Ariz. mine closure throws Indians out of work

San Diego Union Tribune ^ | 1/1/2006 | John M. Broder

[bkwells]

BLACK MESA, Ariz. – The gigantic earthmoving crane sits idle, stilled by a legal, cultural and environmental dispute playing out far from the rich vein of coal beneath the desert of remote northeastern Arizona.

Some welcome the idling of the crane, calling it a symbol of the rape of the land and precious water below. Others, mostly American Indians who have come to depend on the high-paying jobs at the mine, are furious.

For 35 years, the Black Mesa Mine has produced coal for a power plant in southern Nevada. But the plant suspended operations at the end of December, ending the jobs of nearly 200 people.

Most are Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribe members whose livelihoods depend on work at the mine, jobs that pay as much as $80,000 a year in wages and benefits – 10 times the average annual income on the reservations.

The mine is ceasing work indefinitely because the sole power plant it supplies – the Mohave Generating Station, 273 miles away in Laughlin, Nev. – is shutting down under a legal agreement with environmental groups that sued because of repeated pollution violations.

The power plant is owned by four utilities that have balked at paying the estimated $1 billion in upgrades to comply with the court order and keep the plant operating.

One idled worker is Myrata Cody, 48, a heavy-equipment operator at Black Mesa for 27 years. She's a Navajo and a single mother, providing support for three children and her aging parents. Her anger at losing her job drives her to tears.

"This income is the only thing I have," Cody said. "There is no power line to my house, no phone line, no running water. Everybody else has everything at the tip of their hands."

She reserved particular ire for the environmentalists who went after the owners of the power plant to try to stop the thick plume of smoke and noxious chemicals it has poured into the atmosphere for decades. The groups contended that the emissions fouled the air over the Grand Canyon and threatened the health of people who lived downwind.

"All those people protesting for the environmental groups, none of them live up here," Cody said. "If this plant shuts down, some of us are going to have to leave our elderly parents behind to go find work. Who's going to go out there and check on them, make sure they get their medication? Nobody from the environmental groups, that's for sure."

The mine is operated by Peabody Western Coal Co., a subsidiary of Peabody Energy Corp., the world's largest coal company, which has made tens of millions of dollars from the Black Mesa mine. But it also has poured millions of dollars into schools, community centers, roads and power lines on the Indian lands of northeastern Arizona, though basic services are still lacking in much of the tribal region.

It provides $89 million a year in payroll, lease payments, taxes and other benefits to this region, where unemployment among the Hopi and Navajo is nearly 40 percent.

Buck Woodward, the mine's manager, called the closing of Black Mesa "a tragedy" that could hinder economic development on the reservations for years.

[Dane]

The envirowhackos strike again.

[FlingWingFlyer]

(Here is a good one.)

[mad_as_he$$]

Did everybody else in the world stop using coal? If you can get it to Laughlin you can get it anywhere.

[Iris7]

The basic political (as in Aristotle's "man is the political animal") question is who gets what they want and who doesn't. Lenin's statement of this reality is rendered in English "Who...Whom?"

Compromise is based on love. If you would just as soon the other party dies there is no love. If there is no love between the parties then there is only power, only dominance and submission.

[Mike Darancette]

Whenever I drive through the area of Northern AZ I envy the Indians the beautiful lands that surround them until I see the conditions in which they live.

[FOG724]

thanks

[Troublemaker]

Some of these 'Indian' activists aren't Indian at all. There is a game played by some for many years to claim to be Indians and to then proceed to argue for their favorite reforms under color of civil rights. Some actual Indians are beginning to get annoyed by this behavior

You got that right, on all accounts.

[RightWhale]

Well, that is what I heard from a member of one of the regional or inter-tribal councils. One concern is that these activists may be doing serious harm to Indian interests, and that I would not doubt.

[webboy45]

Time to make a coal to gas plant on the reservation.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

The power generating plant is located just upriver from where we live. Every damned pic or TV news video shows steam rising from the stack, not pollution. What pollution is emitted, we here could all easily live with.

Now that it is being closed, watch many more of the bloody little NG (natural gas) fired power gen plants crop up all over the place. The PC crowd went to court and won on the clean burning NG power plants. With NG in short supply, the power plants are now placed in direct competition with home owners for heating fuel. And the NG costs are out of control.

Up to 400 workers at the plant are also now out of a job, may the PC enviroNazis rot in Hades.

And no, I do not work there, nor do I know anyone that does.

[FlingWingFlyer]

The Indians will always live under those conditions until we, and they, get serious and flush the goofy notions of "sovereign nations" and reservations. Businesses will never move into these places as long as they are going to be forced to deal with corrupt tribal governments.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

The chromium 6 is being neutralized underground at the Topock PG&E plant, it will no longer be a problem, but rest assured, the PC Nazis will continue to try and make it one.

[uglybiker]

In addition the dems are running a 'crooked' Navajo to try and defeat Rick Renzi...

IOW A standard, run-of-the-mill Democrat who just happens to be Navajo.

Last time, Renzi lost on the Reservation and the Flagstaff area, but cleaned up in the rest of the district.

I doubt he has much to worry about.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

Comes into Laughlin via a slurry pipeline.

[Apercu]

Like Ward "Fake Indian" Churchill.

[RightWhale]

Yep.

[mad_as_he$$]

Ok but still could put it on rail -I think and ship it anywhere else. Is Sierra Pacific Resources one of the owners of the power station? If so they are bunch of clowns.

[Xenalyte]

This thread reminds me . . . does anyone know if I can get in trouble, and if so how much trouble, for indicating on job applications that I'm a native American?

I am, after all - eight generations of my family were born right here in America.

[brushcop]

Right on, you beat me by a hair. I was raised in the Four Corners during the 50s, nothing's changed. I used to write the Navajo "Nation" in Chinle, AZ and challenge them to right-thinking policies addressing alcoholism, living in squalor, etc. My wife and I would stop by the HQ in Chinle and speak of these things, willing to try something--nope, although several Navajo Tribal police officers gave us some ideas. I had Navajo buddies brainstorming with me on this issue, one said that he was going to get his degree in Engineering and return to "help his people".

He got his degree in Education instead God bless him, his wife also became a teacher; maybe he missed the mark on his Engineering dream but by golly he walked the walk. He said it still didn't work! This goes back to your original premise of "nations", business on the reservations and corrupt tribal governments. Perhaps H. Yazzie planted a lot of seeds though...

[Troublemaker]

My wife, who was born & raised in Crow Agency MT., has spent her entire life trying to improve life on the reservations. Many of these "instant Indians" are her biggest obstacles.