Navajo Nation Abandoned Mine Land

The Navajo Nation Abandoned Mine Land(s) (NN AML) are numerous United States Environmental Protection Agency-designated "AML sites" on lands of the Navajo people which were used for mining (e.g., uranium). Sites include:

"During the late 1990’s, portions...were closed by the Navajo Nation Abandoned Mine Land program".[2]

History

The Navajo people strictly refused to let any industry mine their land when in the 1930s, the appointed federal Guardian to the Navajo nation attempted to decide what mining should take place on their land. The tribal council and Navajo delegates remained in control of mining decisions until 1ential health effects.[4] This was because the understanding of the mining effect of radon exposure was not at the time fully appreciated, not only in the USA. The story of the Navajo struggle to receive acknowledgment and compensation for the injustices of the uranium mining industry are well documented in such books as Doug Brugge’s The Navajo People and Uranium Mining[5] and Judy Pasternak’s Yellow Dirt: An American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People Betrayed.

This specific Superfund site for the AUMs on Navajo land has been in existence since 1994. This is following many years of research on the health effects of uranium mining which eventually led to the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act in 1990. Since its acceptance as a Superfund site, many federal, tribal, and grassroots organizations have come together to assess and remediate contamination sites on the Navajo Nation. Due to the fact that there are hundreds of contaminated sites, there have been a few big successes and many communities stuck in limbo. The following is a history of this Superfund site, the organizations that have collaborated on this environmental remediation, and recent criticisms of the handling of this large and complicated problem.

The Abandoned Uranium Mines on the Navajo Nation were established as a Superfund site in 1994 in response to a Congressional hearing brought by the Navajo Nation on November 4, 1993. This hearing included the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Energy (DOE), and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Superfund status stems from the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) which allows the United States federal government to assign funds for environmental remediation of uncontrolled hazardous waste sites.[6] The Navajo Nation is located in Region 9 (Pacific Southwest) of the Superfund which serves Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, the Pacific Islands, and Tribal Nations. The site’s official EPA # is NNN000906087 and it is located in Congressional District 4. According to the EPA’s Superfund site overview, other names for the AUMs may include “Navajo Abandoned Uranium Mines” or “Northeast Church Rock Mine.” Church Rock Mine is one of the EPA’s most successful clean-up sites among over 500 sites spanning the 27,000 square mile Navajo Nation.[7]

Nearly four years after the initial Congressional hearing, the EPA announced their first helicopter survey for the AUMs in September 1997. Located in the Oljato area in Southeastern Utah near the Utah-Arizona border, this was first of several helicopter surveys that aimed to measure “naturally occurring radiation (gamma radiation) coming from abandoned uranium mining areas.” The stated purpose of these surveys was to “determine if these sites pose a risk to the people in the area and if so, what measures should be taken to minimize that risk.”[8]

Over ten years later, on June 9, 2008, the EPA announced its five-year plan for the clean-up of uranium contamination on the Navajo Nation.[9] This five-year plan contained nine specific objectives for 2008-2012: assess up to 500 contaminated structures and remediate those that pose a health risk; assess up to 70 potentially contaminated water sources and assist those affected by it; assess and require cleanup of AUMs via a tiered ranking system of high priority mines; clean Church Rock Mine, the highest-priority mine; remediate groundwater of abandoned uranium milling sites; assess the Highway 160 site; assess and clean Tuba City Dump; assess and treat health conditions for populations near AUMs; and lastly to summarize the action of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in its assistance to the Navajo Nation’s cleanup efforts. Since the introduction of the five-year plan, the EPA has released a progress report (available online) each consecutive year. As of August 2011, the EPA lists its accomplishments as: screening 683 structures, sampling 250 unregulated water sources and shutting down 3 such contaminated sources, provision of public outreach and educational programs for safe water practices, instituting a 2.6 million dollar water hauling feasibility project, and providing up to 386 homes with clean drinking water through a 20 million dollar project with Indian Health Services. For 2012, the EPA has listed its next steps as replacing 6 contaminated structures, demolishing other contaminated structures, and continuing screening of these structures for referral to the EPA’s Response Program. The 2011 progress report also lists Church Rock, the Oljato Mesa, and the Mariano Lake Mine as sites of current or proposed remediation.[10]

According to the EPA’s website, the AUM Superfund site is not on the National Priorities List (NPL) and has no proposals to be put on this list. The NPL is the list of hazardous Superfund sites that are deemed eligible for long-term environmental remediation. The EPA suggests that although NPL listing is a possibility it is “not likely” for the abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo nation. NPL status guides the EPA in its decisions on sites to further investigate,[11] a process that has been criticized for the handling of these mines. With over 500 uranium sites and only a few sites slated for full scale remediation plans, the prioritization process has recently been called into question by The New York Times (see Recent Press).

