The legal battle ended Thursday with apologies from PG&E and tears of joy from tribal leaders. The tribe sued in Sacramento County Superior Court, claiming San Francisco-based PG&E and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control violated state environmental laws by not exploring alternatives to building a 7,000-square-foot treatment plant. Work on the plant began in late 2004, and it began operating in July 2005. In early 2004, the state and the company began installing test wells and pollution control equipment in the area of the maze without consulting the tribe. Company spokesman Jon Tremayne said he could not recall PG&E ever making an apology of “that magnitude.”Īlison Harvey, director of the California Tribal Business Alliance, said she was struck by “the incredibly touching display on both sides” and “the fact that the PG&E executive officer was prepared to come forward and participate in that way.”Ī clash of beliefsThe tribe, whose reservation covers parts of Arizona and Nevada near Needles, Calif., considers the ancient pattern of lines as the destination of a soul’s lifetime journey.īut that belief clashed with PG&E and state environmental regulators in the last decade as they moved to address problems in the area caused by a massive plume of polluted groundwater under a natural gas compressor station.įearing the plume could contaminate the Colorado River and endanger drinking water supplies for 22 million people in Southern California and Arizona, the state and utility pressed ahead with plans despite the Indians’ concern.
“It wasn’t easy getting a corporation to understand, to recognize and to accept this.”Īttorneys for the tribe, guests at the ceremony and even PG&E called the agreement and the utility’s apology a first. “We have a responsibility not only to the past and present but to the future,” she said. Protecting the maze is crucial to the survival of the 1,100-person Fort Mojave Indian tribe, tribal Chairwoman Nora McDowell told the crowd. It promised to be more sensitive and to relocate the plant eventually away from the maze. The Indians dropped their lawsuit against the utility, and PG&E apologized and said it should have paid closer attention to the Indians’ spiritual beliefs before building the plant. On Thursday, at a historic gathering, tribal members, other Native Americans, state officials and utility executives announced they had reached an unprecedented agreement. There on a bluff above the Colorado River, an ancient pattern of lines inscribed on the desert floor marks the pathway to heaven for Indians who live nearby. The site known as Topock Maze once covered more than 50 acres of sage-dotted desert.
“regrets the spiritual consequences to the tribe” when it built a $15-million water treatment plant in the Mojave Desert, west of the California-Arizona border. SACRAMENTO - The top executive of California’s biggest utility Thursday apologized to an Arizona Indian tribe, promising to atone for the company’s desecration of a sacred site the tribe considers a portal to the afterlife.Ĭhief Executive Thomas King said Pacific Gas & Electric Co.
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