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Brawley, CA — Comité Cívico del Valle (CCV) and Earthworks reaffirmed their commitment to support the development of responsible and accountable Lithium Valley projects after they received its Tentative Ruling on Thursday that their legal challenge concerning the Hell’s Kitchen PowerCo 1 and LithiumCo 1 Project had been denied by the trial judge.
Luis Olmedo, Executive Director for Comité Cívico del Valle, made the following statement after learning about the decision.
“While we are disappointed with the judge’s decision, CCV is prepared for it. The direct lithium extraction technology that the Hell’s Kitchen Lithium Project plans to deploy has only been tested at a demonstration level, and their Imperial County project would be one of the first commercial plants of this scale in the United States. CCV believes the Hell’s Kitchen project can further mitigate its water usage through stronger water conservation measures and added protections of tribal resources in a registered cultural district proposed by tribes, in addition to providing more concrete details and teeth to assumptions about waste generation and water recycling. The ongoing tragedy of the raging fires in Los Angeles and the shortage of water needed to contain them sadly reminds us of the urgent need to safeguard our environmental resources while ensuring best practices and accountability from industry and local governance in making decisions that might greatly affect our communities. Though we appreciate the due diligence of our local government and courts, CCV will exhaust all available legal and public policy channels, including consideration of appealing the trial decision, to ensure that the residents and environment of the Imperial Valley receive the highest threshold of protection.”
“A just transition to renewable energy requires that we don’t create new sacrifice zones for lithium mining. Earthworks continues to stand in solidarity with Imperial Valley communities on the frontlines of proposed lithium extraction,” said Jared Naimark, California Mining Organizer with Earthworks. “We are disappointed in this ruling. California has an opportunity to lead the way on more responsible lithium extraction by fully analyzing and mitigating the environmental impacts of Hell’s Kitchen and other Lithium Valley projects.”