Thoughts on the SunZia project
by Elaine Cummings
February 2, 2024
The reaction of tribes located here in Arizona (my home of over 50 years) is no surprise. In fact, their request probably should have been anticipated because this project’s outline mirrors many other projects of similar ilk.
Too many times, in projects such as SunZia where tribal lands have been involved, the tribal members and their councils either were not included at all, or were left out of early planning, or were brought in and heard late in a process, and then were ignored (ex., KXL, DAPL, Line 3, and other oil pipeline projects). In these examples, many either were “already under construction” or had been “completed without an EIA or permit” represented encroachment on tribal lands and endangered a sole source of fresh water supply … and, as well, threatened the mutual supply of water for non-native citizens. One now is underway in Michigan waters.
Today, with SunZia, another unfortunate fact should be noted — that tribes now must go against U.S. Dept. of Interior Sec. Deb Haaland, herself a Native American (Laguna Pueblo, NM). This is totally unfair to Sec. Haaland because no part of this problem began on “her watch.”
That it even has “come to this” in Arizona with SunZia is beyond astonishing, given the fact that, once more, “our” various government entities either have NOT begun or done or have failed to complete studies that either were requested or were required by all cooperating parties, well before the first project construction foremen ever fired up the first bulldozer! For instance, look no further than the AZ southern border, where a proposed mine finally may have been stopped, but where drastic environmental destruction already has been done, which will take many years for nature and the passage of time to undo and to repair.
I am only one of many citizens who have monitored several of the aforementioned projects for over 10 years. I have remained in contact with advocate organizations, Native American publications, and individuals. As well, I have personal friends within these tribes and others from back East, where I lived before I came to AZ in 1971 … who also are Native Americans. This latest affront is hard to swallow … again … for all of us.
Has no one in our country, or in our Congress, or in our state government, or in assorted NGOs, learned anything from the broken treaties of our historic past, let alone from the continuing malpractice of our more recent times? Is our word, that of “We, The People” not to be trusted … again?
Sadly, it would seem not.
Elaine Cummings, retired since 1997, is a former journalist (Albany Times-Union), publications designer/ editor for other magazines and agencies. She has lived in Tucson since 1971.