Saving the Hopi Culture--for Pennies

The conflict currently pitting the Hopi tribe against the Peabody Western Coal Co. over the use of ground water in northern Arizona is the kind of conflict classically called, with a sigh, “a parable for our times.” The sigh implies tragic inevitability. But it need not be so. At stake is an ancient way of life. And Southern Californians, for a few pennies each, could help preserve it.

Heavily populated Southern California receives its electric power from several sources; one is the Mohave generating station just east of Laughlin, Nev. Peabody mines coal owned jointly by the Hopi and the Navajo from the Black Mesa mine and sells it to the Mohave station.

Both the Hopi tribe and the Navajo nation are heavily dependent on the revenue from the mine. Both rely on ground water, but the smaller Hopi tribe is exclusively dependent for drinkable water on the aquifer from which Peabody draws its water; the Navajo have other sources. The Hopi want Peabody to make a change in the way it transports the coal from the mine to the power station. Without the change, Hopi springs and wells are in danger of running dry.

Rather than ship the coal by truck or rail, Peabody pulverizes it and mixes it with drinking-quality water. The mixture, called slurry, is then delivered to the 278-miles-distant plant by pipeline. Northern Arizona is a desert. Water for the slurry, 1 billion gallons a year, comes from beneath the ground. The Hopi, pointing to scientific studies, report that their springs and wells are running dry and claim that if nothing is done, their ancient way of life will be finished in a few decades.

Peabody’s permit is up for renewal by the Interior Department, which is also officially responsible for Native American welfare. The Hopi have asked the Interior Department to make renewal of the permit conditional on the construction of a pipeline from Lake Powell in Utah to Black Mesa and that the department allocate lake water under federal jurisdiction for this purpose. The Navajo support this solution in principle. Without admitting that its operation is depleting ground water, Peabody is cooperating with the Navajo in a feasibility study.

If the pipeline, costing $30 million to $40 million, is built, who will pay? California utility customers will. However, the pennies-a-month increase in their utilities bills must be considered indeed tiny if it staves off death by thirst for the thousand-year-old Hopi culture.

We urge Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt to renew Peabody’s permit only if the company agrees to build the Lake Powell-to-Black Mesa pipeline. With a little goodwill from all the parties concerned, this is one parable for our times that can have a joyous ending.