Felix Clary
ICT + Tulsa World
TULSA, Okla. – Native environmental activists are challenging the construction of America’s first nickel and cobalt refinery, which is being built on the ancestral homelands of the Kiowa, Comanche and Apache people.
Native citizens from Lawton, Oklahoma, say the Westwin Elements refinery could harm people, animals and plants, and they want tribes to have a say in the refinery’s future, as well as a say in any new projects. The refinery is a pilot plant meant to test processes, as well as environmental effects, in hopes for a larger plant to be built in the future.
The Native activists have formed the Westwin Resistance Coalition to stop the refinery’s construction, and the group’s members have attended meetings of the Lawton City Council since January.
“We have a lot of elders come to those meetings. One time an elder stood up and said to shut it down. The elder was then escorted out of the building, along with the rest of us, shouting ‘Shut it down!’ together,” said Kaysa Whitley, coalition coordinator, in a Tulsa World and ICT interview.
The coalition brought in Ashley Lamont, a national organizer for Honor the Earth, to make the group more cohesive.
Whitley said Westwin sent out a capital improvement plan, and “buried deep within the fine print of that plan, there was the industrial zone that we have sectioned off over there, which our city specifically said is for industrial development. So they want this to be a gateway for other critical mineral facilities to make their way down here.”
Whitley said she believes the industrial zone is how Westwin was able to justify paying for the refinery with federal American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Coalition member Becky Lekey said even if they cannot get the refinery shut down, they are at least advocating for the perimeter to be monitored, making sure no harmful substances are getting out.
City’s response
In response to the community’s environmental concerns, Westwin Elements invited an expert from the Lawton-Fort Sill Economic Development Corporation to speak to the Lawton City Council on Monday night.
In his presentation, the corporation’s director Bradley Cooksey addressed the nitrogen monoxide and carbon monoxide emissions from the pilot plant in Lawton.
Cooksey said that the pilot plant will emit “4.49 tons of (nitrogen monoxide) a year, almost all from an emergency generator, which roughly equates to … the same amount emitted from 3 or 4 heavy diesel engines.”
He also said that “1.81 tons of (carbon monoxide) will be emitted per year, which is parallel to 36 gasoline fueled cars.”
As for the other elements that will be emitted from the refinery, Cooksey said the rest is only particular matter, which is “like dust to us,” and is not harmful.
According to the Westwin Elements website, other chemicals that will be released at the pilot plant are argon, welding gas, nickel carbonyl, ethylene glycol, diesel, propane, mixed hydroxide precipitate, nickel powder and polymetallic residue. Cooksey did not mention these elements in his presentation.
“In summary, what I would say is, this permitting process is thorough, it is complete, the plant is permitted properly, and the emissions are low,” Cooksey said.
Several council members responded to the presentation saying the benefits outweigh the risks – the benefits being a new industry in Lawton that provides hundreds of jobs, growing the community with new businesses, waterparks and other amenities.
Westwin Resistance Coalition members spoke at Monday’s meeting, reiterating their concerns about the refinery’s potential dangers.
Coalition coordinator Kaysa Whiltey told Tulsa World and ICT that the coalition is advocating for free, prior and informed consent and rematriation.
Free, prior and informed consent means tribes would not just be consulted about refineries built on their land, but that their consent would be required before building can commence.
“If they just ask the tribes their opinion, they are going to build it no matter what they say. This is why we need (free, prior and informed consent). We need to require full blown tribal consent,” Whitley said.
Rematriation is the idea of tribal nations reuniting with the land, returning to a way of life that has respect for nature.
“When it comes to the energy and climate crisis we are facing here, real change comes from Indigenous knowledge and teaching, so we should be reuniting with the land,” Whitley said.
Coalition’s concerns
According to the National Library of Medicine, nickel can be dangerous when people come into contact with it in the air, water or soil. It can cause “cardiovascular and kidney diseases, lung fibrosis, lung and nasal cancer.” When people come into contact with cobalt, it is dangerous to “the eyes, skin, heart, and lungs. Exposure to cobalt may cause cancer,” according to the CDC.
The Native community in Lawton is also concerned about the whooping cranes, a bird common to the area where the refinery is being built.
“We always see whooping cranes all over the area, so they’re gonna be the most vulnerable, the bugs and birds and smallest creatures are going to drink the particles that are going to get into the water around the refinery, and it could be lethal or at least harmful for them,” said coalition member Gen Hadley (Comanche).
Coalition member Shawn Dae Lawrence (Kiowa/Kootenai) added, “We are on a migration route for the whooping crane. We see them all over the mountain range and they are on the endangered species list.”
Lawrence also said herbs sacred to the tribes in the area could be at risk from the refinery emissions.
“When we have our tribal ceremonies and sweat lodges, we open meetings with a cedar ceremony,” Hadley said, referring to the traditional burning of cedar during prayer. “There is a lot of sage and cedar and other natural medicines used by respected elders growing around the refinery. We might have to start going out of state to harvest those medicines.”
Hadley said for her tribe, and many other Indigenous tribal nations, the act of harvesting herbs as medicines is a ceremony in itself. They typically must be gathered in a specific way, leaving offerings where they take from the trees and plants, and gathering with gratitude and good thoughts and intentions.
Nickel emissions stunt the growth of plants and can form deformities as well, according to the National Library of Medicine.
This story is co-published by the Tulsa World and ICT, a news partnership that covers Indigenous communities in the Oklahoma area.
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