Indian Nations of the United States hold vast amounts of land in federal trust that are home to large coal reserves, coal mining, and coal plants. Indigenous people of these lands deal disproportionately with the boon and bane of the coal industry. The common challenges of land and resource development are exacerbated by the poor economic situation of many of the tribes, which raise questions of environmental justice and indigenous sovereignty. Within the boundaries of North Dakota, there are four federally recognized tribes that have independent, sovereign relationships with the federal government: the Standing Rock Sioux of Standing Rock Indian Reservation south of Bismarck; the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa at Turtle Mountain Reservation; the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation of Fort Berthold Reservation in west-central North Dakota; and the Spirit Lake Tribe near Devil’s Lake.
The Department of the Interior tells us that twenty-five Native American reservations in the United States have coal reserves. Of these twenty-five, three nations are located within our home state or close to it: the Fort Berthold reservation of central North Dakota; and the Northern Cheyenne and Crow out of eastern Montana. All three tribes have coal reserves for potential development, or currently have mining operations in place for lignite coal. Fort Berthold Reservation in particular has been referred to as the ‘Saudi Arabia of America’ for its rich holdings in lignite and petroleum. North Dakota has the second largest lignite coal production in the U.S. and lignite coal reserves in Western North Dakota are used to generate about 90% of the electricity consumed.
Mining and burning coal have a unique impact on Native American lands and people due to the particular socio-economic and cultural situation. Significant poverty on Indian reservations often influences the choice to develop coal resources, yet because of the special relationship the tribes have to the land as sacred, there is often deep resistance to development and to the resulting damage and pollution to the land and people. There are few social services on many reservations and development often strains the infrastructure. Historically, the development of coal on Native American lands has been guided by treaties between the federal government and tribes. In the past, the Bureau of Indian Affairs arranged and managed coal development land leases. Today, many tribes prefer that their tribal government or an entity of the tribal council independently manage their coal resources, with contracts subject to review by the Secretary of Interior on tribal trust lands. Tribal lands have been the sites of some of the most protracted battles against coal development. Some tribes have taken legal action against the government to cancel the federally administrated leases because of unfairness or exploitation of mineral leases. An example of this is the Northern Cheyenne tribe of Montana.
The lands of the Northern Cheyenne tribe of southeastern Montana are surrounded by five large strip mines, Montana’s largest coal-fired power plant, the Colstrip Steam Plant, and Montana’s only active drilling site for coal bed methane. The coal reserves under the reservation are some of the largest held by any tribe in the country, estimated between 20 and 50 billion tons of low-sulfur coal. The Northern Cheyenne have a long history of successful resistance to outside development of their land. From 1966 to 1971 the tribal council signed leases with coal companies including Peabody Coal, Consolidated Coal, and Amaz Coal. Acting as trustee for the tribe, the BIA failed to complete an environmental impact statement, sold the exploration rights for around $9.00 per acre and agreed to royalties for the tribe of only 17.5 cents per ton in long term mineral leases. The tribe successfully fought to have the leases cancelled in 1973, forced the corporations to pay about $10 million in damages, and regained 7,000 acres of land that had been purchased for mining. The Northern Cheyenne also successfully used the Clean Air Act to stop the expansion of the Colstrip plant, forcing the utilities to equip the plant with the best air-pollution scrubbers in 1977. In addition, the Northern Cheyenne managed to void coal leases on three sides of the reservation in 1982, cancel the permit of a new coal mine east of the reservation in 1997, and retain ownership of all subsurface rights on the reservation.
For thirty years, the Northern Cheyenne tribe fought the development of coal on the reservation, but the dire economic situation within tribal boundaries led to increased support for small-scale development in recent times. As of 2003, 87 percent of Northern Cheyenne on the reservation were living in poverty, with a 65 percent unemployment rate and annual income of $4,479. Dire economic struggles and the associated social problems from poverty drove many Northern Cheyenne off the reservation. On November 7, 2006, the tribe voted 664 to 572 in favor of developing coal on the reservation, and at the same time voted 365 to 841 against coal bed methane drilling.
