Updates – Page 3 – The San Pedro River is in danger

17 January 2024

Tohono O’odham and San Carlos Apache sue BLM, DOI, Haaland

kai2024-02-06T17:21:58+00:00

Tribes, Archaeology Southwest, Center for Biological Diversity suit BLM and Deb Haaland Today Plaintiffs Tohono O’odham Nation; San Carlos Apache Tribe; Archaeology Southwest; and Center for Biological Diversity have issued a COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY JUDGMENT AND INJUNCTIVE RELIEF to Defendants U.S. Department of the Interior; Deb Haaland, U.S. Secretary of Interior; and U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

This action challenges the Bureau of Land Management’s failure to comply with the National Historic Preservation Act (“NHPA”) and the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”) as well as Executive Orders 13007 and 13175, Secretarial Order 3403, and President Biden’s November 30, 2022 Memorandum on Uniform Standards for Tribal Consultation—in issuing its September 27, 2023 and November 27, 2023 Limited Notices to Proceed to SunZia Transmission, LLC, authorizing the partial construction of the SunZia Southwest Transmission Project, a massive high-voltage transmission line that will cut through the heart of the middle and lower San Pedro Valley and will cause serious, irreversible adverse effects on Tribal cultural sites and sacred areas, including areas with human remains.

Read the full filing | Article by Bloomberg | Article by the Arizona Republic

Tohono O’odham and San Carlos Apache sue BLM, DOI, Haalandkai2024-02-06T17:21:58+00:00

14 December 2023

Attorneys for Peter Else file opening brief in the Arizona Court of Appeals

kai2023-12-18T00:52:47+00:00

Peter Else’s attorneys filed their opening brief in the Arizona Court of Appeals today, December 14, 2023. The case challenges the Arizona permit for the amended version of the SunZia Transmission Project, issued by the Arizona Corporation Commission on November 21, 2022.

The SunZia project has undergone multiple changes in purpose, scope, and route since 2006. Their original Arizona permit was issued by the Commission in 2016. Else established legal standing as a party to the Arizona proceedings in 2015 because of his concerns about the adverse ecological impacts of the project.

Peter Else’s statement

I continue to point out the false and contested statements memorialized in the November 2022 decision by the Arizona Corporation Commission. Rather than acknowledging that a radical change had taken place in the plan of electrical service for the amended SunZia project, the Commission’s staff presented a materially misleading narrative to our elected Commissioners for a vote. The decision made by the Commission must be based on facts in their formal order, not false statements about there being no change in the anticipated use of the project.

The Commission’s staff has passively and uncritically accepted the push from the Biden administration and various politically aligned environmental groups to deliver New Mexico wind energy primarily to the high-priced electricity markets in California, in the process blazing new power line corridors through Arizona rather than following existing corridors to the highest degree possible. The amended version of the SunZia project is now an overpriced vertical monopoly that would harm Arizona’s electricity ratepayers. It is a radical change from SunZia’s previous claims of assuring multiple grid benefits and economical renewable energy for southern Arizona.

Other far less damaging energy development alternatives have existed throughout SunZia’s 17-year history of haphazard planning in Arizona and New Mexico. I feel compelled by conscience to continue to object to this poorly planned project.

Case summary
The Introduction of the opening brief gives the background of the case. The Summary of the Argument outlines why the plaintiff believes that the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) erred in 2022 when it granted an amended Certificate of Environmental Compatibility (CEC) for the SunZia transmission line.

The Commission is required by state statute to balance the need for “an adequate, economical and reliable supply of electric power” with the desire to minimize ecological and environmental impacts in Arizona. Plaintiff Else states that the plan of electrical service in the 2022 amended CEC is substantially different from that of the original CEC granted in 2016. He alleges that the amended CEC would create a vertical monopoly of wind power generation and transmission, and would allow SunZia to no longer provide open access and reliability benefits to Arizona’s electrical grid that would have been legally required in the original 2016 CEC.

Attorneys for Peter Else file opening brief in the Arizona Court of Appealskai2023-12-18T00:52:47+00:00

8 December 2023

Tohono O’odham and San Carlos Apache Notify Arizona Corporation Commission of Dispute with BLM

kai2023-12-17T21:17:33+00:00

Tohono O’odham and San Carlos Apache write to the Arizona Corporation Commission

Please be advised that the HPTP filed with the Commission per CEC Condition 12 on December 5 stands premature and inconsistent with the terms of the PA and NHPA. The ACHP has similarly advised BLM of serious flaws in the HPTP and NHPA compliance process. BLM has acknowledged its duty to consult with the disputing parties and ACHP to resolve the dispute but has yet to do so.

