7/27/2010 10:29:00 AM Hopi Council approves carbon capture storage project
USGS photo
Coal-fired power plants emit billions of tons of toxic carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere each year. The Hopi Tribe recently approved exploratory drilling to potentially allow a controversial new method called Carbon Capture Sequestration (CCS) to store CO2 produced by nearby power plants underground on Hopi lands.
Rosanda Suetopka Thayer The Observer
KYKOTSMOVI, Ariz. - In a surprise move, the Hopi Tribal Council approved a controversial project with an 8 to 4 vote, giving four western energy companies (WEC Consortium) and the Hopi Tribe the go-ahead to evaluate geologic characteristics of the Black Mesa Basin for potential commercial storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) in a new method known as carbon capture sequestration (CCS).
Nada Talayumptewa, chair of the Hopi Tribe's Energy Team and council representative from Kykotsmovi, placed the action item and resolution on the council's agenda.
The proposed project seeks to drill a series of exploration wells on Hopi land for the purpose of collecting and analyzing detailed geological, geophysical and water quality data. Wells will be drilled to a depth of approximately 9,000 feet to determine if the rock strata is hospitable enough to store toxic CO2 extracted from coal plant emissions underground on Hopi and near Navajo reservation communities.
This project builds from an ongoing Department of Energy (DOE) funded project known as the Arizona Utilities Northern Arizona Pilot Project located at the Cholla Power Plant near Joseph City. The project budget will cost approximately $5.02 million and work would be completed within 15 months of DOE approval.
The other participants include Salt River Project (SRP) as the lead applicant with the Hopi Tribe, Tri-State Generation and Transmission, Tucson Electric Power (TEP) and Peabody Coal Company.
SRP, TEP and Tri-State currently supply generation, transmission and distribution of electricity to communities through Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming and Nebraska. Peabody is one of the major coal producers in the United States.
Immediately adjacent to both Hopi and Navajo communities, the project has very little research available to assess long range impacts on the Black Mesa Basin, which contains billions of tons of high quality, low sulfur coal reserves as well as coal bed methane, oil and gas reserves. The basin is currently surrounded by six coal-fired energy plants which produce over 11,000 megawatts of power and emits 65 million tons of harmful CO2 annually.
Concerns about the approval of this controversial project have raised many questions from the Hopi people, who heard about the approval through tribal department heads.
One of the more immediate concerns was that Hopi tribal members were never given an opportunity to voice their concerns and question the council regarding such a new technology as CCS, since it is still considered experimental, and long term storage of CO2 is a relatively new concept. Scientists have stated that CO2 can be "captured" with one such experiment taking place at the Cholla Power Plant by Arizona Public Service, but long term outcomes are still being researched.
There are also questions about how long the CO2 will be stored. The short answer is: forever.
Another concern is water. Since CCS requires massive amounts of water because the capturing and compression requires much energy, the Consortium also states that they don't have the water right now, which would mean an increase in pumping Hopi and Navajo water from its current water rate. Proposed increases call for another 25 to 40 more water being pumped.
Safety is also a critical issue since scientists have stated that they cannot predict how long CO2 can be safely stored since it could potentially leak into other underground aquifers or into the air.
Hopi community members have also asked: Can the Hopi Tribe pull out of the project? The answer is yes, but not without consequences. SRP, which operates the Mohave Generating station, is the principal investigator and applicant for the $5 million dollar grant from the DOE. If the Hopi Tribe pulls out of the project, they could possibly be put into a serious liability situation for "misleading" DOE in accessing the money for this experiment.
Peabody has also been actively participating and supporting the CCS project because they want to keep mining Hopi and Navajo coal for a very long time.
Joelynn Roberson, a consultant to the Consortium, is also under fire from the Hopi community since part of her position description requires her to act as facilitator to the Hopi nation to "ensure permitting" and to engage in public outreach on tribal lands concerning the project, which to date has not occurred.
Two former Hopi Chairmen, Vernon Masayesva and Benjamin Nuvamsa, spoke to the Observer about their concerns.
Nuvamsa stated, "The Hopi Tribe is assuming a lot about this project. These are poisonous gases ... from the coal fired plants [that will be] deposited into wells 9,000 feet deep for more than a lifetime. Therein lies the problem. It's just another way to allow these plants to keep polluting but this time, they would be polluting our water, not the air."