Partnership agencies

Superfund works with many agencies from both the federal government and the Navajo Nation in order to properly assess and direct funding to mining sites. These agencies include: the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency (NNEPA), the Indian Health Services (IHS), the Diné Network for Environmental Health (DiNEH), the Navajo Nation Department of Water Resources (NNDWR), the Department of Energy (DOE), and US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The NNEPA was established in 1972 and officially recognized through legislation as a separate regulatory branch of the Navajo Nation in 1995. With the official acceptance of the NNEPA also came the adoption of the Navajo Nation Environmental Policy Act. According to the NNEPA website, their mission is: “With respect to Diné values, to protect human health, land, air and water by developing, implementing and enforcing environmental laws and regulations with a commitment to public participation, sustainability, partnership, and restoration."[12] (Diné is the word for Navajo in the traditional Navajo language) NNEPA consults with the US EPA on site assessments (the US EPA is the lead agency for the Site Assessment Project). NNEPA helps the EPA in assessing and deciding which contaminated structures should be demolished and which water sources should be deemed a human health risk. The two also collaborate to perform community outreach for the Navajo people whose lives are affected by the uranium mining. The Center for Disease Control and the DiNEH Project are also integral players in the assessment of water quality and community outreach. The Navajo Nation Department of Water Resources, with funding from the EPA, assist Navajo residents by hauling water for residents near 4 contaminated water sources, a 2.6 million dollar project. Indian Health Services helped fund the 20 million dollar drinking water project started in 2011. This project serves 386 homes near 10 contaminated water sources. The NNEPA, IHS, NNDWR, and DiNEH project have been the main partners with the US EPA in water hauling projects.

Community involvement and response

Forgotten People[13] (FP) is a grassroots organization incorporated on the Navajo Nation which represents the health and well-being of the residents of the Navajo Nation in Arizona. The full name of this organization is Forgotten People Diné Bé Iina’ na’ hil naa, meaning Diné Rebuilding Communities. Forgotten People began as a political organization dedicated to advocacy for the Navajo people against forced relocation plans which spanned 1974 to 2007. When forced relocation programs were ended in 2007, the organization shifted focus to a broader variety of issues with a focus in environmental remediation. In 2009, Forgotten People received the Environmental Excellence Award from the NNEPA. Forgotten People was an integral aspect of the Black Falls water project, which involved collaboration with the US EPA to provide clean drinking water and educational outreach for the Black Falls community which was affected by uranium mining. FP attributes the success of Black Falls with the evolution “from a needs-based or dependency approach to the agencies into an assumption of full responsibility for their own development.” The Black Falls community was able to decide upon their own solutions for their water problems. Their efforts were coordinated by FP and funded by the US EPA. Forgotten People represents an evolving grassroots community which is moving simply from organizing to actually empowering residents to take their development into their own hands.

Forgotten People also gathers and displays pertinent public records for a variety of issues facing the Navajo on their website. For their campaigns against uranium mining, their website displays all official responses US attempts at relaxing uranium restrictions on Navajo territory. FP also preserves the response of the President of the Navajo Nation in response to proposals for uranium mining near the Grand Canyon. In 2005, the President of the Navajo Nation, Joe Shirley, Jr., signed the Diné Natural Resources Protection Act which banned uranium mining and processing on Navajo land. After signing the law, President Shirley stated, “As long as there are no answers to cancer, we shouldn’t have uranium mining on the Navajo Nation. I believe the powers that be committed genocide on Navajo land by allowing uranium mining.”[14]

