These articles give the historical context of the grassroots effort to organize against the proposed Desert Rock plant, which started in 2003 on the Navajo Nation. The Navajo elders who first congregated in and around the Burnham community later formed the Dooda ("No") Desert Rock Committee (DDR) in 2004 and they successfully strategized and helped the local government bodies (Burnham, Sanostee, and Two Grey Hills - the most immediately impacted chapters) to pass resolutions opposing the Desert Rock Project in 2005. Passing these resolutions were monumental successes as they put Desert Rock at the forefront of contentious energy issues on the Navajo Nation; setting the grounds for what is now a continuing resistance movement.
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KRTBN Knight-Ridder Tribune Business News - Indian Country Today - Rapid City

May 25, 2005

POLICY DEBATE: POWER PLANTS ON NAVAJO LAND
BYLINE: Brenda Norrell

SANOSTEE, N.M. -- Navajos voting in opposition to a new power plant on the Navajo Nation in the Four Corners area, where some of the nation's dirtiest power plants already exist, say they are already suffering from enough respiratory disease and cancer from smog-laden air and polluted water.

"We don't want any more dirty power plants," said Sarah Jane White, a Navajo Sanostee Chapter resident who helped pass a resolution opposing the new power plant.

The Navajo Nation and Sithe Global LLC, based in Houston, plan to build a 1,500-megawatt coal-fired power plant, Desert Rock, on 600 acres of tribal land in San Juan County. The plan includes mining an additional 6 million tons of coal annually at the existing BHP mine on tribal land.

"The rich companies, looking for oil and coal, always go out to communities that are cash-poor and land-rich," White said. "We are the targets. Indigenous are the most cash-poor and land-rich. We OK these things because our kids need jobs.

"But people are beginning to get smarter. We are being used and used. People are beginning to fight back. We have to do what we have to do."

White, who lives 15 miles from the proposed site of the new power plant, said the once-pure mountain air of Sanostee is already clouded with smog from existing power plants.
White lives with the noise of a massive electric transmission line overhead, yet she has no electricity. She uses a generator, which she must pay for herself, while the transmission line carries Navajo coal-fired electricity from area power plants to cities in Arizona and California.

While canvassing Navajo homes to organize opposition to the power plant, White found Navajos suffering from heart disease, respiratory ailments and kidney problems in almost every home around the Four Corners' power plants.

White was among many who praised Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. for supporting the recent Navajo Nation Council resolution banning uranium mining.

White pointed out that Shirley also opposed the desecration of sacred San Francisco Peaks and the planned wastewater snow production on the mountain in Flagstaff, Ariz.

Now, White and other Navajos question why Shirley continues to support power plants which release chemical toxins and Peabody Coal's mining operations on Navajo land.

Shirley has not yet responded to Indian Country Today's request for comment about the accusation of dichotomy in his policies.

White said, "I think we need to impeach him." She earlier campaigned for Shirley and said he is a kind and humanitarian person. But, she alleged, he lacks the personal leadership to halt the continual poisoning of Navajos by power plants and coal strip mines.

White said the new Desert Rock Energy Project claims there will be only 10 percent emissions, but Navajos have seen a steady stream of corporate promises and public relation strategies.

"All of these power plant companies have been lying to Navajos all these years." She pointed out that the new power plant on Navajo land would once again deliver electricity to Nevada and California, but not to Navajos.

"Now, talk about injustice. We will be stuck with the mess, the smoke."

White's son, Navajo rap artist Che Glawnii, recently returned home to Sanostee, south of Shiprock. "I'm tired of being poisoned by our Navajo tribal government," Glawnii said. He has seen too many relatives debilitated by asthma and die from cancer. More Navajo babies are being born today with birth defects, he said.

"We want jobs, but we don't want to have to die for it. We don't want to extinguish our genetic bloodline by doing this." He also pointed out that the majority of managerial-level jobs in existing power plants and coal mines are held by non-Indians, while Navajos are given jobs with the highest health risks.

"I have watched too many of my relatives die. Geronimo didn't die so I could be a coward and go get a job at a power plant. We have to protect each other from people trying to kill us."

He said there are industry alternatives to toxin-releasing power plants and coal mines. Those include manufacturing companies with minimal pollution, and wind and solar energy systems.

An EPA report shows that two power plants and their coal mines in San Juan County released 13 million pounds of chemical toxins into the Four Corners' air in 2000 alone. Those toxins are breathed by Navajo, Jicarilla Apache, Southern Ute and other residents in the Four Corners area of New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Utah.

SOURCE: Norrell, Brenda. “Policy Debate: Power Plants on Navajo Land.” KRTBN Knight-Ridder Tribune Business News - Indian Country Today. 25 May 2005. Online. Lexis-nexis. News. 10 January 2008.

