Disputes threaten coal mine
Black Mesa mine may be shut down
By MICHELLE ROBERTS RUSHLO
Associated Press
PHOENIX - Below the wild grasses, top soil and heavy chunks of rock on Black Mesa sit tons of black coal, a power source for millions of people in the West.
For three decades, the Black Mesa mine and the adjoining Kayenta mine, both operated some 300 miles from Phoenix by Peabody Energy, have provided millions of dollars in revenue and hundreds of jobs to the Hopi and Navajo tribes, which have few other economic resources on their remote reservations. But the Black Mesa mine - battered by water, legal and other concerns - now faces a likely shutdown. "It's going to be a very catastrophic effect on the tribe," Hopi Chairman Wayne Taylor Jr. said. Loss of the mine would cost the tribe about $7.7 million per year. The Hopi Tribe's annual operating budget is about $22 million. "We are very rural. We're very isolated. We don't have a whole lot in the way of economy," Taylor said. The same goes for the Navajos, who get about $25 million annually from Black Mesa, said Deana Jackson, a spokeswoman for Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. The nation's largest Indian tribe, the Navajo Nation has an annual operating budget of $529 million. That is why Navajo and Hopi officials, along with Peabody and utility providers, are trying to ensure the mining operation continues even as the odds against it mount. The Kayenta mine, which is near but operates differently from Black Mesa, does not face the same difficulties. Black Mesa is the sole provider of coal to the Mohave Generating Station, a power plant 270 miles away in Laughlin, Nev., managed by Southern California Edison. Black Mesa and Mohave have an exclusive deal with one another. To get the coal from Black Mesa to the generating station, it is crushed to powder, mixed with water and sent through a pipeline straight to the power plant. The transportation system was set up because trucking and rail lines were inefficient, said Peabody spokeswoman Beth Sutton. But the pipeline requires groundwater, roughly 4,000 acre-feet annually. The Navajo and Hopi have asked that pumping from the current aquifer stop by the end of next year. That is one of the reasons for the likely shutdown.
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