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/

Federal judge rolls back key #civil #rights protections in Louisiana’s ‘#sacrifice #zones’

The decision could open the door for other industry-friendly states to follow suit

James Cain, a federal judge in Louisiana who was appointed by president Trump,
decided to
block the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice from pursuing enforcement actions based on
“#disparate #impacts”
— or the idea that a regulation might disproportionately harm one group of people over another.

A provision of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 known as #TitleVI allows federal agencies to take action against state policies and programs that discriminate on the basis of race, color, or national origin.

Since the EPA’s founding in 1970, however, the agency allowed most of the Title VI complaints that it received to languish without resolution.

In 2015, a coalition of community groups in Louisiana,
with the assistance of the public-interest environmental law organization #Earthjustice,
sued the agency for this practice and won.

Five years later, after president Biden took office,
federal regulators finally began addressing the civil rights complaints they received and
the EPA announced a civil-rights #probe into #Cancer #Alley
— a stretch of land on the lower Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans where
over 150 chemical plants pump cancer-causing chemicals into the air of predominantly Black communities
— marking a new phase of the agency’s use of Title VI.

The federal government was making significant progress with Louisiana officials in their Title VI negotiations:

Cancer Alley residents’ principle demand
— that state regulators assess whether a community is already exposed to disproportionately high levels of pollution before permitting a new project there
— had made it into a draft resolution document.

️But at a certain point in the process, sources told Grist, the talks broke down.

Then in May 2023, #Jeff #Landry, then the attorney general (and now the #governor) of Louisiana,
filed a lawsuit against the EPA.

On the basis that the agency was overstepping its authority, Landry’s suit challenged not only the EPA’s use of Title VI to regulate pollution in Louisiana,
but also the very legal justification of "#disparate-#impacts" regulation, which reaches thousands of programs across the country
and can be used to adjudicate decisions as varied as where a new highway can go or whether a housing practice is discriminatory.

Advocates worried that the lawsuit had the potential to unravel decades of civil rights law.

Judge Cain’s final judgment concurs with Landry’s argument.

In effect, the ruling will make it impossible for the EPA to pursue enforcement actions based on disparate impacts
— but only in Louisiana.

Cain’s judgment comes in the same week as ️the EPA’s new Title VI guidance,
which urges state and local regulators to establish safeguards that protect their constituents against discrimination.
https://grist.org/equity/title-vi-epa-james-cain-louisiana/

#Lithium drilling project temporarily blocked on sacred #TribalLands in #Arizona

The case is among the latest legal fights to pit #NativeAmerican tribes and #environmentalists against President Joe #Biden’s administration.

By Scott Sonner, Associated Press

"A federal judge has temporarily blocked exploratory drilling for a lithium project in Arizona that tribal leaders say will harm land they have used for religious and cultural ceremonies for centuries.

"Lawyers for the national environmental group #Earthjustice and Colorado-based Western Mining Action Project are suing federal land managers on behalf of the #HualapaiTribe. They accuse the U.S. Bureau of Land Management of illegally approving drilling planned by an Australian mining company in the #BigSandyRiverBasin in northwestern Arizona, about halfway between Phoenix and Las Vegas.

"The case is among the latest legal fights to pit Native American tribes and environmentalists against President Joe Biden’s administration as green energy projects encroach on lands that are culturally significant.

"U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa granted a temporary restraining order late Monday, according to court documents. Humetewa is suspending the operation until she can hear initial arguments from the tribe, #ArizonaLithium Ltd., and the bureau at a hearing in #PhoenixArizona on Sept. 17.

"The tribe wants the judge to issue a preliminary injunction extending the prohibition on activity at the site pending trial on allegations that federal approval of the exploratory drilling violated the National Historic Preservation Act and National #Environmental Policy Act.

"'Like other tribal nations who for centuries have stewarded the lands across this country, the #Hualapai people are under siege by #mining interests trying to make a buck off destroying their cultural heritage,' Earthjustice lawyer Laura Berglan said in a statement Wednesday.

"The tribe says in court documents that the bureau failed to adequately analyze potential impacts to sacred springs the Hualapai people call Ha'Kamwe,' which means warm spring. The springs have served as a place 'for healing and prayer' for generations.

"The tribe and environmental groups also argue that a 2002 environmental review by the bureau and the U.S. Energy Department determined that the land was eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places as a traditional cultural property.

"Arizona Lithium plans a total of 131 drilling sites across nearly a square mile (2.6 square kilometers) to obtain samples to help determine if there's enough lithium to construct a mine and extract the critical mineral needed to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles [#EVs], among other things."

