June 15, 2018: Navajo Nation -- Diné (Navajo) community organizations Black Mesa Water Coalition, Diné CARE, and Tó Nizhóni Ání, supported by the Sierra Club, filed a lawsuit yesterday in federal district court in Arizona seeking a meaningful plan for reclaiming the 44,000-acre Kayenta Coal Mine located on the Navajo Nation. Despite the imminent closure of Navajo Generating Station (NGS) -- the mine's only customer -- the Interior Department continues to permit the mine under a business-as-usual approach that ignores the looming closure of the mine and fails to adequately plan for how to restore the land to its pre-mining condition. NGS is the sole purchaser of coal from the mine, and in turn, the mine is the exclusive provider of coal for NGS, which is retiring on December 22, 2019 in favor of cheaper and cleaner sources of power. Peabody Corporation, which owns the mine, has stated publicly that the owners of NGS are contractually obligated to pay for mine reclamation -- a highly unusual arrangement that complicates the Trump Administration's efforts to find a buyer willing to take over NGS in order to keep it open beyond 2019. The plaintiffs are represented by Sierra Club Senior Attorney Nathaniel Shoaff, as well as outside counsel Brad Bartlett.
Read the official Sierra Club press release here.