angeles to San Diego. In that mighty river, the Orphan’s radioactive dribble is diluted to insignificance....

Freeze residents impatient with planning process
By Cindy Yurth, Tséyi', Navajo Times, AUGUST 14, 2008
  TUBA CITY - The residents of the former Bennett Freeze do not understand why it is taking tribal planners so long to figure out what they need.
  In the words of Coconino County supervisor and Tuba City resident Louise Yellowman, "We need everything."
   "The government keeps asking us, 'What do you need?'" said Yellowman at a final input meeting held Aug. 6 for residents of the former Bennett Freeze....

Environmental groups, tribes to continue efforts to protect sacred Peaks
Navajo-Hopi Observer, AUGUST 12, 2008
  FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - Arizona's sacred San Francisco Peaks and the neighboring tribal communities were denied environmental justice Friday in a split decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling in favor of the Arizona Snowbowl ski resort in its efforts to expand and contaminate the area.
  "The court failed to consider the claims of the impacts to human health form coming into contact with the treated waste from reclaimed water and did not take seriously the tribes' legal claims because of a court technicality," said Andy Bessler with the Sierra Club in Flagstaff, Arizona. "The decision leaves unaddressed water quality issues, since the Court failed to decide if using reclaimed water on the Peaks was safe for the environment or for human health."
  The San Francisco Peaks, north of Flagstaff, Arizona, are sacred to 13 tribes and are important spiritual and geographic boundaries. The tribes had brought legal claims under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and the National Environmental Policy Act against the U.S. Forest Service from implementing a snowmaking proposal using reclaimed water to make artificial snow on the Peaks....

Forest Service, Snowbowl win right to use fake snow
Money wins out over religion, some say
By S.J. Wilson, Navajo-Hopi Observer, AUGUST 12, 2008
  FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - Just one day after Indian Country registered its shock over the settlement in Cobell v. Kempthorne - $455.6 million rather than the $58 billion sought - 13 Arizona tribes learned that they had lost their bid to protect the sacred San Francisco Peaks from desecration by the use of treated wastewater to make artificial snow at the Arizona Snowbowl ski resort.
  Eleven Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals justices filed a split decision in Pasadena, Calif. on August 8, with seven justices joining Judge Bea in affirming the district court's denial of relief on all grounds. Judge Fletcher penned the dissent, joined by two justices.
  Attorney Howard Shanker, who represents the Navajo Nation, White Mountain Apache, Yavapai Apache, Havasupai, the Sierra Club and other plaintiff-appellants, said that the Ninth Circuit en banc hearing was the last best chance for tribes to have legal protection under RFRA....

Circuit Court overturns peaks ruling
By Karen Francis, Diné Bureau, Gallup Independent, AUGUST 11, 2008
  WINDOW ROCK — In a long awaited 100-page decision, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that using treated wastewater on the San Francisco Peaks in Arizona to make artificial snow does not violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and overturned a previous ruling that would have protected the mountain that is sacred to at least 13 Indian tribes.
  The Navajo Nation v. U.S. Forest Services was heard by an en banc court on Dec. 11, and the latest ruling was issued Aug. 8.
  The court’s majority opinion states, “The only effect of the proposed upgrades is on the Plaintiffs’ subjective, emotional religious experience.”
  The court found that there was no substantial burden on the free exercise of religion using the Supreme Court precedence of Sherber v. Verner and Wisconsin v. Yoder. The court also stated that the plaintiffs “cannot dictate the decisions that government makes in managing ‘what is, after all, its land.’”
Because there was no substantial burden, the compelling interest standard cannot be applied, according to the court....

Snowbowl wins latest court fight vs. Navajos
By Michael Kiefer, Arizona Republic, AUGUST 9, 2008
  A federal appellate court on Friday sided with a Flagstaff ski resort, ruling that its plan for using reclaimed wastewater to make artificial snow does not violate the religious freedom of Native Americans.
  The ruling sets up a potential showdown at the U.S. Supreme Court, where Arizona tribal leaders, environmental groups and their attorneys pledge to appeal their case.
  Regardless, there will be no snowmaking at the Snowbowl this winter....

Snowmaking OK'd at Snowbowl resort
By Michael Kiefer, Arizona Republic, AUGUST 8, 2008
  A federal court of appeals on Friday ruled that using reclaimed wastewater to make artificial snow at a Flagstaff ski resort does not violate the religious freedom of Native Americans.
  The decision out of the court's Ninth Circuit in San Francisco overturns an earlier appellate decision to the contrary. The issue has see-sawed since January 2006, when a federal judge in Prescott first ruled that Arizona Snowbowl's plan to run a pipe up the mountain from a water treatment plant in Flagstaff was acceptable under federal environmental law.
  A coalition of tribes and environmental groups led by the Navajo Nation appealed the decision on religious grounds, and it was overturned in March 2007 by a three-judge panel at the Ninth Circuit. Snowbowl's owners asked that the case be reviewed en banc - by the entire bench of appellate judges - which came back with a 9-3 decision in favor of Snowbowl....

Meetings held to educate public on Black Mesa EIS
Black Mesa Project document is lengthy and confusing, some say
By S.J. Wilson, Navajo Hopi Observer, JULY 14, 2008
  KYKOTSMOVI, Ariz. - When one reads the Black Mesa Project Draft Environmental Impact Study (EIS), it appears that the Hopi Tribe is a cooperating agency in the process-something that is just plain wrong, according to Vernon Masayesva of the Hopi Tribe.
   "The Office of Surface Mining wants you to know that the Hopi Tribe was involved in creating this document," Masayesva said, as fellow tribal member Jerry Honawa hoisted the heavy bound document in the air for all to see. "Now we are finding out, that's not the way it is. This [the Hopi Tribe as a cooperating agency] was never discussed by the Hopi Tribe. This was never brought to the Hopi Tribal Council."
  Masayesva opened a public meeting hosted by the Black Mesa Trust, Black Mesa Water Coalition, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club at the Hopi Veteran's Center on July 1....

Upgrades temporarily halted at Snowbowl
By Cindy Yurth, Navajo Times, JULY 10, 2008
  CHINLE – The supervisor of the Coconino National forest has denied the Arizona Snowbowl’s request to upgrade its ski school area pending a decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on whether the ski area near Flagstaff can expand its area and make snow using reclaimed wastewater.
  “It’s a small victory,” declared Robert Tohe, environmental justice coordinator for the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter.
  In a letter to Sierra Club chapter director Sandy Bahr, forest supervisor Nora B. Rasure said she received letters not only from the Sierra Club but also from the Yavapai-Apache Nation, the Pueblo of Acoma, and the Hopi and Havasupai tribes opposing the upgrade....

EPA, agencies finalize Navajo cleanup plan?
By Kathy Helms, Gallup Independent, JULY 1, 2008
  WINDOW ROCK — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and four other federal agencies have finalized a five-year plan for cleaning up a legacy of radioactive contamination resulting from years of uranium mining on the Navajo Nation.
   The plan is outlined in a report prepared for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.
  The committee requested the plan last October after four hours of testimony from representatives of the Navajo Nation. Waxman criticized the federal government for 40 years of “bipartisan failure” that resulted in “a modern American tragedy.”
  The landmark plan by EPA, in partnership with the Department of Energy, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indian Health Service and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission represents the first coordinated approach created by the five agencies....