The Tohono O’odham Nation and the San Carlos Apache Tribe notified the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) that the BLM’s Historic Properties Treatment Plan (HPTP) filed with the ACC to fulfill Condition 12 of the Certificate of Environmental Compatibility (CEC) is “illegitimate and incomplete.”

The Nation and Tribe also state that Pattern Energy violated Condition 27 of the CEC by starting construction before a cultural landscape study was conducted. They further state that the BLM refused to do this study. The Nation and Tribe ask the ACC to halt construction on SunZia until the CEC is complied with.

Read the full letter …

Tohono O’odham and San Carlos Apache Notify Arizona Corporation Commission of Dispute with BLMkai2023-12-17T21:17:33+00:00

8 December 2023

Tohono O’odham and San Carlos Apache call out BLM for continued failures

kai2023-12-18T21:24:13+00:00

Tohono O’odham and San Carlos Apache challenge BLM

“Regrettably, with the SunZia project we appear to be, once again, in a situation whereby BLM refuses to protect the Tribes’ interests, the environment, and TCPs in order to boost corporate profits.

We had hoped that BLM would heed our declarations on the cultural and historical importance of the San Pedro Valley.

We expected BLM to read and act upon the relevant scientific literature-some of which is authored by Interior Department officials-documenting the more than 12,000 years of connectivity among our peoples and the Valley.

We thought it obvious that BLM would see the error in its reliance on archaeological consultants, who know little about our lands and cultures, to identify and document places at the core of our histories, religions, and identities.

We trusted that BLM would delay completion of the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) process until it completed the most important step in the National Historic Preservation Act (“NHPA”) process, that is, the identification of historic properties.

We advised with BLM to conduct a cultural landscape study to complement the archaeological survey, thereby providing the context for assessing the significance of and protecting TCPs.

We asked BLM to follow the NEPA regulations and acknowledge the obvious truth that the proposed addition, in 2020, of hundreds of miles of new roads to the SunZia project and the proposed change to its purpose from a tandem line (one alternating current, one direct) to a single direct current line, mandated re-analysis of the substantially changed SunZia project.

We relied on BLM to adhere to the NHPA definition of consultation, as ‘the process of seeking, discussing, and considering the views of other participants, and, where feasible, seeking agreement with them’.

We sought, and still seek, to engage in meaningful consultation with BLM, as opposed to the tightly scripted meetings led by BLM archaeologists charged with expediting compliance checklists and permit issuance. However, to be meaningful, consultation is not a listening exercise; instead, it is one of a meaningful response that acts on our concerns.” — Verlon Jose, Chaiman Tohono O’Odham Nation and Terry Rambler, Chairman San Carlos Apache Tribe.

Read the full letter …

Tohono O’odham and San Carlos Apache call out BLM for continued failureskai2023-12-18T21:24:13+00:00

30 November 2023

SunZia resumes construction

kai2023-12-01T20:04:41+00:00

Work resumes on $10B renewable energy transmission project despite tribal objections

by Susan Montoya Bryan
Associated Press Nov 30, 2023

The tractors are back at work clearing land and building access roads for a $10 billion transmission line that the Biden administration describes as an important part of the nation’s transition to renewable energy. But Native American leaders have vowed to keep pushing the federal government to heed their concerns about the project cutting through a culturally significant valley in southern Arizona.

Read the full article …

SunZia resumes constructionkai2023-12-01T20:04:41+00:00

14 November 2023

Hopi Tribe joins Zuni, San Carlos Apache, Tohono O’odham in BLM dispute

kai2023-11-25T19:11:20+00:00

Dear U.S. Bureau of Land Management Director Stone-Manning,

With this notice the Hopi Tribe joins the Pueblo of Zuni, the San Carlos Apache Tribe, the Tohono O’odham Nation, and Archaeology Southwest in the findings of fatal flaws in the process used by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to complete the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) Section 106 process for the proposed SunZia Undertaking.

