Joshua Tree National Park was originally envisioned as a desert wilderness stretching all the way from the Little San Bernardino Mountains to the Colorado River. Although the early proponents of Joshua Tree were unable to achieve this grand vision, what these early desert activists of the 1930’s were able to accomplish is still inspiring; a national monument of nearly one million acres. But, in the 1950’s, Congress removed 265,000 acres from the southeastern corner of the Monument to allow development of the massive Eagle Mountain Open Pit Mines by Kaiser Steel.
The Act that removed this land from the protection of the Monument is known as Public Law (PL) 837. As a “compromise” for this Act, Congress stipulated that, if the land was not used for the purposes of mining, it was to be returned to the Monument. Although the Eagle Mountain Mine effectively ceased operation twenty years ago, the reversion provisions of PL 837 have still not yet been fully implemented. Now, Desert Survivor’s has joined with 25 other local and national environmental organizations to see the intent of PL 837 fulfilled. This effort is called the “Give It Back!” campaign. It is being spearheaded by two Chuckwalla Valley Residents, Donna and Larry Charpied, and their organization, Citizens for the Chuckwalla Valley.
Desert Survivors has been involved the “Eagle Mountain Issue” since the early 1990’s when we first learned of the proposal to turn the huge abandoned pits of the Eagle Mountain Mine into LA County’s garbage dumps. Since then, the project has moved forward with the blessing of the BLM and the County of Riverside. It has only been through the efforts of environmentalists, spearheaded by Citizens for the Chuckwalla Valley, that the dump has stalled. The environmental damage to Joshua Tree that would occur, should the garbage dump begin operation, would be devastating. It would pollute the air with diesel smog, degrade the local water table, destroy the night sky with ambient light, fill the Pinto Basin with blowing garbage, and result in the demise of local desert tortoise populations. To prevent this from ever happening, the grass-roots “Give It Back!” campaign has started. To understand the nature of this campaign, it is necessary to understand more of the history of how we got to where we are today.
So, to continue our story, we now skip forward to the 1990’s. In 1994 the California Desert Protection Act (CDPA) is passed by Congress, which upgrades Joshua Tree from a National Monument to a National Park and restores much of the land removed by PL 837, but not all of it. With the passage of the CDPA, Congress did not return to Joshua Tree nearly 30,000 acres of land associated with the Eagle Mountain Mine. The purpose, stated or not, was to facilitate the conversion of the abandoned open mining pits into giant garbage dumps.
Clearly the intent of the Congress in the 1950’s was to ultimately “restore” Joshua Tree to its original size. This intent is not only plainly stated in PL 837 but also in subsequent enabling legislation passed in 1952, specifically, in a piece of legislation called Private Law (PL) 790. This law specifically granted the Kaiser Steel Corporation rights-of-way across federal lands to operate a mill site and railroad for the sole and specific purpose of supporting mining operations.
Similar to the stated intent of Public Law 837, Private Law 790 required the rights-of-way to expire if the mine became inoperative for a continuous period of seven years. Well, folks, the Eagle Mountain Mine, for all practical purposes, ceased operating as a mine twenty years ago. But, contrary to the specific requirements of the law, these rights-of-way are still being asserted by those seeking to cram thousands of tons of LA’s garbage into the old abandoned pits. Sadly, the BLM not only fails to seek enforcement of PL 837 and PL 790, but the courts have ruled that the BLM has the discretion to determine whether or not, and when, it would be appropriate to enforce the intent of Congress with regard to the 29,775 acres that have not yet been returned to the Park.
The “Give It Back!” Campaign is a grass-roots campaign, started late last year by Donna and Larry Charpied, to protect the last 29,775 acres from further destruction and degradation by a garbage dump. Desert Survivors has joined with Donna and Larry in this effort. The Charpied’s idea is to have the 29,775 remaining acres designated by Congress as a National Historic Landmark.
National Historic Landmark Status is probably the best we can hope for. The ultimate dream of having the mine reclaimed is probably only that, just a dream. Although Kaiser Steel dumped tons of spoils onto public lands without permission during the thirty years of operating the mine, Kaiser Steel is bankrupt. There is simply no money available to fund a reclamation process. Returning the lands to the Park, as originally intended, would place in the hands of the Park three huge open pits and a semi-functional town-site, which are not the kind of resources the Park is well-equipped to manage. However, creation of a National Historic Landmark would likely come with additional funding to manage and maintain the Landmark. Thus, no additional burden on the Park would be created.
National Landmark Status has the advantage of keeping the land from being used for a garbage dump, allows for tourist-related development compatible with the historical nature of the mine site, and keeps our options open for the future. This campaign is just getting started, and Desert Survivors is proud to support this campaign. If you want to know more about this issue or want to contribute your time or money to this effort, please contact Donna and Larry Charpied, Citizens for the Chuckwalla Valley at 760-392-4722. You may also contact me at hallidave@yahoo.com. The following websites are another great source of information on this issue.
http://www.ccaej.org/projects/desert_protection/action_alerts2.html
http://www.ccaej.org/projects/desert_protection/desertprot.html
http://www.npca.org/endangeredparks
Photos for this article can be seen here