Philip Klasky Ward Valley Campaign Collection

Collection

Identifier: SPC-2025-018

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Philip Klasky Ward Valley Campaign Collection (1910, 1988-2001, 2016; undated) contains 10 boxes and 9.42 linear feet of material collected and authored by Klasky in regards to a campaign against building a nuclear waste dump near Needles, California. Klasky, an environmental justice activist, and co-founder of the Bay Area Nuclear (BAN) Waste Coalition, worked for fifteen years to successfully stop the construction of the dump at Ward Valley. This collection is divided into six series and contains reports, fact sheets, articles, court case documents, flyers, notes, legislation, letters, memorandums, audiovisual material, photographs, and other material. Series I: Ward Valley Campaign contains documents related to the Save Ward Valley Campaign including pamphlets, Emergency Response Network documents, and newsletters; material related to Spiritual Gatherings, Spring Gatherings, Ward Valley protest and encampment, and other events; resources such as information for volunteers and legal advice; Bay Area Nuclear (BAN) Waste Coalition reports, papers, fact sheets, and other documents; photographs taken at protest events; minutes and agendas from various meetings and conferences; and press and news releases. Series II: Ward Valley Technical and Government Documents contains Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Ecology, Department of the Interior, Department of Health Services reports, memorandums, pamphlets, and proposals; as well as court case documents such as U.S. Ecology Inc. v. U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, Deputy Secretary of the Interior John Garamendi. Case No. 1:97CV00365; and U.S. Ecology Inc., California Department of Health Services v. The United States. No. 97-65. Also included in this series are documents related to the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for transfer of federal land at Ward Valley; an infiltration study and tritium testing; legislation and resolutions against Ward Valley; letters of support; and memorandums, letters, and news articles regarding Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, Senator Barbara Boxer, and Governor Pete Wilson's involvement with the Ward Valley nuclear dump. Series III: Articles, Reports, and Papers contains newspaper clippings, magazine articles, reports, and papers written about Ward Valley. Also included in this series are reproductions of Ward Valley area maps; and a copy of Philip Klasky's master's degree thesis "An Extreme and Solemn Relationship Native American Perspectives: Ward Valley Nuclear Dump". Series IV: Ward Valley- Native American Activism contains articles, letters, statements, and other documents from the Colorado River Native Nations Alliance, Colorado River Indian Tribes, Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, Cocopah Indian Tribe, Quechan Indian Tribe, and Hualapai Tribe regarding their fight against the Ward Valley nuclear waste dump; material related to environmental justice; and documents regarding protection of the desert tortoise, a threatened species, such as court cases files for Desert Tortoise v. Manuel Lujan Jr. Civ. No. 93-0114 MHP, reports, pamphlets, articles, and other material. Series V: Subject File contains articles, reports, and other documents regarding nuclear waste, nuclear reactors, power plants, cancer, radiation, nuclear weapons, the environment, and other related topics. This series also contains a file of articles and poetry written by Philip Klasky that is not related to Ward Valley. Series VI: Audiovisual materials contains mostly VHS tapes regarding Ward Valley hearings, conferences, gatherings, and other events. Also included in this series are videotapes related to Native American activism, and nuclear waste activism.

Dates

1910, 1988-2001, 2016; undated

Creator

Klasky, Phil, 1953-2022 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

There are no access restrictions on this collection.

Conditions Governing Use

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Director of Archives and Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical materials and not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Philip Klasky

Philip Klasky (1953-2022) was an activist who taught American Indian Studies, and Race and Resistance Studies at San Francisco State University. While teaching at SFSU, Klasky was the coordinator for the Ethnic Studies Student Resource and Empowerment Center. In 2007 and 2009 Klasky was awarded the "Outstanding Faculty Advisor" award from the SFSU Office of Student Programs and Leadership Development and in 2016 he received the HERO Award for Advisor of the Ethnic Studies Student Organization from the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. Klasky was also the founding director of The Storyscape Project of the Cultural Conservancy (TCC) whose mission is to protect and restore Indigenous cultures, including the preservation and revitalization of endangered Native American stories, songs, languages, and ancestral lands. For fifteen years, Klasky was involved in a campaign to stop a proposed nuclear waste dump site at Ward Valley near Needles, California- sacred to the five Colorado River Indian Tribes. During this time, Klasky was a co-founding member of the Bay Area Nuclear (BAN) Waste Coalition, and also led litigation that resulted in the designation of 6.5 million acres of critical habitat for the desert tortoise, a threatened species living in Ward Valley. Klasky advocated for changes in policies regarding nuclear waste on public lands including solidarity in opposition to a proposed site at Yucca Mountain, and was appointed by former California governor Gray Davis to serve on the Atkinson Commission to advise the state on radioactive waste management. Phil served on the boards of the Agape Foundation for Nonviolent Social Change; the Institute for Deep Ecology; the Escalante Wilderness Coalition; and was a member of the Alliance for Responsible Recreation and the Sierra Club California/Nevada Desert Committee. Klasky obtained his bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies, and his master's degree in Geography and Human Environmental Studies from San Francisco State University.

In his spare time, Klasky enjoyed working in his garden, hiking in Marin County, kayaking, and rock climbing in Joshua Tree. He is survived by his wife Catherine Powell and sisters lleme Marwick and Nancy Klasky Gribler.

Source: https://www.philipmklasky.com/

Ward Valley

In 1988, U.S. Ecology chose Ward Valley California as a location to build a new nuclear waste dump. The Bureau of Land Management owned the land, so in order for U.S. Ecology to obtain the rights the government of California needed to buy the land. Located in the Mojave Desert, this land was home to an endangered species of desert tortoise. Other concerns included health risks due to the close proximity of the proposed dump site to the Colorado River, and the threat of contamination of the aquifer; and that this is ancestral and sacred ground to the Mojave, Chemehuevi, Cahuilla, Cocopah, Quechan Tribes and other desert peoples. In 1995, the Colorado River Native Nations Alliance (CRNNA) began protesting the site including creating encampments and holding a Spiritual Vigil at the Federal Building of Los Angeles. Protests, blockades, and occupations of the site would continue into 1998, including an occupation in protest against a Bureau of Land Management eviction notice that lasted 113 days. In 1999, the State of California and U.S. Ecology lost a lawsuit that would have allowed for the sale of the land; and in November 2000 U.S. Ecology's appeal was rejected thus ending the plans to build a Ward Valley dumpsite.

https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/native-american-and-environmentalist-groups-block-nuclear-waste-site-ward-valley-california-

Extent

10 boxes

9.42 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

This collection contains reports, fact sheets, articles, court case documents, flyers, notes, legislation, letters, memorandums, audiovisual material, photographs, and other material collected and authored by Philip Klasky, a former instructor at San Francisco State University, and co-founder of the Bay Area Nuclear (BAN) Waste Coalition, who worked on the Ward Valley Campaign against building a nuclear waste dump near Needles, California.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged into six series:

Series I: Ward Valley Campaign, 1990-2001; undated
Series II: Ward Valley Technical and Government Documents, 1986-1999; undated
Series III: Ward Valley- Articles, Reports, and Papers, 1910, 1988-2001, 2016; undated
Series IV: Ward Valley- Native American Activism, 1990-2000; undated
Series V: Subject File Series V: Subject File, 1976-2002; undated
Series VI: Audiovisual Material Series VI: Audiovisual Material, 1986, 1990-1998; undated