Indianz.Com > News > Native Sun News Today: Reservation coal workers still out of jobs
![](https://indianz.com/News/2019/08/26/peabodykayentamine.jpg)
Mine cleanup provides Rez jobs
Navajo, Hope could benefit
Monday, November 9, 2020
Native Sun News Today Health & Environment Editor
BILLINGS, Montana – In a collapsing coal industry, thousands of lost jobs could be replaced through removal of mine waste that is polluting tribal and other rural lands, according to a new report called “Coal Mine Cleanup Works” released October 29.
For starters, the Navajo Nation could benefit by 1,301 jobs and the Hopi Nation by 416, according to the 35-page report by Kate French, a public administration specialist and regional organizer of Western Organization of Resource Councils (WORC).
“The collapse of the coal industry is devastating small communities across the Western United States, but reclaiming tens of thousands of acres of mined lands could quickly create between 6,000 and 12,000 full-time equivalent jobs over a two- to three-year period,” according to updated findings in the report released by WRC, which is headquartered in Billings.
![tonizhoniani](https://indianz.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/tonizhoniani.jpg)
“Peabody is just leaving big open pits sitting on our land, and people are still out of jobs at a time when we need it most.” For nearly 50 years, Kayenta Mine served as the sole supplier of fuel for the largest coal-burning power plant in the West, providing around 8 million tons of coal annually to ship to Navajo Generating Station, or NGS, located 90 miles to the west, according to the report. In early 2017, as coal was becoming an increasingly uneconomic source of electricity, the owners of NGS decided to close the plant. Kayenta loaded its last trainload of coal to NGS in August 2019 and closed its doors for good several months ahead of NGS’s retirement, it says. In the year since Kayenta ceased operations, its owner, Peabody Western Coal Co., has done “almost no reclamation work at the mine,” the report finds. The active mining pits have been left idle, with no significant backfilling or grading taking place. As of September 2020, some 350 miners who worked at the mine were still out of jobs, with Peabody unable to come to an agreement with the United Mine Workers of America to put them back to work on reclamation activities. In what the author terms “even more egregiously,” Peabody submitted an application to the federal Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) to delay 70 percent of major reclamation for another two to four years, which would keep the workers idle even longer.Peabody Energy laid off over 300 workers when they closed the Kayenta #coal mine last year. New analysis shows Peabody could rehire 200 of them to reclaim the mine. #GoodJobsNow https://t.co/WV4ozhi4oC pic.twitter.com/b5gvfEcuH6
— WORC (@worcaction) October 29, 2020
NATIVE SUN NEWS TODAY
Support Native media!
Read the rest of the story on Native Sun News Today: Mine cleanup provides Rez jobs
Contact Talli Nauman at talli.nauman@gmail.com
Note: Copyright permission Native Sun News Today
Search
Filed Under
Tags
More Headlines
Tom Cole: Bringing the dark history of Indian boarding schools to light
Native America Calling: How recent Supreme Court rulings affect Native American issues and interests
Family members sentenced in ‘monumental’ Indian Arts and Crafts Act case
Montana Free Press: Republicans vote to restore Confederate monument
Native America Calling: Tracking and addressing elder cognitive decline
Cronkite News: Arizona delegates stand behind Joe Biden ahead of convention
Federal judge resigns in Alaska following investigation into misconduct
Native America Calling: Notable progress for boarding school survivors
Cronkite News: Navajo Nation bears long-term impacts of nuclear testing
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs schedules legislative hearing
NAFOA: 5 Things You Need to Know this Week
Native America Calling: A Native connection to martial arts
Native America Calling: One fan’s vision to share his collection of Native music
Klamath Tribes in ‘deep mourning’ over loss of two teenage sisters
Native America Calling: Native Bookshelf with Conor Kerr
More Headlines
Native America Calling: How recent Supreme Court rulings affect Native American issues and interests
Family members sentenced in ‘monumental’ Indian Arts and Crafts Act case
Montana Free Press: Republicans vote to restore Confederate monument
Native America Calling: Tracking and addressing elder cognitive decline
Cronkite News: Arizona delegates stand behind Joe Biden ahead of convention
Federal judge resigns in Alaska following investigation into misconduct
Native America Calling: Notable progress for boarding school survivors
Cronkite News: Navajo Nation bears long-term impacts of nuclear testing
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs schedules legislative hearing
NAFOA: 5 Things You Need to Know this Week
Native America Calling: A Native connection to martial arts
Native America Calling: One fan’s vision to share his collection of Native music
Klamath Tribes in ‘deep mourning’ over loss of two teenage sisters
Native America Calling: Native Bookshelf with Conor Kerr
More Headlines