ACTION ALERT: Peabody Coal Wants to Reopen the Black Mesa Mine

ACTION ALERT: Peabody Coal Wants to Reopen the Black Mesa Mine - Comment Letters due by July 7 - Please help!

After a 30-year battle, Nevada's Mohave Power Plant was closed in December 2005 for air quality violations, which stopped the aquifer and spring-destroying coal slurry pipeline and also shut down Peabody's Black Mesa Mine. (Peabody's second stripmine on Black Mesa, the Kayenta Mine, continued operations, and still fuels the Page Power Plant near Lake Powell.) Peabody and the US Office of Surface Mining (OSM) prepared an EIS last year because the Black Mesa Mine has been operating with a temporary permit for 30 years and now has no way to move coal. Peabody and OSM pushed hard for "Alternative A," which would have tapped a new water source, the Coconino Aquifer, near Flagstaff. Public opposition stopped that bad idea. Now, with a new "energy crisis" in full swing, OSM and Peabody have suddenly announced a change in strategy and are pushing to permit and re-open the Black Mesa Mine. The Hopi and Navajo need your comment letter by July 7!


The Office of Surface Mining (OSM) quietly re-activated the Black Mesa Project (BMP) Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) in May 2008. Most local residents are familiar with and sent 18,000 comments on "Alternative A," but OSM and Peabody have now switched the preferred alternative to Alternative B, which would expand and re-open the Black Mesa Mine, merge it with the Kayenta Mine, and grant Peabody Western Coal Company the right to mine coal in the lease boundary until there is no coal left.

Navajo and Hopi organizations and citizens hosted two town hall meetings on July 1 at the Hopi Veterans Memorial Center and July 2 at the Forest Lake Chapter and voiced strong concerns about resuming of the Black Mesa Project Draft EIS. The Office of Surface Mining declined to attend these community meetings to give people more information about their preferred Alternative B.

OSM has given 45 days for the general public to respond on Alternative B. The deadline for public comments is July 7, 2008.

More information about this topic is available on the following websites:
Black Mesa Water Coalition
Black Mesa Trust
Black Mesa Indigenous Support

Take Action Now!
Please stand up for Black Mesa by doing one or more of the following:

--- Use the letter template and instructions on where to send the letter (found at this link), sign your letter and mail it in! (OSM contact information is also below)


---Type out or hand-write your own letter using the suggested talking points, sign and mail it in!

--- Host a letter writing party! Invite friends and family over to write their own letters using the suggested talking points and sample letter. Provide paper, pens, envelopes and stamps.


--- E-mail comments can be sent to: BMKEIS@osmre.gov


--- Written comments should be mailed to:

Dennis Winterringer, Leader
Black Mesa Project EIS
OSM Western Region
P.O. Box 46667
Denver, Colorado 80201-6667

Thanks very much for your continuing support on this important issue!