(From Working Assets’ Credo Action)



Developers are trying to put the nation’s largest garbage dump right next to Joshua Tree National Park.

The proposed Eagle Mountain landfill would cover 3,500 acres of federal land, bordered on three sides by Joshua Tree’s unique beauty, and fragile ecosystem.

The proposal by developers Kaiser Ventures has been struck down by two courts. Now Kaiser Ventures is asking the Supreme Court to review the case, and the Department of the Interior has until February 25th to weigh in.

Tell Secretary Ken Salazar: Don’t trash Joshua Tree! Oppose the Eagle Mountain landfill project. Sign the petition before the February 25th deadline.

Landfill impacts have a nasty habit of creeping over borders and boundaries. And Eagle Creek would be an especially nasty neighbor.

The landfill would take in 20,000 tons of garbage per day, 16 hours a day, six days a week, for 117 years — posing a profound threat to the desert ecosystem and imperiled species that the next-door National Park is designed to protect.

“Development of this massive landfill could devastate significant portions of the park’s wilderness with noise and light pollution of the night sky, impair desert vistas and destroy the solitude of the wilderness setting for park visitors. It would also undermine efforts to help recovery of the threatened desert tortoise by inflating the population of predators and scavengers such as ravens that prey on the iconic species,” Mike Cipra, Desert Program Manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, told the High Country News.

The Department of the Interior has twice sided with the developers in favor of the landfill — but so far hasn’t taken a position on their appeal to the Supreme Court. The agency’s position could impact whether or not the Supreme Court agrees to hear the case. And if that happens, it likely won’t be good news for Joshua Tree.

The Department of the Interior has a deadline of February 25th to submit its position to the Court. Secretary Salazar needs to hear from us this week that he must act to protect Joshua Tree National Park.

Tell Secretary Ken Salazar: Protect Joshua Tree from the world’s largest landfill.

What you can do:

(Joshua Tree sunset All rights reserved by lostburro)



