Journal North:  Home | Sports | Opinion | Obits | Entertainment

          Front Page  north

Friday, November 9, 2007

Navajos Fight Uranium Mines

By Michael Coleman
Copyright © 2007 Albuquerque Journal; Journal Washington Bureau
    WASHINGTON— The Navajo Nation's battle to beat back new uranium mining continued Thursday as tribal leaders pressed the U.S. government to halt any new extraction projects on or near the reservation.
    Navajo President Joe Shirley and other tribal officials joined Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., at an informal U.S. House hearing to examine the uranium mining legacy in New Mexico, Arizona and Utah and lingering cleanup problems.
    Shirley said Navajo officials are worried about plans for a new uranium mining project near Crownpoint, which abuts the reservation and a pristine aquifer that provides drinking water for thousands of Navajos.
    Udall and Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., said they will push for a moratorium to halt the mining project and others, including uranium milling initiatives, proposed near the reservation.
    Shirley said some mines that were opened decades ago are still not properly closed. Some of those mines, which he described as "open scars on the ground leaking radioactive waste," continue to pose health problems for families living near them, he said.
    "The great tragedy is that families living in those same areas continue to be affected today," Shirley said at the hearing. "It would be unforgivable to allow this cycle to occur for another generation."
    The Navajo Nation has enacted a ban on any uranium mining on its land, but Shirley and others said they need government help to keep mines away from their borders, as well.
    Udall, in an interview, said he supports a moratorium on any new uranium mining near the reservation.
    "Shouldn't we clean up first before we start getting into new areas?" Udall asked.
    He said it was unclear whether a moratorium would take an act of Congress or if it could be done by the Bush administration.
    On Thursday, Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House government oversight committee, announced a new bill to halt any new coal-fired power plants until the Environmental Protection Agency can issue new rules on greenhouse gas emissions.
    Companies proposing uranium mining today contend it can be done much more safely than in previous decades.
    Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., a leading proponent of nuclear power, said he would oppose a moratorium on new mines.
    "The mining actions that might take place in the future are unrelated to the cleanup of old sites," Domenici said in a statement provided to the Journal. "I am not interested in precluding the mining of uranium in this country, which will be important to our energy security and will be done with safer and modern mining and milling technologies."
    Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said uranium mining left a "sad legacy" on Navajo land. A Bingaman spokeswoman said the senator is unaware of a push for a moratorium on or around Navajo land and couldn't comment directly on it.
    "Congress should be very sensitive to the concerns raised by the Navajo people about mining proposals that might impact Navajo land or water resources," Bingaman said in a statement.
    Demand for uranium— along with its price— is way up, spurring renewed interest by private companies wanting to tap the radioactive mineral.
    Jerry Gidner, director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, said enacting a moratorium until cleanup of old sites is complete might not be easy.
    "We have to balance the needs of cleaning up with the needs of the world for other uranium uses," he said.
    Charles Miller of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said demand has spiked partly to fuel U.S. nuclear submarines and new nuclear power plants expected to open in the future.
    From 1944 to 1986, about 4 million tons of uranium was mined on the Navajo reservation, with much of the mining and subsequent milling done by Navajo workers.
    The 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act provided for cash payments to miners and people living downwind of uranium mines who were contaminated by radioactive minerals.