Renewed Uranium Boom Targets Dinétah

Uranium-mining concerns seek Navajo Nation projects

SHIPROCK, N.M. – Uranium-mining companies are showing signs of renewed interest in the Navajo Nation.

The Daily Times of Farmington reported that several companies during the past year have addressed the tribe, seeking permission to once again mine the tribe’s uranium-rich land.

The history of uranium in the area, however, is proving an obstacle.

“As you can guess, there is opposition. There’s no doubt about that,” said Albuquerque’s Mat Leuras, vice president of corporate development for Uranium Resources Inc.

In addition, several environmental studies have suggested that elevated levels of uranium in and around the mines caused health problems for the people working in and living around them.

The Navajo Nation sits on more than 70 million tons of naturally occurring uranium, a radioactive ore.

Uranium mining companies maintain that history will not repeat itself, especially since they are using advanced technologies and take more precautions.

The tribe still is reeling from the nearly 30 years that the federal government allowed uranium mining on and around the Navajo Nation. Between the late 1940s and the mid-1980s, about four million tons of uranium were extracted from the Navajo Nation.

At the time, uranium was mined to produce nuclear weapons for World War II and the Cold War.

The ore was removed via conventional underground mining, a practice that allowed uranium to seep into the land and water in the surrounding area.

“The industry’s learned its lesson,” Leuras said.

While the companies will not be able to extract the uranium within tribal boundaries, they might be able to get at the uranium deposits near them.

The tribe banned uranium mining on its land in 2005, though federal government has jurisdiction on Navajo Trust Land and in the “checkerboard” of Indian and non-Indian land. The trust land is land generally saved for the tribe, and the checkerboard is intermixed federal, state and tribal ownership.

Many of the companies already have secured mineral rights in the checkerboard area.

Uranium companies such as Uranium Resources Inc., Strathmore Minerals Corp., Rio Grande Resources and Laramide Resources Ltd. all have investments around the reservation boundaries. In some instances, however, the companies do need access on the Navajo Nation just to get to their projects.

Also see:  Uranium miners lobby Navajo for renewed access in New Mexico

Uranium mill appeal is denied

DENVER – An environmental group has lost its request for the state to deny a license for a proposed uranium mill in southwestern Colorado.

The Denver Post reported that Colorado health department director Chris Urbina on Thursday denied the appeal by Sheep Mountain Alliance but said the group’s testimony will be considered as officials decide whether to grant Energy Fuels a radioactive materials license for the mill.

The health department originally issued a radioactive materials license in 2011 for the company’s proposed Piñon Ridge uranium and vanadium mill near Nucla, but after legal challenges, it was forced to hold full public hearings on the issue last year. Sheep Mountain Alliance wanted health officials to deny a license after the hearings.

A final decision about the license is expected in April.

A year ago, Energy Fuels bought the U.S. assets of its rival Denison Mines, which includes an operational uranium mill in Southeast Utah.

Arizona Snowbowl Starts Making Fake Snow from Treated Sewage… and it’s Yellow

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, December 24, 2012

Contact: Rudy Preston
Email: info@truesnow.org
Phone: 480-382-5288
www.TrueSnow.org

Arizona Snowbowl Starts Making Fake Snow from Treated Sewage… and it’s Yellow

FLAGSTAFF, AZ (San Francisco Peaks) — After a decade of legal battles and opposition from environmental groups, concerned citizens, and Indigenous Nations, Arizona Snowbowl ski area has started making fake snow from Flagstaff’s treated sewage effluent.

Surprise… it’s yellow!

“My parents always told me not to eat yellow snow, this is absolutely disgusting,” said Katie Nelson, longtime resident of Northern Arizona. “ Will parents tell their kids it’s OK to play in it? I used to be a skier and snowboarder, but I am boycotting Snowbowl because they obviously don’t care about my health or the environment.” stated Nelson.

Snowbowl is set to be the only ski area in the world to make snow from 100% treated sewage effluent. This action has raised serious concerns from community and environmental groups due to potential risks to human health and the sensitive mountain ecosystem.

“Snowbowl is clearly disregarding public health by not fulfilling their requirement to have signs posted that the fake snow is made from treated sewage and that it must not be consumed. I checked the entire area where kids ski and learn to ski and I could not find any warning signs.” stated Rudy Preston, former board member of the Flagstaff Activist Network. “There were none posted on the childrens ski lifts either,” he continued.

