For decades, Peabody Western Coal Company’s operations have wrought severe impacts on the Hopi and Navajo people, tribal lands, precious water resources, and important cultural and historic sites. Then, Peabody shut down the Black Mesa Mine in 2005, and the Kayenta Mine in 2019, dealing a devastating economic blow to the tribal governments and hundreds of mine jobs, on top of it all.

Now a year and a half after ceasing coal production in the area, Peabody has still failed to lay out a comprehensive plan for the reclamation of the Kayenta Mine, and the remaining Black Mesa Mine lands, as required by the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. But the Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), can take an important step towards holding Peabody accountable and addressing the impacts of these mines.

Demand that OSMRE determines that the closure of the Kayenta mine constitutes a “significant permit revision” under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, and that compliance with this revision must include:

1. the restoration and remediation of the Navajo aquifer, Moenkopi Wash, and other water resources,

2. the repatriation of Hopi and Navajo ancestral remains and artifacts,

3. the reclamation of mine-impacted lands with appropriate native flora, and

4. a post-mining land use plan that is culturally appropriate, and economically beneficial to local Native communities, and

5. direct consultation with Hopi and Navajo communities, including grassroots organizations, on all of the above.