LOS ANGELES (CN) - The government gave the green light for a solar energy project on protected land in southern California that contains a burial ground and sacred trails, a group of Native Americans and two nonprofits claim.
     The U.S. Department of the Interior and U.S. Bureau of Land Management handed Rice Solar Energy LLC rights-of-way to 150 acres in Riverside County, about 40 miles northwest of Blythe, Calif., according to the lawsuit filed by La Cuna de Aztlan Sacred Sites Protection Circle Advisory Committee, CAlifornians for Renewal Energy and seven individuals in Federal Court in the Central District of California.
     Western Area Power, which will allow Rice Solar Energy to connect to its transmission system, was also granted rights-of-way to four acres within the government-owned land, the advocates claim.
     The government, according to the lawsuit, approved the project as an amendment to the California Desert Conservation Area Plan in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act, National Historic Preservation Act, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, and the Religious Freedom Act.
     The groups claim they did not receive proper consultation before the government and energy companies proceeded with the project. The defendants also failed to write up an adequate environmental impact statement, according to the complaint.
     If the solar-energy project is allowed to proceed, the groups claim it would "have a variety of cumulative impacts, including ... adverse impacts on Native American cultural resources, land use and plants and animals."
     In the realm of religious freedom, the plaintiffs claim that the energy project would disrupt their sacred pilgrimages on the Salt Song Trails.
     "As part of these religious rituals, Plaintiffs sing the Salt Songs, chant, tell stories about their ancestors and recount the creation story. The pilgrimage and the Salt Song Trails, as well as the many sacred stops and objects along the way, are essential to the Plaintiff's religious practice and cannot be replicated elsewhere," the advocates claim.
     Timothy Meeks, Ken Salazar, Robert Abbey, Teri Raml, John Kalish and SolarReserve LLC are also listed as defendants.
     The groups want the court to declare the government's approval of the project illegal.
     They are represented by Cory Briggs and Mekaela Gladden of the Briggs Law Corp. in Upland, Calif.