A large number of cultural sites in southern California, including petroglyphs, tool production scatters and giant earth drawings known as geopglyphs, may soon be damaged or destroyed by the construction of several mega solar power plants.
Sacred Sites Protection Circle, a Native American cultural protection group, filed a suit along with environmentalists in the United States District Court, Southern District of California, challenging the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for their part in the granting of permission for six large solar facilities planned for the Mohave, Sonoran and Colorado deserts of Southern California.
The lawsuit, filed in December, accuses BLM of fast-tracking the solar projects without the required environmental review and without consulting with Native American tribes that oversee the preservation of sites with religious and cultural significance.
The impacts to Native American culture and the environment are extraordinary
“There is no good reason to go into these pristine wilderness areas and build huge solar farms, and less reason for the taxpayers to be subsidizing it,” said Cory J. Briggs, a lawyer representing the Sacred Sites Protection Circle. He went on to say, “The impacts to Native American culture and the environment are extraordinary.”
Blythe intaglio - Western figure. Photo: Ron's Log, Flickr
For example, Blythe Solar, a partnership of Chevron and the German firm Solar Millennium will grade and level 9500 acres of desert in an area near to the Blythe giant intaglios. It is also feared that a 200-foot-long image of the flute-playing Native American god Kokopelli – the BLM believe this geoglyph to be relatively modern – will come under threat, and although about a mile away from the proposed the site, it is almost inevitable that the solar facility will impact the visual setting and it is feared that the area will become fenced off and out of reach.
Blythe Solar, a partnership of Chevron and the German firm Solar Millennium will grade and level 9500 acres of desert in an area near to the Blythe giant intaglios
However, the law suits filed by the Sacred Sites Protection Circle – along with others presently ongoing – have made these large energy companies less attractive to investors and are forcing a move towards the use of older, photovoltaic technology instead. According to a report in the New York Times Tessera Solar announced last week that it had sold its 709-megawatt Imperial Valley solar dish project, which had become the target of two lawsuits, including one by the Quechan tribe. The tribal elders were extremely concerned that the Interior Department had not adequately considered the effect of the project on ancestral lands and on the wildlife that form part of their creation story.
Solar Gold
Solar Gold tells the story of a conflict between observational traditions of North America and the contemporary push to create alternative energy supplies for California.
More information
- Contribute to the Solar Gold fund: indiegogo.com/Solar-Gold
- More videos are available here at Robert Lundahl Vimeo page
- Hsu, Tiffany (October 25, 2010). “Blythe solar project gets BLM approval in Riverside County”. The Los Angeles Times.
- BLM Final Environmental Study for Blythe Solar Project
- Basin and Range Watch -Volunteer desert watchdog
- A petition is being circulated For the Protection and Preservation of the Blythe Geoglyphs. You can sign it at http://www.petitiononline.com/savekoko/petition.html
put new solar farms on top of existing structures!
AMEN!
The project is nowhere near the Intagelos and the Kokopelli was made in the past 15 years. The area for these Solar projects is on desert land so damaged over the past 100 years there is nothing left to save. Pick your battles people.