Although Snowbowl manager JR Murray has stated that treated sewage would be “…cleaner than the snow falling out of the sky” the yellow colored snow clearly indicates that something is wrong.

State law mandates that it is illegal for anyone to consume snow made from treated sewage effluent. Ingestion pathways include the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin. Additionally, any “direct reuse” cannot even have the “potential for ingestion.” While Snowmaking is considered legal, the “direct reuse” of this treated sewage effluent is in fact “skiing” and ADEQ is ignoring their own laws when it allowed Snowbowl to make snow (Arizona Administrative Code: R-18-9-704).

“Despite the obvious health risks, you would have thought that respect for our Indigenous brothers and sisters would have been enough to stop this project years ago, treated sewage for snowmaking is an absolute affront to Indigenous Nations that revere the Peaks as holy and I for one choose to respect their wishes and will no longer ski at Arizona Snowbowl.” stated Rudy Preston.

Multiple protests and prayer gatherings have been held since Snowbowl opened last Thursday.

On November, 14, 2012 the Hopi Tribe filed a new lawsuit and for injunctive relief due to threats reclaimed water poses to an endangered plant that is found nowhere else in the world but on the Peaks. The Hopi Tribe requested an injunction to be placed on snowmaking activities until consultation was completed with both the US Fish and Wildlife and Department of Agriculture. The court has yet to issue a response.

The wastewater, which is treated to Flagstaff’s highest standard, has been proven to contain endocrine disrupting chemicals and now even anti-biotic resistant genes. Since the Environmental Protection Agency has no regulations addressing these contaminants in treated sewage, the Forest Service, City of Flagstaff, AZ Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ), and Snowbowl continue to call it “clean enough to drink” although it would be illegal to do so.

ADEQ regulations allow A+ treated sewer water to contain fecal matter in three out of seven daily samples (R18-11-303 2a). In addition, according to Northern Arizona University biologist Dr. Paul Torrence, the treated sewage effluent may also contain antibiotics such as triclosan and triclocarban, which break down into bio-accumulating cancerous dioxins when exposed to sunlight.

For nearly a decade every environmental concern brought to the courts by Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Flagstaff Activist Network have been swept under the rug on filing technicalities and no court has ruled on the issues raised about direct reuse and ingestion. In another lawsuit by the Hopi challenging the legality of the City’s contract with

Snowbowl, Judge Joe Lodge ruled that the tribe waited too long for the court to make a ruling on clear ADEQ environmental law violations.

Download high resolution pictures here.

Protect the Peaks – Action Camp!

UPDATE! Action camp postponed! Stay tuned for new dates!

Tempe Police and Arizona Anti-Terror Unit are targeting anarchists and indigenous projects in Arizona

From Fires Never Extinguished:

A campaign of political repression is under way against anarchist and indigenous projects in Arizona, spearheaded by the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center and the Tempe Police Department Homeland Defense Unit. The Tempe police department’s anti-terror division preemptively shut down the Protect the Peaks solidarity benefit show that was planned for Friday night, using the threat of a fire code violation to ensure that the venue would have to cancel the event.  The Homeland Defense Unit acted on an alert they received from Arizona’s main counter terrorism information gathering hub, also known as a fusion center, that a benefit show to raise money for the struggle to save the San Francisco Peaks was scheduled to take place in Tempe on Friday night.

The benefit show organizers had contacted a DIY venue/space run out of a warehouse in west Tempe, a well regarded space that has hosted a number of shows over the last year, often receiving coverage in the Phoenix New Times and other media.  It is a labor of love for the person who runs it, who has a full time job in addition to hosting the occasional show at the venue.  The Protect the Peaks benefit show would have been the first political show to have been hosted at the space, it also put the venue on the radar of Arizona’s counter terrorism fusion center.

On Thursday, September 6^th the venue operator received an unannounced visit at his workplace from an officer assigned to the city’s Homeland Defense Unit.  The officer, Detective Derek Pittam, threatened to have the venue shut down for fire code violations if the Protect the Peaks show wasn’t canceled immediately.  Detective Pittam informed the person that he was aware that the venue regularly held shows and made it clear that under no circumstances would this benefit show be held at the venue.  The venue’s future is now up in the air due to the threats of the Homeland Defense Unit, even though Detective Pittam admitted to the venue operator that he was aware that there had never been one call to police or reports of any illegal activity at that location.

