Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

January 13, 2012

Dangerous Navajo power plant emissions documented in EPA interactive map

Navajo Generating Station near Page, Ariz.,
on the Navajo Nation, is a major source of
greenhouse gases in the US. Navajos recently
protested the operator, the Salt River Project,
during protests of ALEC, the American
Legislative Exchange Council.
Navajo coal-fired power plants, oil and gas industry, poisoning Navajo atmosphere, major source of greenhouse gases

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

The US EPA has released an interactive map showing the greenhouse gas emissions from the Navajo Nation’s three power plants and other poisonous large facilities in Indian country.

The dangerous toxins released by Navajo power plants at the Navajo Generating Station at Page, Ariz, and the Four Corners Generating Station and San Juan Generating Station in northwest New Mexico, are documented on the map.

There are other dangerous toxic releases on Navajoland that people are unaware of. These include the El Paso Natural Gas station in St. Michaels near the Navajo capitol of Window Rock, Ariz., and gas emissions in the Bloomfield, N.M., area. The Bloomfield area is inundated with oil and gas drilling, and power plant emissions. This area is the sacred Place of Origin, Dinetah, of Navajos.

The EPA map reveals carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide and methane emissions. The graphs reveal the Navajo power plants, and other power plants in the US, are responsible for the largest portion of greenhouse gases.

On the Navajo Nation, there have been no studies which analyze the combined health dangers to Navajos of coal mines, power plants, gas plumes, toxic dumping and the radioactive uranium mine tailings from the Cold War. These multiple health dangers are concentrated in the Four Corners area and the region of Page, Monument Valley and Black Mesa near the Arizona and Utah border. Another area of toxic contamination is the Gallup, N.M., region due to the current oil and gas releases, and the radiation that flowed down the Rio Puero after the Church Rock, N.M. uranium tailings spill.

(L) Riley, Choctaw, with Louise Benally, Navajo,
at ethnic studies rally in Tucson.
Louise Benally, Navajo resisting relocation at Big Mountain, Ariz., on the Navajo Nation urged Navajos and their supporters to bring a halt to the massive coal fired power plant industry responsible for disease, the depletion of the aquifers and destroying the quality of life for Navajos.

"It is to time to slay the beast," Benally told those gathering in Tucson on Tuesday, rallying to save ethnic studies. Benally said the same corporate beast responsible for the racism and imperialism that now forbids Mexican American studies in Arizona, is the same corporate beast which targets Navajos with genocidal coal mining, power plants and oil and gas drilling.

The interactive map reveals the dangerous emissions in and around Indian country throughout the United States.
EPA interactive map:
http://ghgdata.epa.gov/ghgp/main.do


2 comments:

Concerned in St. Mikes said...

I live a couple miles south of El Paso Natural Gas Company in St. Michaels, AZ. Are there any emissions that spray out of there? I noticed the last couple weeks our vehicles have a sticky film over it and wondered where it was coming from. Today as I drove home from work as I passed EPNC I saw it spray on my windshield. I looked up information on the types of emissions but I do not see any information on this. Do you have any information if this is normal?

Concerned in St. Mikes said...

I live a few miles south of El Paso Natural Gas Company in St. Michaels. The last few weeks I have noticed a sticky film on my vehicle. It is like soda that was shaken and it splattered all over. I wondered where it was coming from, but today as I was driving past EPNC I noticed a light spray on my windshield. It was clean before and then the sticky residue... I checked online for any type of emissions that come from EPNC but the link you provided was helpful. It did not specify how the emissions were though. Would you happen to know if this is normal? I have lived in this area for most of my life but this is the first time I have noticed this. Any information would be helpful...