"It's a pretty clever way ... for these companies to get around tough EPA air emissions control requirements like [Best Alternative Retrofit Technology] (BART). They are trying to divert our tribal attention away from the coal plants polluting the skies and a way to justify the continued existence of their plants," he added.
Masayesva stated, "This project approved by the Hopi Council, which will allow the Hopi and Navajo geologic strata and water reserves to store CO2 is highly experimental. Hopi and Navajo people have good reason to suspect that the sequestration model cannot accurately predict the migration of CO2 We have no idea and neither do scientists of the true picture of the extent of damages that can be done to the ground water in the Black Mesa Basin."
He added, "Bottom line, the question that this project and its supporters must answer to the Hopi and Navajo people is this: Did the Hopi Tribe actually want the CO2 sequestration on Hopi land, or are they using this sequestration project as a vehicle to collect mineral data? If the latter is true, then the Hopi Council has now acted in bad faith, and this could have serious consequences for our tribe because it would mean that SRP, Peabody and the other energy companies along with Hopi water consultant Joelynn Roberson could be accused of securing federal money for this project under false pretenses."
Nuvamsa concluded, "What everyone here on Hopi and Navajo should understand is that once the CO2 is injected into our reservation homeland ground, it will not be possible to extract those poisonous gases or stop them from permeating into our aquifers. Our aquifers will be forever poisoned. Future Hopi and Navajo generations will pay the price for a few measly dollars that these Hopi council members want. This is what I call environmental extortion."
The eight Hopi Council members who approved the project included: Nada Talayumptewa, Phillip Quochytewa, Norman Honanie, Danny Honanie, Everett Calnimptewa, Wayne Kuwanhoiyoma, Velma Kelyesva and Arvin Puhuyesva.
A public information meeting sponsored by the InterTribal COALition group to discuss this topic will be held at the Hotevilla Youth and Elderly Center at 10 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 6. A meal will be provided and all Hopi and Navajo tribal members are encouraged to come to share their opinions and concerns regarding this project.
Reader Comments
Posted: Thursday, September 02, 2010
Article comment by:
Esau Kewenvoyouma
THE HOPI TRIBE DOES NOT SPEAK FOR ALL HOPIS, THE HOPIS WHO HOLD TRUE, OR STRUGGLE TO KEEP THE WAYS WE WERE TAUGHT. IF THE HOPI TRIBE CLAIM THEMSELVES HOPI, THAN THEY WOULD GO BY THE TRADITIONAL HOPI WAY OF DOING THINGS. AND AS MANY HOPI KNOW, SUCH A THING LIKE THIS WOULD NEVER BE THOUGHT OF, OR EVEN LESS SO CONSIDERED AT ALL. WE ALREADY HAVE A HARD TIME KEEPING WHAT WE HAVE. WHY BOTHER OURSELVES WITH MORE TRIVIAL THINGS SUCH AS THIS? I WEEP IN MY HEART WHEN EVEN THINKING OF SUCH ABUSE TO THE LAND WE CALL HOME. QUIT BEING LAZY AND DEPENDANT, GO TO YOUR FIELDS OR RANCH AND LIVE THE VALUES THAT IT IS TO BE HOPI. SUCCESS IS ONLY DEFINED BY THE PATH WE CAN LIVE HAPPILY, NOT BY THE QUALITY OF LIFE WE CHOOSE TO MAKE IT EASY. QWAK'QWAI... UMA PASNINGWU PU NAHONGVITA NU HOPIT'SINOM...
Posted: Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Article comment by:
just a hand stroking
Why stop the process, i want to see what happens out here at Hopi and who will fess-up to it happening, come on lets all look to the future and see if we all die from this
Posted: Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Article comment by:
Hilton Honyaoma
INTHETHICK OFIT Your spin on your chemistry terms not all that impressive.........you sound like a lackey for the energy companies..........how much is your kickback gonna be...........they say follow the money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IDENTIFY YOURSELF.............
Posted: Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Article comment by:
Rez Dude
This is our sacred land and as stewards of our lands, we cannot allow greedy public utility companies and Peabody Coal to continue to exploit us and use our lands as test sites. Tribal elected officials have again been misled by the likes of Scott Canty, recently deposed tribal attorney, and consultant Joelynn Roberson. When will our elected leaders learn that our lands are not for sale (or experimentation)?
Posted: Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Article comment by:
There's not enough water as it is
Liability for "misleading" the DOE? It's a joke. Its a tactic to scare the people out of doing anything to stop this. Whose liable for all the years of misleading the Hopi and Dine?