Detective Derek Pittam of the Tempe Police Homeland Defense Unit

At least one officer working in the Homeland Defense Unit spent last week locating the DIY venue, identifying the operator of the venue, finding his cell phone number, and where he works his full time job so that he could be harassed by Detective Pittam. They had also decided that their anti-terror unit was going to manufacture a fire code violation as pretext to shut down the show, unless the Homeland Defense unit is regularly enforcing code violations in Tempe.

I’ve learned that during the workplace visit, Pittam specifically identified support for the “Save the Peaks” as a concern for the authorities.  Throughout his visit Detective Pittam made it clear, the issue is with the benefit show not the venue, however the venue would face the consequences for allowing a radical, anarchist, and indigenous themed event.

I’ve also learned that the venue operator was again contacted on his cell phone Friday night by a Tempe police commander who wanted the venue’s permission as the primary property manager to arrest individuals (who may not even know the show was canceled) for trespass on site.  The venue operator declined, and was then asked by the commander for the landlord’s phone number, which he also declined to provide to the Tempe Police.   A friend who drove by the venue Friday evening observed one marked police vehicle on the property where the venue was located, and another vehicle parked near by.

In the short time since word got around about the show being canceled, many people involved with various projects are shocked and outraged over this show of state repression.  I was able to chat with Alex Soto, a Tohono O’odham MC from the hip hop group Shining Soul, one of the acts that was scheduled to perform on Friday.  In addition to his music, Alex has organized against border militarization on his traditional land,  the Tohono O’odham nation, a land divided by the US/Mexico border wall and militarized by the border patrol.

He had this to say about the cancelling of the show:

“The show itself is an example of the solidarity between indigenous people, the Diné and O’odham, and anarchist people who are supportive, it also means that the authorities are afraid of us acting in collaboration, collectively.  They’re afraid of all of us coming together, it’s not new, it’s happened before at past demonstrations where we’re targeted, we’re marked for oppression, mainly just by being ourselves and being there.

It doesn’t matter to them whether it’s an action or protest, or in this case with our talents and our musical gifts to bring people together, the state doesn’t respect that.  This act of repression by the police further motivates myself and everyone else involved to push forward and to have another benefit or show, because we know this will be effective, and all we’re doing now is picking up mics and guitars.

In addition, I’d like to express that as a Tohono O’odham person, I have solidarity with other indigenous people in this area, in this case it’s Diné people and the other 12 tribes that hold the San Francisco Peaks as a sacred site.   This act by Tempe police, and all the entities involved is an attack on who I am and who we are as indigenous people, it verifies to me that we’re doing our role, in this case by standing in solidarity with the peaks, or when we oppose the loop 202 freeway or oppose the border and militarization because this is what solidarity and healthy communities look like.   When we stand together, fight alongside each other, or in this case sing together to defend who we are and what we hold sacred, then fuck the Tempe PD, fuck Phoenix PD, fuck DPS, and any entity that tries to stop this energy that’s building here in Arizona.”

When the authorities act to intimidate or threaten dissident voices and movements, it causes a chilling effect, in this case the Tempe police were willing to let a fire inspector poke around in the venue until any little violation could be found that would shut the show down.  We also know that they wanted to arrest anyone who came to the property expecting to see a show. This is a direct attack on the ability of people to freely gather, communicate, and organize without the potential of arrest or physical injury by police, in addition to the potential for serious financial problems for the venue operator.

More information will be coming this week.

Support Big Mountain Survival School Remembrance Gathering this October

Greetings from Black Mesa Indigenous Support,

We are writing to ask for support for an amazing event this October. The Big Mountain Survival School Remembrance Gathering will be held the 6th and 7th of October. This is an anniversary of sorts; it’s been 20 years since the last Sovereign Dineh Nation (SDN) Survival School.  Funds/supplies are being raised with the intention of this being a NEW beginning.

Long time resisters from Big Mountain, Jeddito, Sanders, Flagstaff, and New Mexico are collaborating with Martha Bourke, a 25 year+ supporter to Remember and Reinvigorate by holding a Survival School gathering. Martha has been involved first through the Big Mountain Support Group that published “Big Mountain News,” ran caravans to two Spring Survival Gatherings, coordinated the Weaving for Freedom Project, and was a core facilitator for the SDN Survival School from ’89-’92, as well as assisting with two delegations to the Peabody shareholders meetings.