The Hopi Tribe previously responded to BLM correspondence in letters dated June 9, 2009; May 2 and December 4, 2012; July 22, 2013; April 12, 2017; and February 15, 2018. Despite our requests and suggestions, BLM proceeded to approve two final environmental impact statements and the substandard historic property treatment plans-all without effective effort to place the archaeological surveys in the broader contexts of region-scale Hopi, O’odham, Zuni, or Apache history and geography.

Read the full article …

Hopi Tribe joins Zuni, San Carlos Apache, Tohono O’odham in BLM disputekai2023-11-25T19:11:20+00:00

14 November 2023

KJZZ Fronteras interview with Peter Else

kai2023-11-15T12:51:42+00:00

A wind energy transfer project slated for the San Pedro River Valley is on hold for now
By Alisa Reznick
November 14, 2023

“The only reason it got that approval is that SunZia at the time claimed there were going to be grid benefits for the state of Arizona,” he said. “We’re going to have this very expensive form of renewable energy being imported into our state, with the primary market not even being in our state, it being in California, where the average retail price of electricity is twice what it currently is in Arizona.” —Peter Else

Read the full article …

KJZZ Fronteras interview with Peter Elsekai2023-11-15T12:51:42+00:00

9 November 2023

BLM Director orders halt to construction in the San Pedro

kai2023-11-12T03:09:26+00:00

“… the BLM has ordered an immediate temporary suspension of SunZia’s activities authorized within the San Pedro Valley LNTP [Limited Notice to Proceed], covering an approximately 50-mile segment in Arizona,” —Tracy-Stone Manning, Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

Manning’s order was issued yesterday, November 8, in response to the October 31 letter written by the Tohono O’odham Nation, San Carlos Apache Tribe, and Archaeology Southwest. This letter made an “urgent request” for an immediate halt to the harmful destruction of the San Pedro Valley by the SunZia Southwest Transmission Project, due to failures of the BLM to identify and consult with Native tribes regarding properties of traditional religious and cultural importance.

Director Stone-Manning’s letter orders an immediate temporary suspension of SunZia’s activities along 50 miles of the San Pedro Valley in response to the formal protest lodged in August by the San Carlos Apache Tribe, Zuni Tribe, Tohono O’odham Nation, and Archaeology Southwest, as well as to the aforementioned letter sent to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.

Read the full letter | Read the article in the Tucson News

BLM Director orders halt to construction in the San Pedrokai2023-11-12T03:09:26+00:00

2 November 2023

Tribe calls for halt to new wind-energy powerline through San Pedro River Valley

kai2023-11-04T04:01:12+00:00

Tucson News photo of initial SunZia road construction in the San Pedro River Valley

Tribe calls for halt to new wind-energy powerline through San Pedro River Valley
November 2, 2023
by Henry Bean

The chairman of the Tohono O’odham Nation is calling for an immediate halt to construction of a new wind-energy transmission line through the Lower San Pedro River Valley east of Tucson to protect cultural sites.

In an “urgent request” to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on Tuesday, Tohono O’odham Chairman Verlon Jose asked her to stop “the unlawful and deeply harmful destruction of the San Pedro Valley” by workers cutting roads and clearing pads for the 550-mile-long SunZia Southwest Transmission Project.

Read the original article | Read the letter from the Tohono O’odham Nation to Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland

Tribe calls for halt to new wind-energy powerline through San Pedro River Valleykai2023-11-04T04:01:12+00:00

15 October 2023

Arizona’s San Pedro River featured in “Last Great Places”

kai2024-02-13T03:31:18+00:00

Last Great Places article by the Arizona Nature Conservancy

Arizona’s San Pedro River Ecosystem featured in “Last Great Places” Conservation Initiative
The Arizona National Conservancy
May 14, 1991

Arizona’s San Pedro River basin is one of twelve sites selected by the Nature Conservancy from throughout the Western Hemisphere for representation in its vanguard conservation initiative to protect entire functional ecosystems; LAST GREAT PLACES: AN ALLIANCE FOR PEOPLE AND THE ENVIRONMENT. The Arizona Nature Conservancy has designed the “San Pedro River Ecosystem Protection Project” to safeguard the animals, plants, and natural communities within the San Pedro River basin that are threatened with extinction throughout their global range.

Read the entire article …

Arizona’s San Pedro River featured in “Last Great Places”kai2024-02-13T03:31:18+00:00