One of the things Ka-Voka Jackson, the Cultural Resources Director of the Hualapai Nation, appreciates most about Ha’Kamwe’ is its peacefulness. Located on a former ranch in western Arizona, the hot spring is surrounded by rolling desert hills. Although trucks occasionally travel on a nearby dirt road, it is mostly quiet. That calm is an important part of Hualapai cultural practices that have taken place here for millennia, from gathering plants to holding ceremonies.
“When we visit and we look over the landscape, it’s the same landscape that our ancestors looked at and our ancestors lived in, and so we have a deep connection to the integrity of that landscape,” Jackson said.
But amid the green energy boom, Ha’Kamwe’ is threatened by lithium exploration by Australia-based company Arizona Lithium, or AZL, and these days peace seems elusive. The mining company has already drilled about 50 exploratory wells near the hot springs, disrupting the tribe’s cultural practices and threatening the aquifer. Since 2021, when High Country News first covered the threat this drilling posed to Hualapai religious practicesthe Bureau of Land Management, or BLM, has signed off on even more drilling near Ha’Kamwe’. This July, the BLM approved AZL’s plan to drill approximately 130 more wells near the hot spring, reaching more than 300 feet deep and surrounding the hot spring on three sides. AZL will build drill pads, roads and other support infrastructure as it further explores the area for a potential open pit lithium mine.
On August 8, the Hualapai Nation sued the BLM and the Department of the Interior. According to the lawsuit, the agencies violated several laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act, by approving this new phase of exploratory mining. Since September, AZL has been under a temporary restraining order to prevent further drilling.
Now a district judge in Phoenix is deciding whether to grant a preliminary injunction to stop further lithium exploration for the duration of the court case. U.S. District Judge Diane J. Humetewa heard the request for a preliminary injunction on September 16. Until her decision, the temporary restraining order will remain in place. At press time, a decision had not been made.
If the judge doesn’t grant the order, Jackson said, “it will interfere with our ability to hold ceremony and just experience a place as Hualapai people on that land. We want the [drilling] ban because it will allow us to proceed with our lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management without worrying about further damage to the site.”
Without the preliminary injunction, the exploratory drilling could be completed before the court case against it, according to Laura Berglan, an attorney with Earthjustice who is representing the Hualapai in court. “And then what is the tribe’s means at that time, if that is the case?” she said. “There is really nothing that can be done. It will only be a win on paper.”
Ha’Kamwe’ qualifies for cultural resource protection under the National Historic Preservation Act, or NHPA. One of the chief complaints in the tribe’s lawsuit is that the BLM violated the law when it approved the additional drilling in July by simply excluding the spring from the area it had studied for potential impacts and despite the Hualapai Tribe’s letters asking the agency to include Ha’. Kamwe’ in his NHPA evaluations. The BLM also ignored letters from the federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation warning that AZL’s exploratory drilling could violate the NHPA by threatening cultural practices at Ha’Kamwe’ with its noise, vibrations and other disturbances.
According to John Welch, vice president for conservation and collaboration at the nonprofit Archeology Southwest, the BLM “has excluded a bona fide historic property and traditional cultural property to bind the area of potential effects—which is exactly what you’re not supposed to do The BLM, he said, should have considered the impact that drilling near the spring would have on the cultural practices that take place there.
The BLM also did not consider compromise options, such as moving the drilling sites further away from Ha’Kamwe’, or approving fewer of them, which the tribe said violated the National Environmental Protection Act, or NEPA.
Another major issue of contention is whether the BLM has adequately studied the potential impact of exploratory drilling on the spring’s flow, as required by NEPA. The agency relied on a 24-year-old hydrologic study conducted for another project in a nearby location. The BLM concluded that the aquifer feeding Ha’Kamwe was too deep to be fractured by drilling.
“The BLM has refused to take a hard look at the water and hydrology,” Jackson said. “We wanted them to do a field study. Show us it’s not going to affect the water, don’t just rely on old studies to say there won’t be an impact.” The tribe’s own hydrological research found that the groundwater could easily be disturbed by exploratory drilling, and that drilling would likely disrupt H’Kamwe’. The tribe shared its concerns with the BLM in March, but the agency stood by its conclusion that the water feeding the spring was too deep to be affected.
In an unusual move, Arizona Attorney General Kristin Mayes stepped in to support the preliminary injunction that the judge will rule on soon, citing concerns about the region’s water supply. According to Mayes’ orderthe BLM used “old data” when it approved continued lithium exploration near Ha’Kamwe’. But the tribe’s more recent hydrological research shows that the drilling is likely to damage the hot spring – possibly even “dewatering” Ha’Kamwe’. Mayes also concluded that it’s not really clear how the mining company can currently plug a borehole that pierced the aquifer — in fact, she argues that the company has already failed to plug the holes it previously drilled near Ha drilled, “properly close and abandon”. ‘Kamwe’.
“If the tribe is correct, the issuance of a preliminary injunction is now the only way to avoid irreparable and catastrophic harm” to Ha’Kamwe’, the attorney general wrote.
The tribe has already reported changes: The water level at Ha’Kamwe’ has increased over the past month, and more and more air bubbles are washing through the water. Equally worrying are the fissures that have opened up in the ground nearby. Although the Hualapai cannot conclusively link the changes to the mineral exploration without further study, the fact that they occurred so close to the most recent exploration drilling is concerning.
In his response to the tribe’s request for a preliminary injunctionAZL maintained that the older hydrologic report the BLM referred to was correct, and that the exploratory drilling did not threaten Ha’Kamwe’. AZL also pointed out that so far none of the drilling has hit water.
As of this writing, the BLM has not responded to repeated requests for comment from High Country News about the preliminary injunction. HCN also reached out unsuccessfully to Thorpe Shwer PC, the law firm representing Arizona Lithium, and to Paul Lloyd at Arizona Lithium.
For now, until the judge makes her ruling, a temporary camp has sprung up at Ha’Kamwe’. Hualapai people and their supporters are keeping vigil and praying. Even if the preliminary injunction is not granted, Jackson said, the tribe will continue to fight to protect Ha’Kamwe’.
Jackson said the Hualapai Nation is not against green energy. But she noted that green energy projects typically comes at the expense of tribal communities and rural communities.
“We try to stand up for ourselves and say: ‘You influence us. You affect our connection to the area. You are destroying our history, and we are native to this land, and this is one of the few places we have left that we are trying to protect,’” she said. “Especially coming from a foreign company like Arizona Lithium — you can’t just come and continue to destroy and take away from us. We are not going to sit there quietly and let it happen.”