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“Proposed plant faces increased opposition”
By John R. Crane
Cortez Journal
Journal Staff Writer

May 10, 2005

Resolutions passed by several New Mexico Chapters of the Navajo Nation show strong opposition among tribal members to a new power plant near Farmington. But chapter officials welcome a new plant, hoping to reap economic benefits from the Desert Rock Energy Project.

The Navajo Nation’s Burnham, Sanostee, and Two Grey Hills chapters have all passed resolutions overwhelmingly against the $2 billion project for the 1,500 megawatt Desert Rock plant, which would furnish electricity to growing populations in New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and California.

Burnham chapter members voted 18 to 8 in favor of a resolution opposing the project, with nine abstaining, said Al Davis, the chapter’s president. Those against the project cited possible health consequences, including respiratory problems from polluting chemicals, that would be compounded by a third power plant in the region.

But Davis said he supports Desert Rock, adding that if the nine abstainers voted, the tally would have shown a tighter margin. He speculated they did not want their supportive votes on public record.

“I think it (the project) would be good for young people needing jobs,” he said. Davis added the plant would also provide college scholarships, as well as infrastructure including roads, buildings, and utilities.

Gus Eghneim, the project’s director of environmental affairs, told the Journal in March plant construction would provide 2,000 to 3,000 jobs, with the plant itself providing 200 full-time jobs and 200 more mining jobs.

Veronica Begay, Burnham chapter coordinator, hopes Desert Rock will bring job training, computers and more money for Navajo chapters’ social programs, including veterans benefits and elderly, low-income assistance. But Begay said she is skeptical.

“I don’t believe it myself,” she said.

Laverda Washburn, secretary/treasurer of the Navajo Nation’s Sanostee Chapter, said the chapter voted 25 to 2 against the plant April 17. Washburn said members believe the plant will provide jobs mostly for non-natives instead of Navajos, and that they’re being deceived by Sithe Global, the Houston-based company proposed to build the plant on 600 acres of Navajo land.

The Two Grey Hills chapter rejected the plant 21 to 0 April 10, said Linda Johnson, the chapter’s coordinator. Johnson said she leans toward supporting the plant, but understands opponents’ arguments.

“I can see both sides of the issue,” she said.

Navajos will not be qualified for many of the plant’s jobs, she said. Johnson said she would like to see better education preparing tribal members for positions at Desert Rock. And she is wary of company promises of more Navajo autonomy at the plant.

“This new power plant is supposed to be more controlled by Native Americans,” Johnson said.

Richard Knox, project manager with URS Corp. helping the Bureau of Indian Affairs to draft an Environment Impact Statement, could not be reached for comment Monday.

San Juan Generating Station in Waterflow, N.M., and Four Corners Power Plant in Fruitland, N.M., pump out a combined total of 49,600 tons of sulfur dioxide a year and 70,700 tons of nitrogen oxide annually. Sithe Global officials said Desert Rock would emit 3,400 tons of each of the substances annually.

Airborne mercury and ozone concern Navajo Nation members.

Arthur Bavaro, coordinator with the tribe’s Nenahnezad chapter, said the chapter cautiously approves of Desert Rock, taking a wait-and-see approach before passing a resolution supporting the project. But Nenahnezad passed a resolution calling for a preliminary environmental assessment of a new plant’s impact, he said.

Bavaro added the chapter wants to make sure Desert Rock will deliver economic benefits to its community.

“We’re not sure until we get more information,” Bavaro said. “We’re moving along to see what they’ll bring back to the community.”

Lori Goodman, board member for Diné Citizens Against Ruining our Environment, wants to make sure Navajos learn more about the new plant, besides promises of more jobs and benefits for the reservation.

“There needs to be more information than what’s coming from Sithe Global,” she said. “They’re saying everything’s rosy.”

Eghneim said after a March public hearing in Cortez the plant would use technology binding elemental mercury to carbon, reducing mercury output.

Goodman said the local Environmental Protection Agency needs to visit communities door-to-door, explaining the project and its emissions’ effects on health. Durango-based San Juan Citizens Alliance and Diné CARE are the only organizations providing information to the public of mercury’s effects, she said.

“That’s not the way it should be,” she said. “We’ve been the only source of public information.”

After public hearings were held in non-Native areas in December, Goodman said Diné CARE had to petition the Bureau of Indian Affairs to hold public scoping meetings in tribal communities.

“They said that they wanted to have the meetings in ‘neutral areas,’” Goodman said.

Loretta Tsosie, BIA environmental protection specialist, said she could not comment on why hearings were not held on tribal land the during the first round.

“I was not involved at that time,” she said.

Hearings were finally held in Shiprock, Burnham, and Sanostee in late March, she said.

John Sefick, an Albuquerque filmmaker, is making a documentary about power plants’ effects on Navajos and their view on Desert Rock. He lamented the lack of studies on the two plants’ health consequences for the tribe.

“No one really knows the effects of these plants,” he said.

Sefick is giving out free copies of his film, “Progress at what Cost?” E-mail Sefick here or go to www.desert-rock-blog.com.
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