SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The top official of California's biggest utility apologized Thursday to an Arizona Indian tribe, promising to atone for the company's desecration of a sacred site the tribe considers a portal to the afterlife.
Chief executive officer Tom King said Pacific Gas & Electric Co. "regrets the spiritual consequences to the tribe" when it built a $15 million water treatment plant in the Mojave Desert, just east of the California-Arizona border.
The site, known as Topock Maze, once covered more than 50 acres. There, on a bluff above the Colorado River, an ancient pattern of lines inscribed on the desert floor marks the pathway to heaven for Indians who live nearby.
On Thursday, at a historic gathering, tribal members, other American Indians, state officials and utility executives announced they had reached a unprecedented agreement.
The Indians dropped their lawsuit against the utility, and PG&E apologized and said it should have paid closer attention to the Indians' spiritual beliefs before building the plant. It promised to be more sensitive and to relocate the plant eventually -- away from the maze.
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Protecting the maze is crucial to the survival of the 1,100-person Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, tribal Chairwoman Nora McDowell told the crowd. "We have a responsibility not only to the past and present but to the future," she said. "It wasn't easy getting a corporation to understand, to recognize and to accept this."
Attorneys for the tribe, guests at the ceremony and even PG&E called the agreement and the utility's apology a first. Company spokesman Jon Tremayne said he could not recall PG&E ever making an apology of "that magnitude."
Alison Harvey, director of the California Tribal Business Alliance, said she was struck by "the incredibly touching display on both sides" and "the fact that the PG&E executive officer was prepared to come forward and participate in that way."
In early 2004, the state and the company began installing test wells and pollution control equipment in the area of the maze without consulting the tribe.
The tribe sued in Sacramento County Superior Court, claiming PG&E and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control violated state environmental laws by not exploring alternatives to building a 7,000-square foot treatment plant.
