Navajo-Hopi Observer
Op-Ed

Central Arizona Project: Robbing Black Mesa to Fuel Phoenix

by Leonard Selestewa (Hopi)
President, Black Mesa Trust

For a long time now, water, oil, uranium and natural gas wars have been
fought on the battleground we know as the state of Arizona. Today,
(August 14, 2001) on this historic occasion, courageous Hopi runners
concluded a grueling 4-day run bringing a message and asking that you
join with them in the fight for water – the fight for life.

This battle has been political, fought by politicians and corporations
who stood to gain great wealth, at a great cost to the indigenous people
of this state, at great cost to those of us who may not have enough to
survive the future.

The war began as early as 1922, when states with claims to water from the
mighty river signed the Colorado River Compact. By the 1940s, Senator
Carl Hayden of Phoenix entered the battle. He became the principle
architect of the Central Arizona Project (CAP).

Having won the right to use the water from the Colorado River in Arizona
v. California, Hayden led the battle for funding of the proposed CAP,
which could allow the state to use water through a system of pipelines
and canals stretching over 300 miles from the Colorado River to Phoenix
and on into Tucson.

CAP would deliver 1.2 million acre-feet of water a year. Because the
project would force water uphill through the mountains, an enormous
amount of electricity would be needed. The initial idea was to build a
series of dams in the Grand Canyon to provide hydroelectric power for
CAP. This was abandoned when the Sierra Club mounted a successful
national campaign to kill the project. A compromise was born. We call it
the Navajo Generating Plant (NGP) located in Page, Arizona. It is owned
by Arizona Public Service Company and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

NGP would require its own fodder – coal. Enter Peabody Coal Company. In
1966, Peabody, the world’s largest coal mining operation purchased 380
million tons of coal to be mined underneath Black Mesa – the home of
Navajo and Hopi people. The energy produced by NGP was dedicated to CAP.

The owners of another source, the Mojave Generating Station, also made
sweetheart deals to use Black Mesa coal. Unlike NGP, which receives coal
by electric rail, the coal to MGP is delivered through a slurry pipeline,
which uses 3.3 million gallons each day. Salt River Project is one of the
principal owners of the MGP.

In order to make coal production in a remote area economical, the owners
of the generating plant won the right to purchase acre-feet of water for
$1.67 per acre-foot. The price of coal was reduced to a fraction of the
cost of coal sold on federal lands. Navajos were coerced to waive
posessory and severance taxes and the right to their share of the
Colorado River for at least 50 years.

Today the Hopi and Navajo, who walk the land, are noticing seeps and
springs drying up. Hydrologists now predict that within 20 years some of
the Hopi village will no longer have water. The Bush-Cheney energy plan
will accelerate this process.

The truth is, the political power in the state of Arizona lies far from
Black Mesa, home of the Navajo and Hopi people. Phoenix, where the power
does lie, desperately needs more energy – water for the unnatural seas of
grasses and golf courses, to water a high-density population in a land
never designed to sustain it and electricity to light its massive
concrete canyons. These great cities stretch beyond the boundaries of
Arizona into the neighboring states – and they are ravenous. All of this
opulence and greed is sustained at the cost of the earth mother. It’s a
lifestyle that deserves to survive. It is important to know that when
water is gone from Black Mesa it will be found elsewhere, perhaps in your
own community.

Today, over 30 years later, Peabody continues to pump 4,000 acre-feet
annually from an ancient non-renewable aquifer that is the only source of
potable water for the Hopi and Navajo peoples. Mining is expected to
continue for another 35 years. By the time mining ends over 80 billion
gallons of water will be gone. Water enough to sustain the entire Hopi
population of 8,000 for 5000 years.

Leonard Selestewa (Hopi)
President, Black Mesa Trust
PO Box 33
Kykotsmovi, Arizona 86039
(520) 734-9255