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western watersheds project
'A Truly Unfortunate Outcome' as 9th Circuit Denies Injunction Against Nevada Lithium Mine
"This massive open-pit mine has been fast-tracked from start to finish in defiance of environmental laws, all in the name of 'green energy,' but its environmental impacts will be permanent and severe," said one opponent of the project.
Mar 01, 2023
Indigenous and environmental activists on Wednesday decried the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' denial of an emergency injunction sought by conservation groups to block a proposed northern Nevada lithium mine that opponents argue was approved illegally and will harm the land and wildlife in the delicate desert ecosystem.
The San Francisco-based 9th Circuit denied a bid by the Western Watersheds Project (WWP) that would have stopped Lithium Nevada, a subsidiary of Canada-based Lithium Americas, from breaking ground on the Thacker Pass Lithium Mine in Humboldt County near the Oregon border.
Last month, WWP filed an emergency motion for injunction in the the U.S. District Court of Nevada after a federal judge ordered the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to review part of its approval of the mine but allowed construction to proceed in the meantime. That request was denied last Friday.
"It's a truly unfortunate outcome for the land, wildlife, and cultural resources of this area," WWP staff attorney Talasi Brooks said in a statement. "This massive open-pit mine has been fast-tracked from start to finish in defiance of environmental laws, all in the name of 'green energy,' but its environmental impacts will be permanent and severe."
\u201cUPDATE on Thacker Pass: The 9th Circuit has denied a motion to halt construction of the lithium mine, pending appeal. The 9th Circuit will hear the appeal on an expedited schedule.\n\nHere's the 9th Circuit court order: https://t.co/EhMMyRp7zH\u201d— Daniel Rothberg (@Daniel Rothberg) 1677701224
Opponents argue the Thacker Pass project—which would tap into the largest known source of lithium in the United States and was approved during the final days of the Trump administration—was unlawfully authorized and will irreparably damage lands and wildlife.
Three Native American tribes—the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, Burns Paiute Tribe, and Summit Lake Paiute Tribe—are also suing in a bid to block construction of the mine, claiming that claimed BLM withheld key information from the Nevada State Historic Preservation Office and misrepresented how much the agency consulted with tribes prior to approving the project.
Thacker Pass—or Pass PeeHee Mu'Huh, which means "rotten moon" to all three tribes—is the site of a September 12, 1865 massacre of dozens and perhaps scores of Northern Paiute men, women, and children by U.S. Cavalry troops. The three tribes want all of Thacker Pass listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
"It is a disappointment to see valuable biological, cultural, and visual resources sacrificed for a stripmine that has been greenwashed to be good for the environment."
"It is a disappointment to see valuable biological, cultural, and visual resources sacrificed for a stripmine that has been greenwashed to be good for the environment," said Kevin Emmerich, co-founder of the advocacy group Basin and Range Watch.
"In reality, the mine will impact Great Basin wildlife and hydrology for centuries or more," Emmerich added. "We will not see any kind of recovery of this region in our lifetime."
Katie Fite of WildLands Defense said after Wednesday's ruling that "Thacker Pass lithium mining will deal a major blow to a critical sage-grouse population."
"BLM's rushed mine approval exposed that it continues to treat the West's irreplaceable sagebrush wild lands and cultural landscapes as sacrifice zones to industry," Fite added. "It's absurd for officials to greenwash this dirty lithium mine. We'll continue working to expose the ecological travesty taking place."
\u201cLithium Americas & this awful mine can\u2019t \u201cmitigate\u201d its way out of totally destroying the irreplaceable LAST block of lower elevation sagebrush winter wildlife habitat in the Montana Mountains! Nor out of decimating leks and nesting habitats. Grouse need intact habitats.\u201d— WildLands Defense (@WildLands Defense) 1677632033
While global demand for lithium is surging, extraction of the metal can have harmful consequences, including the destruction of lands and ecosystems and water contamination.
Thacker Pass is believed to hold enough lithium to supply the needs of more than 1.5 million electric vehicles every year for 40 years, according to Lithium Americas.
"There are no other U.S. alternatives to Thacker Pass to provide lithium at the scale, grade, or timeline necessary to begin closing the gap between the lithium available and the lithium needed to achieve the U.S.' clean energy and transportation goals," lawyers for the company argued.
\u201cReposted from the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony: \n\nPRESS RELEASE: \u201cA Violation of Native American Rights\u201d: Archeological Procedures Begin at Thacker Pass\n\nArcheological procedures began at the site of the planned Thacker Pass lithium mine this week...\n\nMORE: https://t.co/WrRZE7OlMy\u201d— Protect Thacker Pass (@Protect Thacker Pass) 1650326037
However, numerous lithium mining experts have asserted that the technology is not green—and comes with high environmental and social costs.
Lithium extraction, noted a 2021 Nature editorial, globally "requires large quantities of energy and water. Moreover, the work takes place in mines where workers—including children as young as seven—often face unsafe conditions."
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Green Groups, Indigenous Tribes Urge Courts to Block 'Illegally Approved' Lithium Mine
"Global warming is a serious problem and we cannot continue burning fossil fuels, but destroying mountains for lithium is just as bad as destroying mountains for coal," argued one campaigner. "You can't blow up a mountain and call it green."
