The Environmental Protection Agency is giving the public 30 additional days, or until April 30, 2010, to provide comment on the proposed water discharge permit for Peabody's Black Mesa mine complex. However, in August 2011 it was announced that the Navajo Nation, Peabody Energy, Salt River Project and Southern California Edison had reached an agreement which "continues the current royalty rate for Peabody's Arizona operations and provides for bonus payments, scholarship funding and other benefits to the Nation." for Black Mesa leases before it was determined that the deal is dead because the resolution was tabled by Council in December and an attempt to bring it back failed. In April 2010, the Navajo Nation Council spent nearly an entire day discussing the 10-year coal royalty rate “reopener” with Peabody Western Coal Co. Consequently, the final EIS "did not consider a reasonable range of alternatives, described the wrong affected environment baseline, and did not achieve the informed decision making and meaningful public comment required by NEPA." Holt, OSM violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by failing to prepare a supplemental draft environmental impact statement (EIS) when Peabody changed the proposed action. On January 7, 2010, an administrative law judge of the Department of Interior withdrew Peabody Coal Company’s life-of-mine permit issued Decemfor operations at Black Mesa coal mine, and remanded the permit back to OSM. Tribal and conservation groups appealed to have the permit withdrawn due to the discharge of heavy metal and pollutants threatening washes, tributaries, groundwater and drinking water for nearby Navajo and Hopi communities. Environmental Protection Agency withdrew the water discharge permit for the Black Mesa mine pending public hearings. According to the group, “The federal government, when called upon by a tribe to represent its interests in a particular case, cannot claim to be a competent, ethical trustee if it represents an adverse party in the same case.” The Hopi have requested outside counsel to represent the Hopi Tribe and OSM separately. On March 13, 2009, a group of Hopi tribal members issued a letter to the Office of the Regional Soliciter General, contending that the Department of the Interior should disqualify itself from simultaneously representing the Hopi Tribe and the Office of Surface Mining (OSM) in the controversy over coal development. We cannot delegate our sovereignty or give it away to an outside organization.” ![]() Our sovereignty, albeit limited, is important. He stated, “Our teachings tell us that we must not exploit our resources as they are important to the preservation and perpetuation of our tradition and our ceremonies and to our future as Hopi and Tewa people. According to Nuvamsa, immediate action should be taken on the Black Mesa EIS and permit and on restoration of the tribe’s appellate court, which was suspended as part of a long-standing tribal council. 31, leaving questions about the tribe’s leadership. On the same day as the permit revision, Hopi Tribal Chairman Ben Nuvamsa resigned in an effort to end the divisive tribal conflict over whether Peabody should control Black Mesa’s coal resources and aquifers. In addition to long standing controversies over mining on Black Mesa, the new revision may involve the relocation of five Navajo families on mining-permitted land and a decrease in water quality in local wells. Approximately 5,500 acres on Black Mesa Complex would be incorporated into the permit area for mining. This revision expands the boundary of the overall mining area by about 19,000 acres to mostly coincide with the lease boundary and coal reserves the Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribe leased to Peabody. On December 22, 2008, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement granted Peabody permission to expand their Kayenta Mine permit. On June 24, OSM rejected the request for a suspension or extension of the public comment period. In addition, there are concerns about the impact on the health of the local Navajo and Hopi people, as well as considerations arising from the cultural, environmental and religious significance of the land. The changes in question include combining the Black Mesa and Kayenta mines into one life-of-mine permit, which will allow Peabody to mine until there is no coal left. On June 13, citizen groups requested a suspension or indefinite extension of the comment period in order to resolve a number of issues, including changes to the expansion plan since the original comment period in 2006, and to allow sufficient time for affected Native American tribes to comment. In May 2008, the Office of Surface Mining re-activated the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Peabody’s plan to expand the Black Mesa mine and opened a public comment period that ends on July 7.
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