From swv1@ctaz.com Fri Feb 27 11:03:35 1998 The following letter was sent to President Clinton on February 25 1998 in support of the five lower Colorado River Indian tribes tribal grassroots members tribal elders and non-Native supporters resisting the U.S. and state of California plans to build a nuclear dump at Ward Valley California. This letter is being posted for distribution by the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN). ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE LEADERS QUESTION PRESIDENT CLINTON'S COMMITTMENT TO ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE POLICY REGARDING WARD VALLEY **************************************************************************** **** INDIGENOUS ENVIRONMENTAL NETWORK * SOUTHWEST NETWORK FOR ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE * SOUTHERN ORGANIZING COMMITTEE FOR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL JUSTICE * NORTHEAST ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE NETWORK * FARMWORKERS NETWORK ON ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE * AFRICAN AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ACTION NETWORK * ASIAN PACIFIC ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE NETWORK Alliance of Environmental Justice Networks of the Environmental Justice Movement February 25 1998 Dear President Clinton: We are writing to you about an issue of such grave importance that it questions your administration's commitment to environmental justice. For the last two weeks five Indian tribal nations (Fort Mojave Chemehuevi Cocopah Quechan and the Colorado River Indian Tribes) are felt so threatened by the prospect of radioactive contamination of their lands water resources and the violation of their religious freedoms they have occupied the site of a proposed nuclear waste dump and have vowed to defend the land with their lives. This site is located on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land in the Ward Valley area 22 miles west of Needles California. The controversial nuclear waste dump at Ward Valley proposes to bury long-lived radioactive waste from medical facilities research institutions and the nuclear industry in shallow unlined trenches above a major aquifer eighteen miles from the Colorado River adjacent to or upstream from the lower Colorado River Indian tribes and on land considered sacred aboriginal territory. The dump site is proposed for an area in the midst of critical habitat for the threatened desert tortoise. The dump proposal threatens the cultural and spiritual integrity of the tribes and violates the Department of the Interior's trust and fiduciary responsibilities to the affected Indian tribal nations their tribal grassroots members and elders. These five Colorado River Indian tribes have attempted to meet with the appropriate federal governmental officials on a nation-to-nation basis but their requests have been consistently denied. Their request to become a cooperating agency in the current Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) as provided by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was also denied by the Department of the Interior (DOI). The proposed nuclear waste dump at Ward Valley categorically violates Executive Order No. 12898 Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations; the President's May 1994 Memorandum to the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies entitled Government-to-Government Relations With Native American Tribal Governments; Secretarial Order 3175 entitled Departmental Responsibilities for Indian Trust Resources and the Department of the Interior's Protection of Indian Trust Resource Responsibilities. Furthermore the five tribes have consistently presented to federal agencies their concern for the protection of the Ward Valley area as a significant sacred and historical site. This sacred site issue implicates the seriousness of your Presidential Executive Order 13007 entitled Protection of Native American Sacred Sites on Federal Lands. Last May 1997 the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) determined that the Ward Valley proposal potentially violated environmental justice mandates and put forth a series of recommendations including conducting an environmental justice impact analysis (EJAI) on the proposed project and arranging for meetings with high-level officials within the administration. Although the EPA is designated by the President's Order as the lead agency on environmental justice the agency has failed to follow through on any of the NEJAC recommendations and has yet to present to the tribes a template for the EJAI as promised in numerous meetings over the last two years. Ward Valley is the test case for this administration's commitment to environmental justice and to date the administration has shown itself either incapable or unwilling to fulfill its own mandates. We view this failure as having serious implications for all environmental justice issues we are currently involved with. It is time that the administration become directly involved in the Ward Valley issue and proceed expeditiously to address the concerns of the five lower Colorado River Indian tribes to insure that all mandates executive orders and more specifically procedures that grew from the Executive Order on Environmental Justice are not just another in a long stream of empty promises to this country's Indian nations. Signed by the following Environmental Justice Networks and their representatives: Tom Goldtooth Indigenious Environmental Network P.O. Box 485 Bemidji MN 56619 Richard Moore Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice P.O. 7399 Albuquerque NM 87194 Peggy Saika Asian Pacific Environmental Network 310 8th St. #309 Oakland CA 94607 Sha-King Alston Northeast Environmental Justice Network 606 Chelmsford St. Lowell MA 01851 Connie Tucker Southern Organizing Committee for Economic and Social Justice P.O. Box 10518 Atlanta GA 30310 Tirso Moreno Farmworkers Network for Economic and Environmental Justice 815 South Park Ave Apopka FL 32703 Rev. Zack Lyle African American Environmental Justice Action Network P.O. Box 1994 Brunswick GA 31521 Cc: Bruce Babbit Deputy Secretary of Department of the Interior Carol Browner Administrator of U.S. EPA Kevin Gover Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Pat Shea Director of Bureau of Land Management **************************************************************************** **** Write letters of support on the Ward Valley issue to the following: President Clinton The White House Washington DC 20500 (202) 456-1111 Bruce Babbitt Deputy Secretary of DOI C St. 18th & 19th St NW Washington DC 20240 (202) 208-7351 Pat Shea BLM 18th & C St NW Washington DC 20240 (202) 208-5717 For more information on the Ward Valley situation contact either of the following web pages: http://banwaste.envirolink.org http://earthrunner.com/savewardvalley http://www.alphacdc.com/ien/wardvly4.html http://www.ctaz.com/~swvl http://www.shundahai.org/swvaction.html For more info contact: Save Ward Valley Coalition 107 F St. Needles CA 92363 ph: (760) 326-6267 fax: (760) 326-6268 e-mail: swv1@ctaz.com **************************************************************************** *** INDIGENOUS ENVIRONMENTAL NETWORK P.O. Box 485 Bemidji MN 56619 ph: (218) 751-4967 fax: (218) 751-0561 e-mail: ien@igc.apc.org web page: http://www.alphacdc.com/ien An alliance of Indigenous Peoples protecting the sacredness of Mother Earth and building sustainable communities *** Hot Spots: Skull Valley Band of Goshutes Utah - high level nuclear waste dump Western Shoshone National Territory Nevada - Bureau of Land Management infringing on Shoshone traditional territory with threats of impounding Shoshone livestock. Save Ward Valley 107 F St. Needles CA 92363 ph. 760/326-6267 fax 760/326-6268 http://www.shundahai.org/SWVAction.html http://earthrunner.com/savewardvalley http://www.ctaz.com/~swv1 http://banwaste.envirolink.org http://www.alphacdc.com/IEN/wardvly4.html