Waxman to probe uranium cleanup problems in Navajo Nation
Posted on October 22nd, 2007By Katherine Ling
E&E News: The continued effect of the Cold War legacy on the Navajo Nation is the subject of a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing scheduled for tomorrow.
From 1944 to 1986, almost 4 million tons of uranium was mined on the Navajo homeland, located in the border regions where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona meet.
But when the Cold War ended and the main consumer of the uranium — the federal government — dramatically decreased demand, the private companies who owned the mines left.
Many of the mines were abandoned, left open and not decontaminated by the companies or the federal government. According to U.S. EPA, more than 1,000 mines were abandoned, along with many piles of uranium tailings and processing mills.
The Navajo people have lived with the radiation and the cleanup burden ever since.
A Los Angeles Times series published last November documented how people lived in “hot houses” made of sand with radioactive material in it; a cancer rate that has doubled since the 1970s; the continued contamination of drinking and ground water; and the reality that the renewed interest in nuclear energy has uranium mining companies exploring the area once again (Land Letter, Aug. 16).
The series caught the eye of Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, (D-Calif.), said a spokeswoman for the committee, and he asked his staff to look into the matter. The issue has not received much attention from Congress, though a few — including Rep. George Miller (D-Calif), former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) and Rep. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) — have brought some political advocacy to the problem.
Witnesses will address the current health and environmental situation on the Navajo and “the steps federal agencies must take in cooperation with the Navajo Nation in order to address the remaining health and environmental problems,” a statement from the committee said.
So far, the federal government has not been very active in the contamination cleanup, though in May EPA along with the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency began removing contaminated soil from around the Northeast Church Rock Mine area in what is planned to be the first phase in a larger effort on the 25-year-old mine site. But there at least 40 other prioritized sites by EPA and 1,300 abandoned mines that also must be cleaned up, the Navajo say ( Land Letter, May 17).
Other than this recent soil removal, government assistance has been minimal.
Schedule: The hearing is set for 10:00 a.m. tomorrow in 2154 Rayburn.
Witnesses: George Arthur, chairman, Resources Committee, Navajo Nation Council; Stephen Etsitty, director, Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency; Doug Brugge, associate professor, Tufts University School of Medicine; Larry King, Gallup, N.M.; Edith Hood, Church Rock, N.M.; Phil Harrison, Window Rock, Ariz.; Ray Manygoats, Tuba City, Ariz.; Wayne Nastri, regional administrator, Region 9, EPA; David Geiser, deputy director, Office of Legacy Management, DOE; Charles Miller, director, Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management Programs, Nuclear Regulatory Commission; and Robert McSwain, acting director, Indian Health Service.