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A Legacy of Waste . . .
Harm to Native Peoples from Uranium Mining
Lands of indigenous peoples hold a great deal of the uranium supply
throughout the world, and here in the Southwest about 25 percent of the
U.S. recoverable uranium is on the lands of the Navajo Nation. Watersheds,
water supplies, sacred sites, and public health are all threatened by
past and proposed future uranium mining.
Uranium mining and milling started on and near Navajo Nation land in
the 1940s in response to the federal government's need for material for
its atomic research and weapons programs. Mines in Navajo Indian
Country closed in the mid 1980s, and the last milling stopped at the
United Nuclear Corporation in 1983, but health impacts and pollution
threats remain from abandoned mines, former mills and waste dumps. Former
mine workers and their families suffer from long-term health effects
and death from exposure to radioactive material and unsafe mining conditions. More
than 1000 abandoned mines and four processing mill sites are scattered
across Navajo lands in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Uranium mining
waste has also contaminated the drinking water in at least two Hopi villages. Deep
in the Canyon, the Havasupai Tribe has fought for years to stop uranium
mining that threatens them, their religious sites, and their water, including
world famous Havasu Creek.
Here is just a short list of the impacts that highlight the legacy of
uranium mining and the impacts of proposed uranium mining on native peoples
in the Southwest:
The largest accidental release of radiation in U.S. history occurred
when an earthen dam at the United Nuclear Corporation's, mill at
Church Rock, New Mexico ruptured on July 16, 1979, sending
1100 tons of radioactive mill waste and 95 million gallons
of mine process effluent down the usually dry Puerco River. The
surge was detected 80 miles downstream, and contaminated water wells,
used by Navajos for watering livestock. (American Journal
of Public Health, 9/2007, Vol 97, No. 9, "Weapons of Mass
Destruction") In Tuba City, Arizona and Shiprock, New Mexico radioactive and
chemical contamination is moving towards municipal drinking water
supplies from uranium mill tailings sites which were covered up but
have no liners to protect against leakage into the groundwater. (Testimony
of Stephen Etsitty, Exec. Dir., Navajo Nation EPA) The Hopi villages of Upper and Lower Moenkopi, Arizona are seeing
elevated levels of radioactive uranium in their groundwater drinking
supply, apparently coming from an underground plume of mill contaminants
dumped into the Tuba City landfill years ago (AZ Daily Sun,
3/18/2007) At a recent technical information sharing meeting in Tuba City convened
by the Department of Energy, it was openly acknowledged by the Hopi
and Navajo that there are imminent threats from an underground radioactive
plume that is within 2,000 yards of wells and spring-fed drinking
water for Upper/Lower Moenkopi Hopi Villages. This water is
used by 1,000 residents. The firsthand accounts indicate that the
radioactive mill waste came from the Rare Metals Corporation mill
site four miles east of the Tuba City Landfill. In 1991, the Kaibab National Forest approved a plan for Energy
Fuels Nuclear to mine uranium from a Havasupai sacred site, twelve
miles south of the rim of the Grand Canyon. The Canyon Mine
is near Tusayan and in the watershed of Cataract Canyon which flows
into Havasu Creek and through the Havasupai village. The Havasupai
Tribe challenged the Canyon Mine in court, but lost when the Supreme
Court refused to hear their appeal. The threats to these sites
and to the watershed remain and are as significant as ever. There
is some indication that a new move is afoot to open the Canyon Mine
and develop it into a full-scale uranium mining operation. (Various
file documents) "The percentage of Navajo people reporting
diabetes, kidney disease, certain auto-immune diseases and high
blood pressure is highest in Navajo communities with the highest
number of abandoned mines, according to preliminary results of
a community-based health study in the Eastern Navajo Agency." (The
Navajo Uranium Assessment and Kidney Health Project -- DiNEH
Project Phase II. JL Lewis, Presentation at American
Public Health Association Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, November
7, 2007) At Black Falls, Arizona, Milton Yazzie had
been asking government officials to test the local water sources
which are near old uranium mines. He drove into Flagstaff,
an hour away, for drinking water. Later tests found dangerous
levels of arsenic and uranium in the local water, and a pipeline
from a safer source is now being built. In 2003, the federal
Environmental Protection Agency awarded Yazzie a plaque for being
an "environmental hero" for his advocacy. (LA Times,
11/21/2006) Stomach cancer was found to be 15 times
higher than the national average in some areas near old uranium
mines and mills on the Navajo Reservation, according to a study
by the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation (LA Times, 11/19/2006). The Navajo tribal health agency found a
rate of breast cancer 17 times higher than the national average
in the 1980s, and research done by Northern Arizona University
linked uranium to increased growth of human breast cells (LA
Times, 11/19/2006). The Havasupai tribe voted to ban uranium
mining on their lands in December 1991. The Navajo Nation officially banned new
uranium mines and mills on reservation land in April 2005, by
passing the Dine Natural Resource Protection Act, that prohibits
uranium mining and uranium processing within Navajo Indian Country.
For more information, contact: Robert
Tohe, Sierra Club Environmental Justice program, Flagstaff, AZ: 928-774-6103
or robert.tohe@sierraclub.org.
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