Criticism and press

Despite the EPA’s claims of a “strong partnership with the Navajo Nation,” recent articles have been published that call into question the equitability and efficiency of the EPA’s action on the abandoned uranium mines. On March 31, 2012, The New York Times published an article entitled “Uranium Mines Dot Navajo Land, Neglected and Still Perilous”[15] by Leslie MacMillan. The article suggests that politics and money are influencing the prioritization of mine clean-up efforts. David Shafer, an environmental manager at the United States Department of Energy, has said that questions of whether current uranium problems are due to past mining or to the naturally occurring mineral are delaying the process of cleaning up. Similar concerns are common in environmental remediation projects for victims of industrial pollution. While the EPA does prioritize mines that are nearest to people’s homes, MacMillan highlights some remote locations where people do live and yet have been neglected by the EPA. Cameron, Arizona is one such site which has a population of nearly 1000. Rancher Larry Gordy stumbled across an abandoned uranium mine on his grazing land for his cattle near Cameron in the summer of 2010. There are still no warning signs in the town of Cameron to alert people of potential contamination. On December 30, 2010 Scientific American published an article entitled “Abandoned Uranium Mines: An ‘Overwhelming Problem’ in the Navajo Nation”[16] by Francie Diep. Diep told Gordy’s story and reported that the EPA assessed his site on November 9, 2010. Diep suggested that this date was moved up due to publicity of Gordy’s story; originally the EPA had promised to visit within six months of his original discovery of the uranium mine. Similar allegations of prioritization due to negative publicity for the EPA were made of the Skyline Mine in the Oljato Mesa. Elsie Begay, a 71-year-old Navajo woman from the Oljato region was the topic of a series of articles in The Los Angeles Times in 2006.[17] These articles were written by Yellow Dirt: An American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People Betrayed (2010) author Judy Pasternak, whose work on these articles led to her book. One EPA representative, Jason Musante, stated this publicity “might have bumped the site up the priority list.” Now over a year after Gordy stumbled across the mine in his cattle’s grazing land, MacMillan reports that the site at Cameron has yet to be given a priority by the EPA. When EPA officials were asked to accompany a reporter to the Cameron site, the officials declined and instead offered to visit the newly cleaned site in Oljato. MacMillan spoke with a Navajo hotel manager near the Skyline Mine who expressed hesitation about the EPAs remediation, stating, “That’s what they want you to see: something that’s all nice and cleaned up.” MacMillan drew attention to the fact that cows are grazing on contaminated land and people are eating these cattle. Taylor McKinnon, a director at the Center for Biological Diversity, went so far as to say the site was the “worst he had seen in the Southwest.” Although the locally grown beef is tested, standard tests for meat do not include checking for radioactive substances like uranium. The EPA has put an emphasis on health effects throughout its five-year plan, so the lack of any sort of attention in this matter has raised eyebrows. In addition to the questioning of political bias in the prioritization of mining sites, there is criticism of the EPA’s decision to revisit a 1989 permit proposing to mine for uranium near Church Rock. New Mexico’s KUNM radio station reported on May 9, 2012 that Uranium Resources Incorporated has expressed interest in starting production near Church Rock by the end of 2013.[18] An online petition has already gained nearly 10,000 signatures against this new mining initiative.

References

  1. ↑ "Abandoned Uranium Mines | Addressing Uranium Contamination on the Navajo Nation | Superfund | Pacific Southwest | US EPA". www.epa.gov. Retrieved 2015-08-16.
  2. 1 2 http://www.epaosc.org/site/site_profile.aspx?site_id=6847
  3. ↑ "Northeast Church Rock Mine | Addressing Uranium Contamination on the Navajo Nation | Superfund | Pacific Southwest | US EPA". www.epa.gov. Retrieved 2015-08-16.
  4. ↑ Pasternak, Judy (2010). Yellow Dirt: An American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People Betrayed. New York: Free Press.
  5. ↑ Brugge, Doug (2006). The Navajo People and Uranium Mining. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
  6. ↑ "Superfund". Retrieved 9 May 2012.
  7. ↑ "Addressing Uranium Contamination in the Navajo Nation". Retrieved 9 May 2012.
  8. ↑ "U.S. EPA to Perform Helicopter Survey of Abandoned Uranium Mines in the Oljato Area" (PDF). Retrieved 9 May 2012.
  9. ↑ "Health and Environmental Impacts of Uranium Contamination in the Navajo Nation Five-Year Plan" (PDF). Retrieved 9 May 2012.
  10. ↑ "Health and Environmental Impacts of Uranium Contamination in the Navajo NationEPA Progress in Implementing a 5-Year Cleanup Plan" (PDF). Retrieved 9 May 2012.
  11. ↑ "National Priorities List". Retrieved 9 May 2012.
  12. ↑ "NNEPA". Navajonationepa.org. Retrieved 2012-05-18.
  13. ↑ "Forgotten People | News, Events, and Activism concerning the former Bennett Freeze". Forgottennavajopeople.org. Retrieved 2012-05-18.
  14. ↑ http://www.forgottennavajopeople.org/projects/advocacy/4%2030%2009%20Navajo%20Nation%20issues%20ban%20on%20uranium%20mining.pdf
  15. ↑ Leslie Macmillan (March 31, 2012). "Uranium Mines Dot Navajo Land, Neglected and Still Perilous". New York Times.
  16. ↑ Francie Diep (December 30, 2010). "Abandoned Uranium Mines: An "Overwhelming Problem" in the Navajo Nation". Scientific American.
  17. ↑ "A peril that dwelt among the Navajos". latimes.com. 2006-11-19. Retrieved 2012-05-18.
  18. ↑ "EPA Revisits Permit for What Could Be First in New Wave of Uranium Mines". KUNM. 2012-05-09. Retrieved 2012-05-18.

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