Environmental Justice Case Study: THE Ward Valley Struggle

• Problem
• Background
• Key Actors
• Demographics
• Strategies Used
• Solutions
• Recommendations
• Information Sources
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In 1989, U.S. Ecology found Ward Valley to be an ideal site for the dump. They applied for a license and did an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) (Smithsonian, 1995). They contacted Cultural Systems Research, Incorporated (CSRI) to perform an analysis on cultural ties to Ward Valley. The results reported showed significant relations between the Indian people in the area and the land, including use for hunting and gathering, religious uses, a trade route and a habitat for sacred animals. U.S. Ecology chose to ignore this finding and did not include the information in their EIR, even though the EIR requires the inclusion of such cultural information. An obstacle for U.S. Ecology's dump plans was that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) owns the land. In order to operate the dump, the State of California needed to purchase the land. The last day former DOI Secretary Manuel Lujan held office, he signed over the land to California's Department of Health and Safety (DHS) who purchased it with funds from U.S. Ecology. The transfer could not take place without a state and federal environmental impact statement, so the BLM and California DHS conducted one in 1991 and found that Ward Valley would be a good place for the LLRW dump. However, a San Fransisco U.S. District Judge, Marilyn Patel, blocked the transfer. This was based on a lawsuit brought by environmentalists and Native Americans to invoke the Endangered Species Act to protect the threatened desert tortoise that lives in the Ward Valley area.

In 1993, three geologists working for the U.S. Geological Service (USGS), who are considered experts on the area conducted their own research of the area and found that the EIR done by U.S. Ecology was not thorough enough. They gave 6 potential paths of leaks that could reach the aquifer below the trenches, published in their analysis called the Wilshire Report (Geotimes, 1997). What this means is that the basin is not closed. The BLM and California DHS had concluded from the EIS done in 1991 that the basin is closed. The California DHS and U.S. Ecology questioned the concerns of the geologists, but nonetheless, Secretary Babbitt called for more studies. This backed the block to transfer the land from the BLM to California. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) was hired by the Department of Interior (DOI) to do research on the area in response to the Wilshire Report. The NAS reported that Ward Valley was still a good site and that if contaminants leaked, they were "highly unlikely"(Science, 1996) to make their way down to the water table and eventually to the Colorado River. Based on the NAS report, Secretary of Interior Babbitt gave the go ahead with the land transfer.

Then in 1995, the dumpsite at Beatty Nevada (owned by U.S. Ecology) leaked. This resulted in Babbitt once again halting the land transfer. The DHS and U.S. Ecology sued the federal government because the land had supposedly already been transferred right after former DOI Secretary Lujan gave the approval. However, soon after the suit was brought, members from the Democratic Assembly and Senate leaders came across evidence of the possibility that the transfer was illegal. On June 17, 1998, Judge Emmett Sullivan declined to rule on the land transfer because he wanted to know what the holdup of the land transfer was about. (http://www.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_ansset=GeHauKO-MsSDAARGRUU).

To complicate matters even further, tritium has been found below the surface of Ward Valley, remnants of nuclear bomb tests done in the 1960s. The tritium finding debunked the earlier theory that radionuclides could be contained in the dry desert soil. In 1996, the DOI Secretary Bruce Babbitt called for a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) and for more testing on the tritium migration, to be done by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Included in the SEIS was to be a more thorough analysis of cultural impacts of the dump on Indian people. This was based on the recently exposed information from CSRI's had previous report that had been buried by U.S. Ecology.

While all of the legal battles were going on, opponents of the dump being established in Ward Valley had been very active in voicing their concerns. Five Indian Nations have joined together as the Colorado River Nation Native Alliance (CRRNA) and includes the Fort Mojave, Colorado River, Chemeheuri, Fort Yuma-Quechan and Cocopah Tribes, as well as the Lower Colorado Indian Tribes. This alliance claim their descendents have come from Spirit Mountain, which is close to Ward Valley. Also, the desert tortoise, which the Mojave refer to as their brother, ties the people spiritually to the land. The tribes in the area had been active since the beginning of the dump proposal and have made commitments to fight the land transfer, the dump siting and any testing whatsoever on their sacred land. In 1995, they started a vigil in Ward Valley and it has not stopped. There have been encampments, Spiritual Gatherings, workshops and the use of direct action nonviolence to protest the desecration of the land.