Read more:
https://news.azpm.org/p/news-topical-nature/2024/8/21/221500-lithium-drilling-project-temporarily-blocked-on-sacred-tribal-lands-in-arizona/

#ProtectTheSacred #WaterIsLife #HaKamwe #SacredSite #CulturalGenocide
#EnvironmentalRacism
#NoMiningWithoutConsent
#LithiumMining #NoLithiumMining
#EarthJustice #BigSandyRiver
#WesternMiningActionProject #CorporateColonialism

#MaineTribes and Leading #Environmental Organizations Join Forces To Oppose Proposed #Mine in Shadow of #Katahdin

Proposed #ZincMine at #PickettMountain being pursued by virtually unknown Canadian company

June 28, 2023

"Two Tribes in Maine today joined forces with leading environmental groups and a national public interest environmental law organization to oppose a proposed mine that would be located in the shadow of #BaxterStatePark and the #KatahdinWoods & Waters National Monument.

"The proposed zinc mine at Pickett Mountain is being pursued by a virtually unknown Canadian company, #WolfdenResources, that has never operated a mine before. A previous version of Wolfden’s request was widely opposed because the region holds enormous cultural and natural significance to #Wabanaki Tribes, outdoor recreation businesses, and Maine people.

"The #HoultonBandOfMaliseets, the #PenobscotNation, and the #NaturalResourcesCouncilOfMaine [#NRCM], represented by #Earthjustice and #Brann&Isaacson, joined the #ConservationLawFoundation in petitioning to intervene in the review of Wolfden’s permit application to the Land Use Planning Commission (#LUPC) to rezone the area for #industrial uses.

"'The Penobscot Nation strongly opposes the rezoning of this #ecologically important area. We share significant concerns over impacts to the #water quality and f#isheries of the area, which our members rely upon,' said #ChiefKirkFrancis of the Penobscot Nation. 'The West Branch of the #MattawamkeagRiver contains abundant, high-quality, cold-water fish habitat and Designated #CriticalHabitat for #endangered #AtlanticSalmon, identified as necessary for the recovery of Atlantic salmon in the Penobscot River. This mine would impact our traditional territories and forever alter our ability to maintain our relationship to this place.'

"The area Wolfden wants to mine is next to three State Heritage Fish Waters and is a centerpiece of the region’s growing outdoor economy. It contains the headwaters of the West Branch of the Mattawamkeag River, which is sacred to the Penobscot Nation and provides key, federally designated critical habitat for endangered Atlantic salmon.

"'The Katahdin region’s wild beauty and clean water are extraordinary. One look at this landscape demonstrates that this is no place to put a mine,' said Nick Bennett, staff scientist at the Natural Resources Council of Maine. 'Wolfden’s claims that it will treat #wastewater more effectively than any mining company on earth are not credible. This is too big a risk for #Maine.'

"'The legacy of metallic mineral #mining in Maine is one of empty promises of economic development, acid mine drainage #polluting waters and killing fish, and multi-million dollar c#leanups funded by taxpayers and not the fly-by-night mining companies like Wolfden,' said #SeanMahoney, vice-president and senior counsel at the Conservation Law Foundation. 'Rezoning this area to allow mining would fail to recognize the cultural and spiritual importance of the land to the #WabanakiTribes and threaten the natural resources and experiences valued by generations of Maine citizens.'

"After withdrawing its initial request because it was riddled with errors, Wolfden submitted a second rezoning petition in January that sparked another review by the LUPC. Comments by Wolfden’s CEO disrespecting Maine tribes and #MininLlaws have prompted outrage from the Penobscot Nation, Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, and #conservationists. The company has lost tens of millions of dollars over the past decade.

"'This is one of the absolute worst areas to rezone for a mine,' said Aaron Bloom, a senior attorney with Earthjustice. 'The region is known for its vast contiguous forest, pristine streams, high-quality lakes, and aquatic species like wild brook trout and landlocked salmon. Why would we risk that, along with the outdoor economy that depends on it, on a half-baked proposal from an unproven mining company? The Commission must put Maine’s unique natural resources, and the well-being of the people of Maine and Maine’s Wabanaki Tribes, before short-term industry profits.'

"More than 700 hundred Mainers and local businesses, including Bradford Camps, Chandler Lakes Camps and Lodge, and the #MaineWildernessGuidesOrganization, have spoken out against Wolfden’s plans. In May 2022, residents of #Pembroke voted overwhelmingly to ban industrial-scale metallic mineral mining in their town in response to Wolfden’s plans to develop a mine there."

Source:
https://earthjustice.org/press/2023/maine-tribes-and-leading-environmental-organizations-join-forces-to-oppose-proposed-mine-in-shadow-of-katahdin