Nestled Amid Toxic Waste, a Navajo Village Faces Losing its Land Forever

CHURCH ROCK, N.M. — In this dusty corner of the Navajo reservation, where seven generations of families have been raised among the arroyos and mesas, Bertha Nez is facing the prospect of having to leave her land forever.

The uranium pollution is so bad that it is unsafe for people to live here long term, environmental officials say. Although the uranium mines that once pocked the hillsides were shut down decades ago, mounds of toxic waste are still piled atop the dirt, raising concerns about radioactive dust and runoff.

www.nytimes.com...

Many residents there already had to leave their homes at least twice since 2007 because of the contamination and spent weeks and months in motel rooms in nearby Gallup as crews hauled away radioactive soil from the community’s backyards and roadsides.
Now they are facing a more permanent relocation.

Although their village represents only a small sliver of the larger Navajo nation, home to nearly 300,000 people, they are bearing the brunt of the environmental problems.

The EPA agency has been in the throes of an expansive effort to remove waste from around this tiny and remote Navajo village, and clean up more than 500 abandoned mine areas that dot the reservation.

Between 2008 and 2012, federal agencies spent $100 million on the cleanup, according to the E.P.A.; an additional $17 million has been spent by energy companies determined to be responsible for some of the waste.

But the scope of the problem is worse than anyone had thought. The E.P.A. has said that it could take at least eight years to dispose of a huge pile of uranium mine waste that has sat near Red Water Pond Road since the 1980s — waste that must be removed before the area can finally be free of contamination.

Seems like the Navajo Indians still have tough luck where their land is concerned, even in modern day
Not good...

reply to post by snarky412


Oh dear. With all of their three letter agencies, all the records kept by the Feds, all of the approvals required in the first place, all that massive amount of paperwork.

Yet somehow, the Feds don't know who put these huge mounds of crap there. So, as usual, the taxpayer has to foot the bill after the multinationals have done raping the land.

Of course the question remain, who among the tribe made huge amounts of money from the mining lease and where did it all go?

More questions than answers.

P

pheonix358
reply to post by snarky412

 

Oh dear. With all of their three letter agencies, all the records kept by the Feds, all of the approvals required in the first place, all that massive amount of paperwork.

Yet somehow, the Feds don't know who put these huge mounds of crap there. So, as usual, the taxpayer has to foot the bill after the multinationals have done raping the land.

P

I so agree with this Pheonix, star for that.

More and more lately I've come to the conclusion that you can take anyone of a million problems in our country and trace the blame back to the government who approved, licensed, and even encouraged the problem.

Of course they can't find the necessary information on these uranium mines, because they aren't looking. They know who, how and why, but won't go after their buddies that supplied the fuel for nuclear power plants and the raw material for atomic bombs.

I'm also pretty sure the government knew about the pollution, but figured it would only kill and sicken the Native Americans out in a non-productive desert, and as we well know, "The only good injun is a dead injun".

This is so sad. 300,000 is a lot of moving. Those poor people. How do you move that many people and where would they go?

reply to post by StoutBroux


If you look back at Snarky's original post, that is the total population of the tribe, not the village getting poisoned.

their village represents only a small sliver of the larger Navajo nation, home to nearly 300,000 people

They aren't moving the whole Navajo Nation of 300,000, just one village.