In 1994, President Clinton signed Executive Order #12898 on environmental justice mandating that "each agency shall make achieving environmental justice part of its mission by identifying and addressing, as appropriate, disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of its programs, policies, and activities on minority populations and low-income populations in the United States"(sited in Klasky). The Native American tribes and environmental justice groups have claimed that the dump siting is an act of environmental injustice. Also created through the Executive Order was the committee called the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC). NEJAC designated the Ward Valley issue as one of environmental justice. They recommended that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (who is the head agency on environmental justice) administrators meet with tribes and conduct an environmental justice impact analysis relating to health, social and economic impacts on the tribe. EPA has done none of this (http://www.enviroweb.org/wardvalley/html/ward_valley.html). The tribes "view the project as a violation of their sovereignty, land, water, cultural and religious rights, of federal trust responsibilities and of environmental justice mandates" (http://www.igc.org/envjustice/rep/klasky.html).

A lawsuit brought by Native American tribes and environmental groups in 1994 led the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to designate 6.4 million acres for the protection of the desert tortoise-which includes all of Ward Valley. Along with the land designation, a recovery plan was formulated in which included the prohibition of landfills and of other potentially harmful uses of the land, in the protected area. Despite the protection efforts, the USFS still supports the dump. In 1996, Clinton agreed not to sign any legislation involving transfer of the land, and this is attributed to the efforts of the encampments and protesters. In the same year, the CRNNA applied to the DOI for recognition as a cooperating agency. This status would have given the CRNNA the ability to influence the ongoing SEIS. That status was refused, although the EPA and the BLM finally agreed for the first time to meet formally with the tribes to negotiate. On January 29, 1997, a variety of groups joined together to block the entrance of Ward Valley when the Department of Interior (DOI) tried to give a tour of the proposed dump site. On February 6, 1997, the CRNNA filed an administrative complaint with the DOI under title six of the Civil Rights Act, claiming the dump is a discriminatory act because it would harm sacred land of the native peoples. On February 13, 1998, the CRNNA began a spiritual occupation of Ward Valley the day the BLM tried to close the area to the public so they could do tritium testing. The BLM watched for 12 days as the people performed religious ceremonies, and an official burial of a European-American protestor. This burial officially made the Ward Valley area a sacred site in the eyes of the federal government. Finally the BLM backed out. Each time the government has tried to perform more tests in the area they have been blockaded. The occupation lasted for 113 days. On May 30, 1998, the deputy director of the BLM called a halt to the testing saying that whatever money and time spent on tests may be a waste if California couldn't legally buy the area, which is still being determined thanks to the judgement from Judge Sullivan in June. On October 7, 1998, protests were held at the U.S.E.P.A. headquarters and on November 20,21, 22, the Ward Valley coalition held a conference to "celebrate victories, develop strategies for the future, and to discuss the decision making process" (http://www.alphacdc.com/ien/wardvly4.html). The coalition was joined by indigenous people and environmental supporters from across the Southwest and Mexico. To date, the protesters have not let up and continue to develop strategies for effective blockage of the dump.

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U.S. Ecology

proposed dump operator

Former DOI Secretary Manuel Lujan

allowed the original land transfer

Judge Marilyn Patel

Lawerence Livermore National Laboratory

to perform tritium testing

National Academy of Sciences

conducted research into the Wilshire Report and came to the conclusion that Ward Valley was still a viable site for the dump

Bureau of Land Management

California Governor Pete Wilson

strong advocator of the dump

Department of Interior

USGS men

Colorado River Nation Native Alliance

instrumental in blocking testing and key protestors

Various public and environmental groups such as Greenpeace and the Ward Valley Coalitiones

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The tribes in the area are the Lower Colorado Indian Tribes, Fort Mojave, Colorado River, Chemeheuri, Fort Yuma-Quechan and the Cocopah.

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The guidelines used for on-site participation in the protest are as follows: