Visions for the coal railroad: Chapter officials, organizations weigh in with ideas

ŁICHÍI’II, Ariz.

While the nonprofit NavajoYES group wants to convert the 78-mile, Black Mesa-Lake Powell Railroad into a running trail, four Western Navajo chapters are lobbying to turn the railroad into shrubland.

Chapter officials from Kaibeto, LeChee, Shonto, and Tonalea-Red Lake last month discussed the fate of the old railroad in a virtual meeting, said Yolanda Ellis-Bileen, vice president of K’ai’bii’tó Chapter.

“Within Kaibeto, we have pros and cons,” Ellis-Bileen said.

Ellis-Bileen explained that the eight grazing permittee holders who reside alongside the railroad in K’ai’bii’tó want to rewild the corridor and allow nature to take the driving seat.

Many of the permittee holders said neither the Navajo Tribe nor Morrison-Knudsen Company Inc., which constructed the railroad, didn’t ever initiate a discussion with their late parents about the railroad through their homesteads in the 1970s. The permittee holders at that time expected royalty payments.

“They never got anything in return, even jobs,” Ellis-Bileen said. “They’re deceased now, and they’ve passed on.”

The late Delegate Lester K. June Sr. wrote in the January 1985 Kaibeto Chapter Comprehensive Plan that the chapter, along with nearby chapters, would be waiting to get a share of the tribe’s coal leases and royalties.

“The Navajo Generating Station and the Peabody Coal Mine have helped in employing very few community members,” June wrote in the comprehensive plan. “Even with these available employers in Kaibeto and surrounding communities, the high unemployment continues to exist among our Navajo people.”

Ellis-Bileen said while officials from the four chapters are hearing the permittee holders’ voices and concerns, they’re also hearing what the NavajoYES group wants to do: create a 78-mile rail-trail, a multipurpose public path, from the BMLP Railroad corridor.

Rail-to-trail concept

Nestled in Western Navajo with views of Naatsis’áán, Grand Staircase-Escalante, White Mesa, and Dziłyíjiin, the rail-trail would be a multi-use trail between the Navajo Generating Station and the coal storage silos in the Klethla Valley near Kayenta Mine along U.S. Route 160.

But everything is still being considered, said Tom Riggenbach, executive director for NavajoYES, which has been promoting and discussing the concept of rail-to-trail with the four chapters and tribal leaders like President Jonathan Nez.

Rail-to-trail is building a nation connected by trails – safe ways for everyone to walk, bike, and be active outdoors.

“Rail-to-trail is obviously a model that’s not unique to the Navajo Nation, but it’s something that’s been done,” Riggenbach said, “really, throughout the country over the last 40 years. It’s basically taking the rail line and converting it to trail.”

Riggenbach said the NavajoYES group has been talking with members of the four chapters and sharing with them what the rail-to-trail could look like in the four communities.

“There’s all kinds of discussion about possible uses of that right of way, and the rail-trail might be one of them,” Riggenbach said. “Or it might not be one of them. But there’s also discussion about possible powerline and there’s that new solar (farm) that’s going in near LeChee.

“ So, they (solar farm) might be part of the right of way for the railroad, for the powerlines for that,” he explained. “There’s all kinds of discussions of water lines. We’re not really sure what the whole area could look like in a few years, but hopefully a trail will be at least one component of that going forward.”

Red Antelope Solar Farm

The Red Antelope Solar Farm is a proposed solar and energy storage project under development by 8minute Solar Energy and the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, said Robbie Horwitz, vice president of Project Development at 8minute Solar Energy.

The project site would be located between U.S. Route 98 and the BMLP Railroad within Łichíi’ii Chapter. The project would feature 400 megawatts of AC power photovoltaic solar array and a 1,200 megawatt-hour battery.

“Once operational, Red Antelope would be one of the world’s largest solar and energy storage facilities,” Horwitz said, “helping to fight climate change while bringing a significant number of jobs to the local community.”

Horwitz said the facility would produce enough solar energy during its expected 35-year life to enable carbon reductions equivalent to removing almost 260,000 cars from the road each year or planting over 2.3 million trees.

“The project is expected to create 300 to 650 construction jobs over 18 to 24 months and up to 20 permanent operations and maintenance jobs once operational,” Horwitz said.

Horwitz said Łichíi’ii is an ideal location for harvesting, storing, and delivering solar energy because it has one of the best solar resources in the country with existing transmission lines remaining from NGS.

And the project is well-positioned to serve growing demand for renewable energy, said Horwitz.

“The closure of NGS and the Kayenta Mine adversely impacted LeChee and surrounding communities,” Horwitz said. “Projects like Red Antelope would help offset the economic impact of plant and mine closures.

“Laid off workers can retrain for jobs in a fast-growing industry and work close to home,” he added. “We believe that LeChee and the surrounding communities have resources that go far beyond solar energy.”

Black Mesa-Lake Powell Railroad

There are also discussions about removing the railroad, said Anthony Perry, department manager of project development for the Division of Economic Development. But because of the ravages of COVID-19, discussions about that were put on hold.

“We are developing analysis to remove the railroad versus future benefits,” Perry told the Béésh Bąąh Dah Naaz’ání Bee ‘Iináanii Bił Haz’ą́ą́jí Biniiyé Bits’á’nilígíí last month.

“The future benefits (are) geared toward tourism, taking advantage of the existing railroad that’s there,” he said. “Eventually, we’d do a follow-up meeting with the four chapters.”

Perry said there is a lot of interest in the BMLP Railroad, which officially belongs to the Navajo Nation.

“Either keep it or dismantle it,” Perry said. “What we plan to do is take a feasibility study to see what kind of development can happen: keeping it or not; taking those cost benefit ratio and determine what’s the best interest.

“The four chapters’ leadership … kind of had some pros and cons and that’s what we’re looking at also,” he added. “We are monitoring how far the dismantling is taking place.”

NÁÁS Delegate Herman Daniels, who represents Naatsis’áán, Oljato-Monument Valley, Shonto, and Ts’ahbiikin, suggests that the Council delegates tour the NGS and to see the railroad.

Ellis-Bileen and Kaibeto Chapter President Tom Franklin Jr. added that because the railroad would decompose after several decades, it cannot stay there as no one is maintaining it.

“There are people who are concerned about the railroad,” Ellis-Bileen said, “and the fencing are taken down and people are using it any way they want to (such as) drag racing because the road (alongside the railroad) is clear.”

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