#aquifer — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

DoomsdaysCW @[email protected] · 2024-10-19 · 15:37 UTC

Ha'Kamwe' Background information from #SacredLand. #NoLithiumMining! #ProtectHaKamwe!

"Ha’Kamwe’ is a naturally occurring hot spring in the #BigSandyRiver basin where the #Mojave and #Sonoran deserts meet in what is now known as #Arizona. Ha’Kamwe’ is a sacred healing place for the Hualapai Tribe. This important cultural and ecological site is threatened by a proposed #LithiumMine, as a subsidiary of the Australian company Hawkstone Mining Ltd. seeks permission to explore and drill on three sides of the spring, which would destroy cultural sites and block access to the oasis for desert #wildlife. Visiting the site with a reporter from the Phoenix New Times, Hualapai Tribe Director of Natural Resources, Richard Powskey, said, 'This spring is a place for healing and medicine and other things that they have here. Our people are buried all through here. There’s a grave just on the other side of this hill right here.'"

[...]

"At a Wikieup community information session in 2021 many of the 100 attendees were concerned that the proposed mine would drain too much water from this already drought-prone area. Caretaker Ivan Bender feels that the waterflow of the well that feeds Ha’Kamwe’ has already decreased due to the company’s drilling. There is a dispute between the company, the Tribe, and local ranchers regarding how shallow the water table is, with those who live in the area concerned that drilling could easily puncture the #aquifer.

"In the early 2000s a power plant was proposed in the area and though it was never built the Environmental Impact Statement for that project found 'the discharge from Cofer Hot Spring would be reduced, and possibly cease, as a result of groundwater withdrawal from the volcanic aquifer.'

"The #HulapaiTribe is concerned the proposed lithium exploration activity would deplete the spring as well.

"In April of 2021 the #Hualapai Tribe passed a resolution against the mine. 'The Hualapai Tribal Council strongly objects to any further permitting of surface or subsurface disturbances within the #SandyValley Lithium mining claim area, which will result in devastating impacts to significant cultural and spiritual resources; will threaten long-term tribal water rights and quality; will cause irreparable harm to the Tribe’s ability to continue cultural activities and to pursue economic development of Cholla Canyon Ranch, and will result in long term ecological destruction of a fragile desert environment, including plant and animal species with cultural significance. Further, should an open pit mine ever be permitted, it would create enormous public health issues caused by pollution, dust, noise, and overall safety concerns caused by having such a mine immediately adjacent to Hualapai land, as well as severe visual impacts.'

"The Inter-Tribal Association of Arizona, an association of 21 tribal governments in Arizona, which provides a forum for tribal governments to advocate for national and regional tribal concerns and to join in united action to address issues, passed a similar resolution.

"The Hualapai Tribe is demanding that the BLM develop a full Environmental Impact Statement as required by the National Environmental Policy Act. This would require a thorough examination of issues protected by the American Indian Religious Freedom Act. The Tribe asserts that these concerns were not adequately addressed in the published Environmental Assessment: “The BLM’s position as indicated in the EA implies that academically-based western science approaches to research take precedence over traditional #Indigenous knowledge. This position is unacceptable and is not in keeping with the requirement to make a good faith effort to identify cultural resources.'

"In January 2023, #Earthjustice collected and submitted 31,671 letters demanding the BLM conduct a full Environmental Impact Statement.

What You Can Do

"Sign up to support The Campaign to Protect Ha’Kamwe’ and follow the issue."

Learn more:
https://sacredland.org/hakamwe/

#HulapaiNation #WaterIsLife #DefendTheSacred #NoLithiumMining #HawkstoneMining #ArizonaLithium #WikieupArizona #ProtectTheSacred #NavajoTransitionalEnergyCompany

#sacredland #nolithiummining #protecthakamwe #bigsandyriver #mojave #sonoran

DoomsdaysCW @[email protected] · 2024-08-26 · 23:34 UTC

Lakota Horseback Riders Lead the Demand 'Haul No! Shut Down Uranium Mine in Grand Canyon'

"'#HaulNo! #UraniumMining has got to go!' was the protest cry as #Lakota horseback riders led the demand to shut down #PinyonPlain #UraniumMine in the #GrandCanyon on Saturday, continuing the demand to shut down the uranium mine endangering #Havasupai drinking #water and their #aquifer. "

Photos by Taylor McKinnon, #CenterForBiologicalDiversity near sacred Red Butte on Saturday.

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, August 24, 2024

"The legacy of death from uranium mining already spreads across the Southwest. Scattered #radioactive tailings are spread across the #NavajoNation from #ColdWar #uranium mines, which the U.S. has not cleaned up. The dangerous processing mill in southeastern #Utah is now bringing in radioactive waste from Europe.

"The genocide continues -- from the genocide in #Palestine that the United States is producing weapons for, to the slow and toxic genocide in the Southwest -- where the U.S. allows uranium mining to continue.

"Nearby, lithium mining in Hualapai's Ceremonial Place has been halted.
Federal Judge Diane Humetewa, Hopi, granted a temporary restraining order this week and halted the Interior Department's permit for an Australian company, #HawkstoneEnergy aka #ArizonaLithium, to mine for lithium at Hualapai's Ceremonial Sacred Spring.

"Attorneys for the #BidenAdministration and Interior Sec. #DebHaaland told the federal court in Phoenix that the #LithiumMining at Hualapai's #CeremonialSpring was necessary for the 'transition to #GreenEnergy.'"

#WaterIsLife #NuclearColonialism #DefendTheSacred #LithiuMining #NoCopperMiningWithoutConsent #NoLithiumMining #CorporateColonialism #NoMiningWithoutConsent #LithiumMining #CopperMining #Greenwasing#PinyonPlainUraniumMine

#haulno #uraniummining #lakota #pinyonplain #uraniummine #grandcanyon

DoomsdaysCW @[email protected] · 2023-02-27 · 01:56 UTC

'It will poison everything.' #NativeAmericans protest #YuccaMountain #Nuclear Waste site

by Ed Komenda, May 22, 2019

"“Those transportation routes go through any number of sensitive habitats where a #derailment or a truck accident could cause significant impacts on water or on wildlife that live along those transportation corridors,' Donnelly [Nevada state director for the Center for Biological Diversity] said.

"The office of #Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford identified the complexity of waste transport as one of many reasons storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain does little to protect the #environment and people. Other concerns include national security (waste shipments as terrorist targets) and geology (Yucca's aquifer drains to the #AmargosaValley – home to more than 1,400 people and several #endangered species). [And is seismically unstable]

"'#Contamination from Yucca Mountain could very easily contaminate the #aquifer,' Donnelly said, 'and thus contaminate all sorts of springs that harbor some kind of endemic life.'"

#NoNukes #WaterIsLife #EnvironmentalRacism

https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2019/05/22/yucca-mountain-nuclear-waste-nevada-test-site/3694806002/

#nativeamericans #yuccamountain #nuclear #nevada #amargosavalley #endangered