Several BMIS collective members plan on playing a support role at the gathering this October and want to encourage our network to read Martha Bourke’s inspiring letter and account of Survival School and make a donation with Survival School in the bylines.

“The SDN survival school was a traditional and contemporary arts and crafts day camp that was held for several weeks each summer 1989 – 1992 at the SDN-Big Mountain Survival Camp / Resistance Outpost.  We served 50+ children (including providing shuttle, snacks etc.), creating a space where families from “both sides of the fence” could experience multi-generational recreation in a culturally supportive context which provided respite from the stresses and divisions created by relocation policies. As well as develop opportunities where families on the Land, visiting family members and supporters could experience positive outcomes in the face of what continues to be the slow grind of Genocide.”

“A young woman, a mom herself now who saw me at this year’s Big Mountain Sundance, was reminiscing and told me, “I’ve never tasted a cheese sandwich as good as the ones you made at Survival School.”  I hugged her close and said, “Sweetheart, it WASN”T the sandwich…it was the GOOD feelings!”  In the few weeks that I have been working on this, here are some comments from people who participated as children between 1989 and 1992….

“Awee, I remember those times.. fun crafts and pottery making… my all time favorite was making masks.. n decorating em… also candle making on the roof of the underground storage room….”

“I think this might have been my initial inspiration for community based youth programs and youth empowerment. FUN TIMES!”

This year while most will be enjoying a three-day weekend in “honor” of Columbus…let us come together to Reactivate, Revitalize, Rededicate the sovereign oriented efforts of Dineh land-base learning.
 
Support we are looking for:

• Funds -for foods, art supplies, to haul firewood & water, rent a generator, canvas shelter,
• Materials – Art supplies in general and specifically, watercolors, brushes, ass’t paper, beads, bath towels and straw mats for felting,
• Instructors / Helpers – Folks who have a traditional or contemporary art/ craft/ skill to share either half or full day projects geared towards elementary, middle school and youths.
•  A gifted elementary art instructor (who has a history on the land) is interested in doing watercolors and printmaking; paper and t-shirts. Community members from Black Mesa have expressed interest in sharing herbal knowledge and felting and beading.
• Audio/Visual Assistance -We want someone to manage and setup for an outdoor movie night, or either taking complete responsibility or working with me (so I can know what is needed and try to get equipment here in Taos).
• Who Is Invited:
• ·       Dineh kids and youth with their families who are affected by relocation and cultural displacement.
• ·       Non-Native volunteers and instructors.

o   If you are coming through BMIS please contact us about volunteering or instructing because this is a community focused event and if there are more volunteers than needed, we might see if you can go to another home site to herd sheep or support in other ways. It is emphasized that you provide your own camping supplies and transportation.

Agenda Overview:
Saturday Oct 6th will be devoted to crafts, games and a movie night.
Sunday October 7th we will be ecological, culture hike to the original Survival Camp site and have more activities.

Twenty years after the last Survival School…..Twenty years after the great swell of awareness re: indigenous struggle in the face of the celebrating Columbus…..Won’t you support / join in honoring the Dineh spirit of resistance…..

Contact: Martha Bourke – 575-758-7045
sdnsurvives@hotmail.com
or blackmesais@gmail.com

Return to Support Front Line Resistance Communities on Big Mountain & Black Mesa, AZ. November 17-24th, 2012

Greetings from the Black Mesa Indigenous Support Collective,

With people across the country organizing protests, direct actions, and encampments and mounting anti-coal campaigns as a part of the 2012 Climate Summer of Solidarity* we wish to extend an invitation to return to Black Mesa. During this moment of peak visibility around climate chaos and extraction, we hope to honor and celebrate the nearly-40 year Indigenous-led resistance against cultural genocide, forced relocation, and massive coal mining on Black Mesa.

The genocide on Black Mesa has been recognized internationally. In the late 1980′s the United Nations described the case of the forced relocation as one of the most flagrant violations of indigenous peoples’ human rights in this hemisphere. As mentioned in the recent (2012) Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission report**, PL 93-531 violates human rights, not only because it relocated families to new home-sites on a contaminated uranium site, but also because the families remaining on their ancestral homelands, blockading the coal mining and continuing their traditional way of life, are living with daily harassment and intimidation, including livestock impoundments, and surveillance. Also according to the report, “Navajo people are empowered by [the resistance communities’] steadfastness, their sacrifice and their courage.” As part of the larger support network, we’ve been inspired by these same qualities in the resistance communities.

