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Bay Area community environmental justice groups greet Tribal leaders and Elders from the Colorado River Native Nations Alliance in large protest at U.S. EPA offices
Ward Valley Update 9/21/98: Overview of the action 113 Day Direct Action At Ward Valley Ends In Victory Photos from Ward Valley Protest, Occupation, and Ceremonies!
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Ward Valley, Sacred Indian Lands and the Colorado River Saved from a Proposed Nuclear Waste Dump! A great victory for justice, health and the environment
The fight raged for years, and in 1998 culminated in a historic 113-day occupation of the proposed dumpsite by the five river Tribes and allies including Greenaction. The nuclear power and nuclear waste industries, and state officials, had hoped to build a nuclear waste dump on federal land at Ward Valley, 21 miles west of Needles, California and 18 miles from the Colorado River in the Mojave Desert. If the facility had been built, long-lasting and highly radioactive waste primarily from nuclear power plants would have been dumped in unlined dirt trenches above an aquifer with five potential pathways to the Colorado River, drinking and agricultural water source for over 20 million people. Ward Valley has profound sacred significance to the area's Indigenous peoples, and is home to the endangered desert tortoise. At noon on February 12, 1998, twelve hours before a federal eviction notice was set to go into effect, tribal leaders, Elders and hundreds of environmental justice supporters began an occupation of "ground zero" at Ward Valley. Defying a federal eviction notice and promises of arrest, the Colorado River Native Nations Alliance and coalition allies erected barricades to protect the around-the-clock ceremonies being conducted by spiritual leaders from the tribes. The 113-day occupation prevented federal police from entering the site and stopped the test drilling for the dump that would have desecrated the sacred land at Ward Valley. The occupation ended in victory when the U.S. Department of the Interior rescinded the eviction notice and canceled the test drilling. On November 2, 1999 the Interior Department terminated all their actions regarding the Ward Valley dump proposal, officially ending the long battle. To purchase a video of the film "Defenders of the Sacred," a documentary by Tamara Turner, email wardvalley@greenaction.org or call (415) 248-5010 x 101.
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Greenaction
was proud to play a vital role working with the Colorado River Native
Nations Alliance and the Ward Valley Coalition in the historic and successful
fight that stopped the proposed Ward Valley nuclear waste dump. 
