Black Mesa: Peabody Energy Sucks Up Navajo Aquifer

For an update of this original 2006 posting, please visit Brenda Norrel Blog

WITH THE HELP OF THE FEDS, OF COURSE

WINDOW ROCK, Arizona, April 17, 2006 - Sounds like the Navajo could use some help from Jim Chee. The C Aquifer for Diné, a grassroots group fighting use of the Coconino Aquifer's water to slurry coal from Black Mesa Mine, has been waging a ten year battle to stop a water grab by the Peabody Coal Company. The group is fighting a secret plan to pump groundwater from the C-Aquifer (on Navajo land) for nasty industrial use by Peabody Western Coal Co.'s Black Mesa Mine. The aquifer is the primary source of drinking water for the Navajo and Hopi inhabitants of Northeastern Arizona. The group is also claiming that the company owes them $600,000,000 in coal royalties.

C-Aquifer plans are the result of years of secret negotiations conducted behind closed doors by Southern California Edison, Peabody, Salt River Project, the Navajo Nation and the Hopi Tribe. The Department of Interior facilitated the private mediation sessions, but the Navajo communities were not even invited to the table.

catastrophe map bottom border

Peabody Western is part of the world's largest coal company, Peabody Energy

Peabody's Black Mesa coal facility on Navajo Nation land pulverizes coal, mixes it with water, then sends it through a coal slurry pipeline to a coal-burning power plant in Nevada. Leaders of the Hopi and Navajo nations will be presented this week with the findings of a new scientific report by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) that predicts grave consequences for a structurally related aquifer, the N-Aquifer, if the Peabody water draw down is allowed to proceed. Officials from Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement have said they have seen no signs that Peabody is harming the aquifer. This is consistent with the governments role as the handmaiden of industry.