The Associated Press reports that the federal government plans to spend up to $3 million a year to demolish and rebuild uranium-contaminated structures across the Navajo Nation, where Cold War-era mining of the radioactive substance left a legacy of disease and death. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its Navajo counterpart are focusing on homes, sheds and other buildings within a half-mile to a mile from a significant mine or waste pile. They plan to assess 500 structures over five years and rebuild those that are too badly contaminated.
In a 2007 press release from the Navajo Nation EPA, Navajo Resources Chairman George Arthur told the the House Committee on Government Reform that Navajo people refuse to continue being the subjects of an "ongoing energy experiment":
“We are still undergoing what appears to be a never-ending federal experiment to see how much devastation can be endured by a people and a society from exposure to radiation in the air, in the water, in mines, and on the surface of the land,” said Arthur. “We are unwilling to be the subjects of that ongoing experiment any longer.” Arthur drew attention to the largest spill of contaminated material in the United States that occurred in Church Rock, New Mexico where some 94 million gallons of radioactive sludge was released into a natural wash along I-40 interstate highway of New Mexico and Arizona. Arthur was joined in presenting testimony by Navajo Environmental Protection Agency Executive Director Stephen Etsitty, who defined the location of uranium sites on the Navajo Nation.
As a result of the continued petitioning that the government investigate the effects of uranium mining on the Navajo peoples and environment of North Dakota, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform conducted an independent investigation into the problems and how they might be resolved. The result, "Health and Environmental Impacts of Uranium Contamination on the Navajo Nation", was released in 2008.
Uranium was mined in New Mexico from its initial discovery in 1950 until 2002. New Mexico has the 2nd highest uranium ore reserves in the United States. Native Americans have not been the only ones harmed by uranium mining; the miners, themselves, did not have the best experience. Congress enacted the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990 which was amended in 2005 to compensate some uranium miners who were poisoned due to unsafe working conditions in the mines.
Controversy over uranium mining in South Dakota's Black Hills also seems to involve the possible negative effects on the Indian populations which reside in this area. Despite its environmental overtones, the Defenders of the Black Hills maintain that there mission is a historical and political one--"to ensure that all of the of the provisions of the Fort Laramie Treaties of 1851 and 1868 are upheld by the federal government of the United States". Lack of aquatic life and high alpha radiation levels in the Cheyenne River led to recommendations that native Americans stop using the River for plant irrigation.
On July 25, 2001, the Energy Advancement and Conservation Action (HR 2587) passed the House Committee on Energy and Commerce with amendments. This bill would grant a total of 30 million dollars to the specific companies in the US uranium industry to improve the in-situ leach technology. The corresponding Senate bill, the Nuclear Energy Electricity Supply Assurance Act of 2001, carries the same concessions and hand-outs to the uranium industry.
When the US government pledged to give land to the Indians-- land in which they would have the simulacra of self-government-- it did not mention that uranium mining might make that giving more like a curse.
More data, maps, diplomatic treaties, Indian groups, and historical details:
- "Uranium mining in the United States", Wikipedia.
- "Uranium Reserves by State", Energy Information Administration.
- The Uranium Cafe in Grants, New Mexico closed a few years ago after serving the mining boom and bust community for several decades.
- Uranium mine photos.
- Fort Lamarie Treaty Land map.
- Western Mining Action Network.
- The Republic of Lakotah's appeal to stop the mining in the Black Hills.
- New Mexico Environmental Law Center.
- Uranium Producers of America.
- Strathmore Minerals, a New Mexico company with a strong interest in the resumption of uranium mining in that state.
- How uranium in situ mining is conducted.
- New Uranium Mining Projects in the US.
