Coal

For more than a decade now, a coalition of community members called Black Mesa United has been working on a new initiative: bringing running water to the families in the area to sustain their livelihoods and resistance. Earlier this year, Black Mesa United and Many Mules Waterline received $5.2 million to build the first phase of the project, bringing water to over 80 families in the area. They hope to receive full funding for all phases of the project — for a total of close to $30 million — in the coming years. Ideally, as the Benallys see it, getting this water will encourage people to fight for their right to the land and resist relocation at the hand of Peabody and the federal government. Without it, they believe it is easier for multinational corporations to displace people. “Once people are uprooted, they never reestablish themselves,” Norman Benally said. “We have to reverse that. Once you get that first waterline to that house, it’s permanent and then people start building out from there, start redeveloping their culture. That’s the only way to get people to realize that the land is part of the culture.” Such an understanding used to be a given. According to Fern Benally, Norman’s sister and vice president of the local government chapter, “Before Peabody’s arrival, natural springs were plentiful. Our animals, both wild and domestic, quenched their thirst effectively without needing to search for waters. Wildlife was in abundance, as were domestic livestock. Natural springs are extinct now. Black Mesa residents now face the daily chores of hauling water.”

Citizens and activists in the U.S. Pacific Northwest are fighting three different proposed coal terminals, including one in Oregon and two in Washington. Meanwhile, three formerly proposed coal terminals have already been defeated. Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign recently cited these defeats as signs of progress in the broader campaign to retire the use of coal plants across the U.S. altogether. “There are three main reasons we oppose coal exports,” Trip Jennings, organiser for Portland Rising Tide, told IPS. “The first reason – I think the most important for us – is the fact that we’re closing down power plants in the U.S.,” he said. “Oregon and Washington will be totally coal-free in a number of years. We as a community and as citizens decided we didn’t want to burn coal. If we allow corporations to export… it undercuts all the work that we’ve done to address the climate crisis.” “Second, this has a huge impact on the number of trains that are coming through this area. It creates a situation where we’re committed to shipping highly destructive commodities, rather than shipping people or clean resources on our rails,” Jennings said. “Third is the dust that is created when these cars lose one pound of dust per car per mile. They’re sprinkling the countryside, the rivers, streams, and communities with toxic, dirty coal dust [leading to asthma and lung disease].”