The aim of this caravan is to honor the requests and words of the elders and their families– to prioritize building with returning supporters, while encouraging new people to come out throughout the year. With their guidance, we will carry their wishes and demands far beyond the annual caravan to link this struggle to our own de-colonial practices and involvement in local social, environmental, and climate justice movements.

Click here to read more…

Tree-sit Halts Snowbowl Pipeline Construction

Snowbowl Employees Threaten Tree-sitter’s Life, Two Supporters Arrested as Tree-Sit Continues

Contact: Ariana Sauer (602) 388-3726
Xander Vautrin@ (847) 334-7212
protectpeaks@gmail.com
www.protectthepeaks.org

FLAGSTAFF, AZ — Tree-sitter James Kennedy watched from 80 feet above as 2 supporters, who had locked themselves to Snowbowl pipeline equipment to protect James’ “lifeline”, were arrested. At 7:00AM, Snowbowl workers began recklessly moving the line that tethers Snowbowl equipment to the tree-sit platform.

“Two supporters, Eric and Alex, have locked down on heavy construction equipment, where my lifeline is anchored,” stated James Kennedy,a student at NAU. “They did this after police and Snowbowl employees alongside Police Chief Treadway said they would attempt a dangerous relocation of my lifeline. I am NOT harnessed into the platform or tree. any movement will send me falling nearly 80ft.”

At 1:00PM both supporters were arrested by Flagstaff Police. The two community members who were arrested face trespassing charges. Donations can be made for jail support at: www.protectthepeaks.org.

At 4:00PM James started rain-proofing the tree-sit platform in preparation for his second night in the path of Snowbowl’s wastewater pipeline. “Thank you to Eric & Alex who placed readily available bicycle u-locks around their necks and connected them to Snowbowl’s pipeline trench machine. They acted quickly to prevent reckless Snowbowl workers and law enforcement officials from further threatening James’ life.” stated, Liza  Minno Bloom, a supporter on the ground at the tree-sit, “So many people have come out today offering support and have called the Flagstaff City Council urging them to ensure noone’s safety is compromised, they cannot ignore our concerns.”

A rally & march was held tonight starting at Flagstaff City Hall at 5:00 PM. Community members walked through Thorpe Park to the nearby tree-sit site to rally, drum, sing, and express support for the tree-sitter defending public health and the Peaks.

The tree-sit was initiated yesterday to block construction of pipeline that would transport 180 million gallons of sewage effluent from the City of Flagstaff to Arizona Snowbowl for snowmaking on the San Francisco Peaks. Arizona Snowbowl would be the only ski area in the world to use 100% wastewater for snowmaking. The treated sewage effleunt has been proven to contain pharmaceuticals and hormones and more recently to contain Antibacterial Resistant Genes.

The San Francisco Peaks are considered an ecological island and held holy by more than 13 Indigenous Nations.

We invite those of you who believe in the safety and health of our children, the sanctity of our environment, and the protection of public water to demand that:

– The City of Flagstaff rescind the wastewater contract with Snowbowl!
– An immediate moratorium on the City of Flagstaff’s use of treated sewage effluent in public spaces where any person may come in contact with reclaimed wastewater, until new research and technology is available to mitigate long-term environmental & community health risks.
-The use of public water in this desert climate of Flagstaff with only a projected 25-38 years of water left for people’s consumption, should be cleaned and used for people to drink, not for a private corporation to make a profit.
-President Obama fulfill campaign promises to protect human rights and sacred sites.

City of Flagstaff Mayor & Council:
PHONE: (928) 779-7600
EMAIL: council@flagstaffaz.gov

Directions & more info…

Teach-in for Protection of the San Francisco Peaks

Healthy Communities are a Human Right!:
Teach-in for Protection of the San Francisco Peaks

Panels, workshops, and small group sessions addressing:
Sacred Sites, Environmental Justice, Legal Cases, Water Issues, Legislative Action, Civil Disobedience, & more.

Join community & student activists to learn about the environmental & social justice struggle to protect the sacred San Francisco Peaks and how to get involved.

Free & open to the public. All ages welcome, limited childcare provided, wheelchair accessible.