Feb 21, 2023
A coalition of conservation groups on Tuesday joined Native American tribes in launching legal challenges to a proposed lithium mine in northern Nevada that critics say was "illegally approved" and will "irreparably damage" the delicate desert ecosystem and land where Indigenous peoples are seeking federal historical recognition of a genocidal massacre perpetrated by U.S. colonizers.
Members of the Western Watersheds Project filed an emergency motion in federal court Tuesday seeking an injunction against the Thacker Pass Lithium Mine in Humboldt County pending action by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to ensure the project—which would tap into the largest known source of lithium in the United States and was approved during the final days of the Trump administration—complies with federal law.
"This mine should not be allowed to destroy public land unless and until the 9th Circuit has determined whether it was legally approved," Western Watersheds Project staff attorney Talasi Brooks said in a statement announcing the filing.
"There's no evidence that Lithium Nevada will be able to establish valid mining claims to lands it plans to bury in waste rock and tailings, but the damage will be done regardless," Brooks added, referring to the subsidiary of Canada-based Lithium Americas that is seeking to build the mine. Lithium is a key component of electric vehicle batteries, cellphones, and laptops.
The emergency motion follows a lawsuit filed last week by the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, Burns Paiute Tribe, and Summit Lake Paiute Tribe in response to U.S. District Judge Miranda Du's earlier ruling that largely favored Lithium Americas and rejected opponents' claims that the project would cause "unnecessary and undue degradation" to the environment and wildlife.
\u201cOpponents, including the Reno Sparks Indian Colony, promise to continue fight to stop the mine.\nhttps://t.co/dLMIGM4puo\u201d— ICT (@ICT) 1675979512
"When the decision was made public on the previous lawsuit last week, we said we would continue to advocate for our sacred site PeeHee Mu'Huh. A place where prior to colonization, all our Paiute and Shoshone ancestors lived for countless generations," Arlan Melendez, chairman of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, said in a statement.
"It's a place where all Paiute and Shoshone people continue to pray, gather medicines and food, honor our nonhuman relatives, honor our water, honor our way of life, honor our ancestors," Melendez added.
All three tribes call Thacker Pass PeeHee Mu'Huh, which means "rotten moon"—a name given to honor the dozens and perhaps scores of Northern Paiute men, women, and children who were massacred by Nevada Cavalry on September 12, 1865.
According to an account by one participant:
Daylight was just breaking when we came in sight of the Indian camp. All were asleep. We unslung our carbines, loosened our six-shooters, and started into that camp of savages at a gallop, shooting through their wickiups as we came. In a second, sleepy-eyed squaws and bucks and little children were darting about, dazed with the sudden onslaught, but they were shot before they came to their waking senses...
We dismounted to make a closer examination. In one wickiup we found two little papooses still alive. One soldier said, "Make a cleanup. Nits make lice."
The three tribes assert that all of Thacker Pass should be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
\u201cNevada tribes are seeking to add Thacker Pass, a culturally-important area slated for a lithium mine, to the National Register of Historic Places. https://t.co/roF71AYC86\u201d— RGJ.com (@RGJ.com) 1676997002
"While Americans tend to focus on only the proud moments of American history, the shameful history of genocide perpetrated by the American government against Native Americas is nevertheless a broad pattern running throughout American history," Michon Eben, the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony's cultural resource manager, wrote in a 2022 letter to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
Eben added that the tribe "considers the destruction of its traditional cultural properties for another mine another act of genocide in the broad pattern running throughout American history."
Indigenous advocates argue that victims of the 1865 massacre were never properly buried, that human remains and artifacts are still being discovered in Thacker Pass, and that federal authorities failed to properly consult tribes on the mine project in violation of the National Historic Preservation Act.
"Part of the federal government's responsibility is to determine if a proposed mining project may adversely affect historic properties. Historic properties include Native American massacre sites," Eben toldNevada Current. "The BLM failed in its trust responsibility to tribes and now our ancestors' final resting place is currently being destroyed at PeeHee Mu'huh."
"The BLM failed in its trust responsibility to tribes and now our ancestors' final resting place is currently being destroyed."
Will Falk, attorney for the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony and co-founder of Protect Thacker Pass—which set up a protest camp on the site of the proposed mine—accused BLM officials of lying about the massacre site being located outside the project area.
"The Biden administration and [Interior] Secretary Deb Haaland keep paying lip service to tribal rights and respect for Native Americans," Falk told Last Real Indians last year. "Well, now three federally recognized tribes are saying that BLM Winnemucca did not respect tribal rights. It's time that BLM halts this project so the tribes can be heard."
Tim Crowley, vice president of government affairs and community relations for Lithium Nevada, argued in a statement that "since we began this project more than a decade ago, we have been committed to doing things right," and that Du's ruling "definitively supported the BLM's consultation process, and we are confident the ruling will be upheld."
While global demand for lithium is surging, extraction of the metal can have devastating consequences, including destruction of lands and ecosystems and water contamination.
"Global warming is a serious problem and we cannot continue burning fossil fuels, but destroying mountains for lithium is just as bad as destroying mountains for coal," contends Max Wilbert of Protect Thacker Pass. "You can't blow up a mountain and call it green."
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