Today, the Colstrip Steam Plant is coal-fired power stations owned primarily by Puget Sound Energy and operated near the Northern Cheyenne reservation in Colstrip, Montana. Colstrip would never have been founded if it weren’t for the fortune of dirty coal that lies beneath the town and the neighboring reservation. It adds up to an approximate value of $355,000 per acre. Aerial photographs taken around Colstrip from the 1980s until today demonstrate the damage the coal mining and coal plant have wreaked on the landscape. The Colstrip Steam Plant is ranked the ninth dirtiest plant in the nation, in terms of carbon dioxide emissions and fly ash. It is ranked the eleventh dirtiest in the nation, in terms of mercury pollution, and the number one mercury polluter in all Western states. The well water in Colstrip is notorious for smelling like sewer; feeling oily, and gritty from sediment.
The coal plant’s carbon dioxide scrubbers pump ash slurry into an elaborate pond system at 7,500 gallons per minute; a rate of 964,000 tons of waste annually. State and company records revealed the waste ponds that border either end of town as the top culprits for leaking pollutants since 1979. Company records show efforts to maintain the lining of waste pits has failed eighteen times. These issues didn’t come to light until 2003 through the discovery process in litigation between Colstrip residents and PPL Montana (who operates the plant), Avista Corp., PacifiCorp, Portland General Electric, NorthWestern Energy, and Puget Sound Energy.
In 2010, Abt Associates issued a study commissioned by a nonprofit advocacy organization, the Clean Air Task Force on the effects attributable from coal-fired power plants. Fine particle pollution from coal-fired power plants is a mixture of soot, heavy metals, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. The most dangerous of this pollution is the tiniest particulates, as they evade our lung’s natural defenses, enter the bloodstream, and can be transported to organs. The elderly, children, and those with respiratory disease are at the greatest risk. This study found that 13,500 deaths and tens of thousands of cases of chronic bronchitis, acute bronchitis, asthma, congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, dysrhythmia, ischemic heart disease, and pneumonia every year are attributable to fine particle pollution from U.S. coal plant emissions. These deaths and diseases show coal’s external costs: the harm inflicted on the public, and particularly low-income and minority populations. The Abt Associates study assigned a value of $7,300,000 to each mortality in 2010 from coal particle pollution. The monetary valuations ranged from $52 for an asthma episode treatment, to $440,000 for a case of chronic bronchitis. This story is a sobering example of the complex legal facets attorneys and legislators face in regulating the industry, regulating the environment, and advocating for both the energy companies and the welfare of community residents.
Sources:
· Interview with Winona LaDuke, April 19, 2004, available at: www.grist.org/comments/interactivist/2004/04/19/laduke/index.html
· Bob Struckman and Ray Ring, A Breath of Fresh Air, High Country News, January 20, 2003, available at: www.hcn.org/serlets/hcn.Article?article_id=13658.
· Clair Johnson, Northern Cheyenne Coal Future ‘Delicate Issue’, Billings Gazette, November 16, 2006,available at: http://billingsgazette.net/articles/2006/11/16/news/local/45-coal.txt.
· Clean Air Task Force interactive table, Find Your Risk from Power Plant Pollution, February 2011,available at: www.catf.us/coal/problems/power_plants/existing.
· Kristen Lombardi, The Center for Public Integrity, Problems Related to Coal Ash at the Cosltrip Steam Plant, February 19, 2009, available at: www.publicintegrity.org/articles/entry/1144/.
· Brendon Bosworth, Montana’s Colstrip Power Plant Among Worst in the Nation for Mercury Emissions, Says Enviro Group, January 31, 2011, available at: www.newwest.net/topic/article/montanas_colstrip_power_plant_among_worst_in_the_nation_for_mercury_emission/C618/L618.
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