The Navajo Aquifer is the sole drinking water for the Black Mesa region and is the life source for the spiritual and cultural survival of the Navajo and Hopi people and all living things.  Black Mesa Water Coalition formed in 2001 to address the damage to this Aquifer resulting from Peabody Coal Company’s coal-slurry operations.

Peabody pumps more than 4,500 acre-feet of pristine drinking water from the Navajo Aquifer each year.  “Slurry,” water mixed with crushed coal, is then pumped from Black Mesa to a 1,500-megawatt power plant that serves California, Arizona and Nevada, but does not provide power to the Navajo.

Enei Begaye (far right), of the Diné (Navajo) & Tohono O'odham nations, is currently the executive director of the Black Mesa Water Coalition.  She is a speaker, writer and organizer around issues of environment, youth, and indigenous rights.