Hopi and Navajo (Diné) Are California Ratepayers

For Immediate Release
Contact: Vernon Masayesva (928) 734-9255

Testimony by Vernon Masayesva

Founder and Executive Director of Black Mesa Trust

For almost forty years – a span nearly equal to the time the Israelites spent wondering in the wilderness, grave injustices have persisted on Black Mesa and there have been no calling to account. For 40 years we have paid dearly for a grievous mistake made in our name by our then newly-created Hopi Tribal Council. Shackled by a contract negotiated for the Council by a duplicitous lawyer, a rapacious Anglo mining, corporation, Peabody Western Energy Company, and an irresponsible trustee (the US government) stood by, as the lifeblood of Black Mesa was pumped from the heart of the N-Aquifer the sole source drinking water. The elders cried out to the President and the world but no one was listening.

For a price, one that began at $1.67 an acre-foot of non-renewable pristine groundwater and 27 years later (1987) had risen to the base price of $300 AFY for both the Hopi and Navajo tribe our birthright was sold, the sacred waters and, sole source of life for all who dwell upon our high desert mesas.

In violation of our covenant with Ma’sau, the spiritual guardian of Mother Earth, to treat and respect water as a sacred gift from the creator, the modern non-traditional Hopi council was pressured to accept a contract of abuse, a piece of paper authorized by a government bent not to its trustee responsibilities but to the insatiable energy appetite of corporate America the distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Colorado, Charles Wilkinson calls the “Great Build-UP” of the American West.

And the price of this Great Build-Up was born by the peoples of Black Mesa. Our homeland was designated as a “national sacrifice”. The geological architecture of the Navajo Aquifer, the internal integrity of our source of life, was threatened by Peabody’s over-drafting of waters and the consequent weakening of pressures essential to its breath, its hydrology and systems. By the end of 2005, when pumping ended over 45 billion gallons of pristine waters (total dissolved solids 300 – 500 mg/1) was lost, enough water to sustain Hopi population of 8,000 people for over 500 years, gone in just 35 years!

In outwardly radiating circles of damage, springs dried; washes emptied; sinkholes and cracks now scar the face of Black Mesa. Our ability to sustain our lives upon our ancestral lands was being compromised by the contract with a devil we had not known, a contract whose true beneficiaries were not Hopi and Diné peoples, but corporate shareholders and the industry, wealth, and opulent lifestyle it supported.

On December 31, 2005, Peabody pumping finally ended and a beautiful silence descended upon us and we sang and danced. With leadership provided by Black Mesa Trust, the peoples helped forced an end to the pumping, of waters but was short livid. It was interrupted by new found knowledge that silencing of the pumps aggravated the contamination of pristine N-aquifer by seepage of brackish water, overlying N-Aquifer.

Now an accounting must be made, years of injustice must be addressed. An accounting must be made for the squandering of trust and goodwill, for the injury and the rape of our lands for sacrificing Black Mesa as a “national energy sacrifice area”. It is not charity but justice that we seek-justice and resources to empower pursuit of culturally-appropriate opportunities to secure our economic independence, our sovereignty, and our place upon these lands. For Diné people particularly, to provide basic necessities such as running water, electricity in the home, postal service. Many families have to drive over 15 miles to the nearest post office the American people take for granted.

Informed by injustices done to grassroots people peoples of Black Mesa, Californians for renewable Energy (CARE) has submitted a proposal to regulators of Mohave Generating Station to use some of the proceeds from the sale of Southern Cal Edison’s share of SO2 credit allowance to establish a permanent community trust fund to pursue planning of a 1000 Megawatt solar on tribal lands, and to provide sufficient funding to Black mesa Trust to carry out its mission of safeguarding our sacred land and waters..

With the closure of Mohave Generating Station, SO2 credits have become available for sale by Southern California Edison and other owners of Mohave.

The money is here and the time for economic restitution has come. We who bore the cost of the Great Build-Up, who have been for 35 years the Southern California Edison ratepayer’s, the unwitting subsidizers of California’s truly “below market” electricity costs, must be given restitution for what is due, so we will empower ourselves to make our own way. This is right thing to do and ratepayers once they hear our story will agree.

A Proposed Settlement

Black Mesa Trust proposed to use funds generated by Southern Cal Edison’s share of SO2 credit allowances to support the mission and objectives of Black Mesa Trust (appendix A), to establish a Hopi Charitable Trust, in collaboration with Arizona Community Foundation (appendix B), and to continue an advocacy campaign in support of 1000 Megawatt solar project on Hopi and Navajo land. The proposal was submitted to regulators of Mohave Generating Station in 2004.

We strongly urge the CPUC to accept the CARE proposal, which Hopi Tribal Chairman Benjamin Nuvamsa has endorsed, and which is in keeping with proposals and conditions submitted by other interveners.

Black Mesa Trust is a grassroots organization founded in 2000 to preserve the N-aquifer on Black Mesa for future generations of Hopi and Navajo people and to affirm the ancient knowledge that "water is life."

For more information about Black Mesa Trust, visit www.blackmesatrust.org.

CAROL A. BROWN	TRUMAN L. BURNS
CALIF PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION	CALIF PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION
DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE LAW JUDGES	ENERGY COST OF SERVICE & NATURAL
GAS BRANCH ROOM 5103	ROOM 4102
505 VAN NESS AVENUE	505 VAN NESS AVENUE
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102-3214	SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102-3214

Application of
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON COMPANY (U338E)
Regarding the Distribution of
SO2 Allowance Sale Proceeds
Related to the Suspended Operation of
Mohave Generating Station.
Application 06-12-022
(Filed December 20, 2006)