Environmental and tribal groups are urging federal officials to deny preliminary permits for three hydro-storage energy proposals on the Navajo Nation. They say the projects threaten water resources and communities.
The projects proposed for Black Mesa near the town of Kayenta would include several dams and eight reservoirs. A French company called Nature and People First wants to use hundreds of thousands of acre-feet from the Colorado and San Juan rivers and two aquifers, but it’s unclear whether they have the rights. Tribal groups opposing the projects say decades of coal mining have depleted groundwater that supplies local communities.
"That’s water that we can’t give up, that’s water that we can’t spare, that’s water that we cannot allow someone else to use again. We have to keep it, we have to protect it. We have got to fight for what we have left," says Nicole Horseherder, executive director of the Black Mesa-based group Tó Nizhóní Ání.
The groups say the projects could also displace residents, and destroy land, prehistoric sites and endangered animal habitat. In a December filing, the Navajo Nation Department of Justice also opposed the projects.
Hydro-storage has been touted as a green energy source to augment wind and solar. But other such projects proposed in the region have been met with stiff resistance from conservation groups and Indigenous peoples.
