Comanche Nation opposes Dos Republicas Coal Partnership’s Open Surface Coal Mine at U.S.-Mexico border

By: Jose G. Landa, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2015

The Native American Tribe known as the “Lords of the Plains,” the Comanche Nation of Lawton, Oklahoma, unanimously approved a Resolution of its Business Committee opposing the proposed Dos Republicas Coal Partnership Eagle Pass Mine and any expansion of it on the banks of Elm Creek in Eagle Pass, Texas along the United States-Mexico border at a meeting held on August 27, 2015 at ther tribal reservation in Lawton, Oklahoma.

At a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Public Hearing held on August 10, 2015 in Eagle Pass, Texas on the Expansion of Coal Mines in Texas, Comanche Nation Tribal Representative Harry Mithlo spoke during the public hearing stating that the Comanche Nation had not been notified of the Dos Republicas Coal Partnership’s open surface coal mine in Eagle Pass, Texas and that he would be taking this matter before the Comanche Nation Business Committee for an official response from the Comanche Nation.

According to the August 27th Comanche Nation Resolution, “the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) did not complete the formal permitting process and failed to notify the Comanche Nation of the possible destruction of historical sites.”  

The Comanche Nation Resolution further states that the Comanche Nation historically resided in southern Texas and surrounding areas and still has strong cultural ties to the area, and has at least one sacred site in the mine area.”  

The Comanche Nation Resolution adds that the “Comanche Nation has a moral obligation to preserve its rich cultural history for generations to come.”  The resolution further states that the Mexican-owned company Dos Republicas is proposing a new coal mining venture that will encompass 25,000 acres.”

The resolution also states that “there is an imminent threat to the citizens of Eagle Pass, Texas for pollution of land and water.”

The resolution officially resolves that “the Comanche Nation strongly opposes the Dos Republicas coal mining expansion” in Eagle Pass, Texas and is signed by Comanche Nation Tribal Chairman Wallace Coffey.

The Comanche Nation is a federally recognized tribe of the United States of America with its constitution approved by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior on January 9, 1967, to safeguard the tribal rights, powers, and privileges to improve the economic, moral, educational, and health status of all Comanche Nation members.

The Railroad Commission of Texas granted Dos Republicas Coal Partnership, a Texas partnership comprised of two Texas corporations which are owned by a Mexican subsidiary of Grupo Acerero del Norte, S. A. (Grupo GAN), a permit to operate an open surface coal mine on slightly over 6,300 acres only three miles north of Eagle Pass, Texas in a densely populated area.  Dos Republicas has advised the USACE that they may expand the Eagle Pass Mine to 25,000 acres in the future.

The entry of the highly respected Comache Nation in opposition to the controversial Dos Republicas Coal Partnership’s Eagle Pass Mine on the U.S.-Mexico border near the fragile and endangered Rio Grande River is a welcome sigh of relief for the City of Eagle Pass, Maverick County, Maverick County Hospital District, Maverick County Environmental and Public Health Association, and over 60,000 citizens of Maverick County, Texas whom have been battling the potentially environmental catastrophic profit-making energy project of Mexican billionaires backed by Texas Republican leaders in Ausitn, Texas during the past 20 years or more.

Opponents of the proposed Dos Republicas open pit coal mine contend that the discharge of coal mining waste and storm waters into the environmentally sensitive Elm Creek and eventually into the Rio Grande River only one mile upstream of the City of Eagle Pass’ Regional Water Treatment Plant and the Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico municipal water treatment plant will contaminate their sole source of potable water with many toxic and hazardous chemicals which will increase cancer, lung, liver,  kidney, and other public health illnesses and pollute the air with coal mining dust and other toxic chemicals which will increase lung cancer and Cardio Pulmonary Obstructive Diseases, particularly among chilldren and elderly, in an already environmentallly sensitive U.S.-Mexico border region.  Opponents add coal mine pollution will affect all U.S.-Mexico border communities downstream from Eagle Pass to Brownsville, Texas on the Rio Grande River, an estimated three to four million people.

Opponents also contend that the Dos Republicas coal mine will destroy historical and sacred archaelogical sites of many Native American tribes which lived, hunted, and fished on Elm Creek and the Rio Grande River hundreds of years ago.  Many Eagle Passans have collected historical Native American artifacts such as arrowheads and tools found on the banks of Elm Creek and Rio Grande.

Opponents also contend that the Dos Repbulicas open surface coal mine will destroy the habitat and hunting grounds of federally endangered species such as the Ocelot, Jaguaruni, and other protected cats. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers acknowledge that there have been sightings of these federally endangered cats in and around the Eagle Pass Mine site.

Dos Republicas plans to ship the bituminous coal extracted from the Eagle Pass Mine to Mexico by Union Pacific Railroad through the middle of Eagle Pass with several public schools adjacent to the railroad line to be sold to the Mexican government for burning in the controversial Carbon I (Lopez Portillo) and Carbon II coal-generated electricity plants located in Nava, Coahuila, Mexico, just a few miles south of Eagle Pass, Texas on the U.S.-Mexico border.  According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Carbon I and II coal-fired electricity plants are responsible for polluting the air of the Big Bend National Park in Texas as well as Southwest and Central United States.

Dos Republicas Coal Partnership contends that it will comply with all local, state, and federal laws while operating its controversial open pit coal mine.  Dos Republicas denies the Opponents claims and state the community will benefit from the jobs and taxes generated by the coal mine.

Currently, the permit to operate the open surface coal mine granted by the Republican-led Railroad Commission of Texas to Dos Republicas Coal Partnership is on appeal before the Texas Third Court of Appeals in Austin, Texas, and a decision by 293rd District Judge Cynthia Muniz upholding Maverick County Flood Plains Administrator David R. Saucedo’s denial of a construction permit to Dos Republicas to build the coal mine on the FEMA 100 Year Flood Plain is on appeal before the Texas Fourth Court of Appeals in San Antonio, Texas.  Another contested hearing whether the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality should grant an amended permit to discharge the Dos Republicas open pit coal mine waste into Elm Creek and Rio Grande River is scheduled to be heard in November 2015.