Posted: Friday, August 06, 2010
Article comment by:
Indigenous Citizen
This is how Relocation occurred, back in the '70's. We had community meetings in Old Oraibi with Mina Lansa and such folks. Both traditional peoples agreed to fight the US legislation and Peabody's lease talks...but the OUTSIDE lobbying efforts (in Washingdoon) swayed the votes and outcome. We lost. Now, in 2010, the "game" resumes. Please, don't let history STEAL AGAIN! Recall offending council members and rid yourselves of non-Hopi resource "experts". Many stood silent and watched as thousands of people endured the wretched federal relocation....just so Peabody could extract coal. Now, who will be forced away so the energy companies can pollute more of our world? At what cost are you willing to sign away your heritage? They speak of inclusion, yet, no prior notice exists, nor are the common people enabled to determine their own destiny...w/in their own lands.
Posted: Thursday, August 05, 2010
Article comment by:
inthe thickofit
Mr. Hamana knows -like many of us do - that there is one sure way to deal with elected leaders that don't represent your views - vote them out of office. But if you don't have enough votes to vote them out you gotta live with the results. Also you can't expect these elected leaders to consult with every constituent about every development decision - otherwise you would never get to a timely decision. That is why the legislative bodies in many governments are representative bodies. Maybe that is what "grassroots" voters really want in the end - inaction? Dunno...
Posted: Thursday, August 05, 2010
Article comment by:
Larry Hamana
CO2 in itself may not be toxic, however, it could lend to tragic disasters such as the one at Lake Nyos, Cameroon where in 1986 about 1,700 people died from asphyxiation where CO2 was trapped underground at the bottom of the lake. A rock slide or shift in the geologic strata released CO2 and it erupted sending poisonous gases into the atmosphere that people inhaled and died from. It also caused deaths of animals, fish and other species populating the area. And in response to "inthe thickofit", we can equate your sometimes stinky breath to that of both Hopi and Navajo councils exhaling CO2 behind closed doors and behind our backs with other interest groups advocating for CCS without consulting and obtaining concurrence from the very stakeholders in this process - the grassroots Hopi and Navajo peoples.
Posted: Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Article comment by:
Jon Yazzie
The navajo and hopi tribes only see 3-6% percent of the energy/electricity created by these coal fire plants. SRP and Cholla create power for the city of Phx and Las Vegas together? Now why should we store CO2 that may contaminate our water for them. Capture the "deadly" gases and lets store them downtown phx or las vega......
Posted: Monday, August 02, 2010
Article comment by:
inthe thickofit
Since when is carbon dioxide, or CO2, considered a toxic substance? I do know that there are several gases that can kill you if they "push" out the oxygen in a confined space and CO2 asphyxiation is real but come on editor "toxic CO2" - you all should start boning up on your understanding of environmental science and chemistry terms before you start spreading mistruths. I mean I know that sometimes my breath stinks when I exhale, but it's not that "toxic."
Posted: Thursday, July 29, 2010
Article comment by:
Concerned Hopi
In the 70's many agencies and companies were attempting to gather minerals inventory on Black Mesa. In response, the Hopi Tribal Council passed a resolution forbidding activity such as this CCS project (until a formal Energy Policy was developed). Still lacking this policy, this project cannot move forward and should immediately be stopped - liability or not. Any competent "consultant" would have been aware of this resolution (especially one that has been working for Hopi for the past few years). I am perplexed as to why this "Council" and its Chairman find it appropriate to keep their people in the dark - the resolution approving this project states no village input is required, yet the Hopi Constitution requires representatives to keep people informed. Some representatives interpret this to mean report only after the fact, I find it implausible that the drafters of the constitution would agree. Shame on the "representatives" who voted to approve this projectt. I question whose interests they are truly representing, as Hopi stand only to lose in this, surely they are not concerned about the Hopi people. In the future, I ask that representtives earn their pay by researching, investigating and reporting to the people actions are are being asked to approve. This is the minimum we Hopi and Tewa people deserve.
Posted: Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Article comment by:
puzzled guy
The Hopi Tribal Council should not go through with this deal, we as a whole should start to rely less on fossil fuel consumption and start to use the abundant renewable sources of energy like the wind and sun. This plan seems to be basically sweeping our CO2 problem under the proverbial rug, or in this case, home.