Full program available at: www.ProtectThePeaks.org/teach-in
RSVP: protectpeaks@gmail.com

 When: Saturday, Aug. 18, 2012, 12pm-6pm

 Where: Native American Cultural Center on NAU Campus, Flagstaff, AZ.

More info: www.ProtectthePeaks.org

Full schedule coming soon!

Please consider donating for ads and/or outreach. Email: protectpeaks@gmail.com.

Printable flyers:

Read the Media Advisory here.

What Off Road Vehicles Do (part 3)

Factory Butte, Utah BLM

By Deep Green Resistance Four Corners

In the last two posts, we talk about how off road vehicles continually break the law in going—well, off road—and how their noise and disturbance fragment habitat and push public-lands policies toward more development by turning vague routes into established roads.  In some instances ORVs are exclusively to blame for  the endangerment of a species—such as at Sand Mountain, Nevada, formerly “Singing Sand Mountain” until it was overrun by machines churning to dust the habitat of the Sand Mountain blue butterfly.  The Center for Biological Diversity writes that the butterfly “is closely linked to Kearney buckwheat; larvae feed exclusively on the plant, and adult butterflies rely on its nectar as a primary food source. Unfortunately, the Bureau of Land Management has allowed off-road vehicle use to destroy much of the Kearney buckwheat that once thrived on the dunes at Sand Mountain.” [1]

Agency inertia is easily the most immediate reason the ORVs have caused so much damage, since law enforcement is underfunded, and because policy-makers obviously don’t make a priority of protecting the terrain that’s entrusted to them.  The Center for Biological Diversity had to sue the US Fish and Wildlife Service to even get a response to a petition to list the blue butterfly under the Endangered Species Act, and the agency’s response was that they wouldn’t do it.  “Not warranted.”  There aren’t even any jobs being held hostage in this situation and others like it (such as manatees being killed by speedboats in Florida).  This is recreation and nothing more, taking ever more animals and plants from the biological legacy of the planet.

One reason why opposition to ORVs and the destruction they cause is so feeble and inadequate is because the issue has been miscast as a user-group conflict, where one gang of wealthy elitists is trying to corner access to common lands at the expense of another.  This human-centered perception forgets entirely that other beings’ lives depend on the land and water at stake.  A sea-kayaker friend of mine in Montana told me how she used to resent jet-skis and speedboats on lakes she paddles on, but decided she was just going to accept it.  “I started feeling selfish,” she told me.  But her peace and quiet is the least of it—wakes from motorized watercraft swamp bird’s nests, including in that case the loon, whose haunting iconic call is being silenced.  Also, the oil and fuel spilled by gasoline engines is toxic to fish, birds, and invertebrates.  So while the kayaker’s acceptance of the destruction wrought by others might make her feel nicer and ostensibly more democratic, she’s turning her back on the living creatures she presumably values.

And the entitlement taken by the ORVers themselves is even more aggressive and unconcerned for living things.  In some long-ago argument with a motorcyclist enraged by new restrictions on off-roading in the Mojave Desert, he shouted, “It’s the fucking desert!  Nothing lives out there!”  Anyone who’s even spent any time there knows this is ridiculous.  The Mojave is being dismembered piecemeal by solar energy projects, military bases, and an ever-worsening ORV infection; desert tortoises are being driven ever closer to extinction, along with every other Mojave lizard, snake, ground-nesting bird—many living things—in the way of the dominant culture’s activities.  It’s just another expression of what privileged access to limited and stolen resources does.  Another friend told me “I was working the booth at Sand Flats”—a Bureau of Land Management recreation area just outside Moab—“during Jeep Week.  There were thousands and thousands of ORVers in town.  I looked out the window and saw a woman smack her little boy upside the head, a guy dump his ashtray out in the parking lot, and a line of maybe forty Humvees waiting to follow each other around the backcountry.  This was just after the Iraq invasion, and I remember thinking, ‘This is everything that’s wrong with America, in one frame.  This is what we’re killing strangers for.  For oil to do this.’”  That same week, my housemate, a waiter at the local brewery, told me how he’d been tipped twenty-five cents—spitefully, to his face—because the burger he brought a jeeper wasn’t quite hot enough.  “That’s why we all call it ‘Cheap Week,’” he said.  The week you see wealthy ORV tourists swaggering around in t-shirts reading: the best trails are illegal.

