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GUEST: Vernon Masayesva, Black Mesa Trust

The giant coal mining corporation, Peabody Energy, has put in a bid to increase its use of water at the Black Mesa mine in Northeastern Arizona. The move threatens the main drinking water source for many Hopi and Navajo people in the region. The US government claims that Peabody’s groundwater pumping is within legal limits established to these water supplies. But the Natural Resources Defense Council has just uncovered new data contradicting that claim. In a new report called “Drawdown: An Update on Groundwater Mining on Black Mesa,” the NRDC shows that the Navajo Aquifer is in decline and that decades of industrial pumping already have caused the aquifer material harm. This conclusion is based on the US government’s own criteria.

For more information visit www.blackmesatrust.org and www.nrdc.org.