Groups file complaint against BIA for records

By Cornelia de Bruin The Daily Times
Article Launched: 04/04/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT

FARMINGTON — Tired of waiting for documents it requested through the federal Freedom of Information Act, San Juan County's Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment (Diné CARE) and San Juan Citizens Alliance filed a complaint this week to force the Bureau of Indian Affairs' hand.

BIA spokesman Nedra Darling, in Washington, D.C., denied comment because the litigation is pending.

The two groups filed requests three times as they sought records detailing a consultant's work on the Navajo Nation and Sithe Global's proposed Desert Rock Power Plant. The 1,500-megawatt coal-fired plant would be located near Burnham on the Navajo Nation and still is awaiting federal permits to operate.

"Despite the harmful effects of the proposed Desert Rock coal-fired power plant on precious water resources and air quality in the Four Corners region, the lead federal agency in charge of the project has denied numerous requests to review even basic public records on those issues," the two organizations charged in a Thursday press release.

Diné CARE and the Citizens Alliance filed their complaint in U.S. District Court in New Mexico on Wednesday.
They are suing Omar Bradley, Navajo regional director of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs in Gallup; the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C.; and the U.S. Department of Interior.

"We are very concerned about corruption of the BIA's public approval process for Desert Rock," said Mike Eisenfeld of the San Juan Citizens Alliance. "URS Corporation wrote the Draft EIS (enviornmental impact statement) for the BIA, but now the agency says that URS works for Sithe."

Sithe Global is the energy company paying for construction of the plant, which many Navajo tribal leaders, including President Joe Shirley Jr., support as a way to boost a struggling economy.

"The public has a right to know how the agency, Sithe and URS have interacted in planning the proposed power plant," he said.

Desert Rock supporters are awaiting both an environmental impact statement approval from the BIA, along with an air permit from the Environmental Protection Agency. Both are needed in order for Desert Rock to be built.

Careful to specify that he can't speak for the BIA, Desert Rock spokesman Frank Maisano, called the charges "old."

"What they're doing is throwing darts at the board and hoping they'll hit something," Maisano said. "It only hurts the Navajo workers who need the jobs and the people who stand to benefit from the programs funded through the plant's progress."

The reason specifics about water availability are not completely included in the draft environmental impact statement, Maisano said, is because of actions Diné CARE took while a survey was in progress.*

"They were blockading the area that Sithe was permitted to survey and do test drilling of the aquifer," Maisano said. "They delayed us two to three months."

Calling the Citizens Alliance/Diné CARE law suit "delaying tactics," Maisano said, "It's hard to take it seriously when you've heard all the charges before."

"There's nothing new here," he added.

Eisenfeld and Dailan Long, spokesman for Diné CARE are meeting to discuss a related Desert Rock Power Plant issue with two members of Gov. Bill Richardson's staff this week.

Diné CARE released in January a report that was highly critical of the Navajo Tribal government's support of Desert Rock, condemning the support as being in opposition to the Fundamental Laws that set out how Navajos should act in accordance with and to their environment.

On tap are meetings with Richardson's Energy and Environmental Policy Adviser, Sarah Cottrell, and his Environmental Justice Coordinator, Milton Bluehorse.

"It's informal, but we've been in touch with them for awhile," Eisenfeld said. "The governor has concerns about Desert Rock."

Cornelia de Bruin: cdebruin@daily-times.com

* Diné CARE's comment: Direct Action of local community members in December 2006 does not justify the complete omission of BASIC PUBLIC documents which pertain to water studies, the expansion of the BHP coal mine, and communications between URS, Sithe, and the Diné Power Authority; all of which were to be included in the July 2007 Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Burnham residents have been informed that water quality testing have been completed and there is no surveying activity at the proposed site, which begs the question again, "Where are these basic documents?"