Construction Begins on San Francisco Peaks; Controversy Far From Over

This aerial photo is of the clear cutting that has begun on the San Francisco Peaks. The first step in converting sewage to artificial snow for the Arizona SnowBowls ski area. The Peaks are a sacred site to many Native American tribes.

By Anne Minard / Indian Country Today

The Arizona Snowbowl ski area, near Flagstaff, began construction this week on the infrastructure to deliver treated wastewater for snowmaking on its slopes.

Meanwhile, the controversial plan to make snow on the San Francisco Peaks is the subject of new talks between the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, following the discovery that it could threaten a federally endangered plant.

Tribal activists seemingly lost their last major stand against snowmaking on the San Francisco Peaks earlier this year, when Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district court decision dismissing a lawsuit filed by the Save the Peaks Coalition against the Forest Service. But alongside the protracted court battles on behalf of more than a dozen tribes who hold the Peaks sacred, one of them – the Hopi Tribe – has been working quietly on another front.

Construction vehicles and piping are scene on the San Francisco Peaks.

Hopi tribal chairman LeRoy Shingoitewa hired the Phoenix-based SWCA Environmental Consultants to look for possible threats by the planned snowmaking to endangered species on the Peaks, which include the spotted owl and an alpine plant, the San Francisco Peaks Ragwort. The ragwort, also known as a groundsel, emerged as the most vulnerable.

“I started out this process being very doubtful that there were any particular environmental effects of using the treated wastewater to make snow,” said Steven Carothers, founder and senior scientist at SWCA. “After I had done all my due diligence, I became increasingly apprehensive about some of the long-term effects that could really happen to this plant.”

Carothers determined that the artificial snow is likely to blow into the plant’s critical habitat due to high winds on the Peaks – and the added nitrogen is likely to have harmful repercussions. This is a problem, he said, according to the Endangered Species Act.

“I really do realize that this plant is not being afforded the level of protection which it is due,” he said. He added that it’s incumbent on the Forest Service at this point to reopen the consultations with Fish and Wildlife that are required for impacts to endangered species.

Shingoitewa notified officials with both federal agencies about the findings in early April.

Logs stacked making room for the next phase of construction.

“By this letter, the Hopi Tribe requests that the U.S. Forest Service reinitiate consultation with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service under Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act,” he wrote.

Carothers also sent his findings to a Phoenix-based U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service field supervisor, Steve Spangle, in a letter dated May 2.

“The letter does bring up some points we really need to mull over and consider,” Spangle said on May 9. “We’re certainly in discussions with the Forest Service on how best to proceed. Whether we reinitiate [consultation] will be a joint decision between our agencies.”

Shingoitewa’s office did not respond to numerous emails and phone calls requesting comment, but Klee Bennally, a Navajo tribal member and a longtime opponent of snowmaking on the Peaks, said the Hopi finding is just one reason he hasn’t given up hope.

“I believe the issue is not settled by any means,” he said. “It’s absurd that people think this is a dead issue or that it’s over. Our culture isn’t over.”

He said besides the courts, snowmaking opponents have been active from the city of Flagstaff all the way to Washington, D.C. and the United Nations to try to get it stopped.

The clear cutting has started on the San Francisco Peaks in preparation for the sewage that will be converted to artificial snow for the Arizona Snowbowl ski area.

“Even though the courts have failed us, even though the city representatives here in Flagstaff have failed us and the Forest Service, to some degree, has failed us, we’re still appealing to the Obama administration,” he said. “At this point, Snowbowl is proceeding at its own risk.”

Meanwhile, on May 11 the Arizona Snowbowl filed suit against Howard Shanker in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The lawsuit is seeking $269,280 for legal fees from the latest round in court. Shanker was the attorney for the Navajo Nation, the Save the Peaks Coalition and other individuals opposed to the artificial snowmaking according to azdailysun.com.

“The Court has already found that Mr. Shanker acted in bad faith in bringing this appeal. It has concluded that Mr. Shanker undertook this appeal with the subjective intent of dragging out Snowbowl’s ‘legal nightmare,’” attorneys for Arizona Snowbowl wrote to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“This appears to me to be an attempt by Snowbowl to chill otherwise valid opposition to their plans to desecrate the mountain. Hopefully the court will see their motion for what it is. Unfortunately, it is my understanding that this goes back to the same three judge panel that issued the offensive language in its decision in the first place,” Howard Shanker said in an e-mail to Indian Country Today Media Network.