Navajos ban uranium mining, oppose federal subsidies |
by: Brenda Norrell / Indian Country Today |
Corporate welfare: Congressmen Tom Udall joins
Navajos opposing $30 million in federal uranium subsidies
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. - The Navajo Nation Council passed a new law banning the
mining and processing of uranium on the Navajo Nation, which if signed by
President Joe Shirley Jr. will bring an end to the legacy of uranium mining
death for Navajos.
Navajos have been the unknowing victims of government uranium mining since the
time of the Cold War and now face new threats of uranium mining in the eastern
portion of the Navajo Nation.
Aneth, Utah, Councilman Mark Maryboy told the council, ''It's very simple:
uranium kills.''
Navajos celebrated the council's passage of the Dine Natural Resources
Protection Act of 2005, which became law by a vote of 69 - 13. Then, Navajos
immediately began intensifying their opposition to federal energy bill
provisions that would subsidize uranium corporations with $30 million in
incentives.
Anishinaabe activist Winona LaDuke applauded the effort.
''People worldwide are eternally grateful to the Navajo Nation for protecting
future generations from more nuclear contamination, whether they are communities
with nuclear reactors, or Native communities like Skull Valley Goshutes and
Western Shoshone where nuclear waste dumps are planned.
''It is time for Native people to be part of the next energy era - wind and
solar - those sources are in keeping with our relationship to Mother Earth and
our responsibilities for future generation,'' LaDuke told Indian Country Today.
''Wind is the fastest growing energy source.''
Eastern Navajo Dineh Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM), a group founded by local
Navajos, urged other Navajos to call their congressmen and oppose the subsidies.
ENDAUM said the $30 million could be funneled to Hydro Resources Inc., which is
proposing in situ leach uranium mining which could poison Navajos' water supply
in the Church Rock and Crownpoint, N.M. communities.
Even with uranium mining banned on the Navajo Nation, the company could carry
out in situ leach mining on adjacent land already identified by the company and
poison the aquifer and Navajo drinking water.
Citing the threat to Navajos' water supply, ENDAUM and the Southwest Research
Information Center have challenged in court the license issued to HRI for in
situ leach mining by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Navajos in Church Rock and Crownpoint have already been the victims of the
nation's worst radioactive uranium spill in 1979 when a liquid uranium tailings
dam was breached and 100 million gallons of radioactive liquid spilled into
Navajo waterways.
U.S. Congressman Tom Udall, D-N.M., is among those opposing the uranium
subsidies in the energy bill.
Udall said he is offering an amendment to House Bill 6 of the Energy Policy Act
of 2005 to strike Section 631. He called the subsidies ''an unnecessary $30
million handout for the domestic uranium industry.''
Section 631 authorizes the appropriations of a $10 million subsidy for the next
three fiscal years to ''identify, test and develop improved in situ leaching
mining technologies, including low-cost environmental restoration
technologies.''
''This corporate subsidy is both unnecessary and potentially environmentally
dangerous,'' Udall said in a letter to fellow congressmen, urging their support
and vote. ''This corporate welfare also will have a severe impact on the
Southwest's environment and on the public health of the Native American
communities I represent.''
Udall said the in situ leach mining procedure can cause radioactive uranium and
other toxic chemicals to leach into groundwater and is a threat to public
health. He said in a ''time of skyrocketing federal deficits,'' Congress should
not give away $30 million to the uranium industry.
''We need a comprehensive national energy policy that safely provides new energy
sources without drastically harming the environment and causing potential harm
to thousands,'' Udall said.
ENDAUM co-founder Mitchell Capitan told the United Nations that Navajos with
little means have maintained the costly struggle of opposition to new uranium
mining because of their deep belief in the sanctity of water.
'''Water is life' is not just a political slogan - it's a description of some of
the fundamental principles we live by every day. Water is used in our religious
ceremonies, just like it is used in the ceremonies of the Christian, Hindu,
Jewish and Muslim faiths. It is essential to our survival in an arid climate,''
Capitan told the United Nations' 57th Annual Department of Public Information
Conference in September 2004.
Capitan said the community's water is pure and sweet and comes from the
Westwater Canyon Aquifer beneath Church Rock and Crownpoint.
Further, Navajos were used by the federal government to mine uranium during the
Cold War without protective clothing or masks, and were never told of the
dangers of radioactivity. In communities such as Cove, Ariz., it is suspected
that at least one member of every Navajo family died from lung cancer and other
diseases resulting from uranium mining. Although the federal Radiation Exposure
Compensation Act was designed to financially compensate victims, many Navajo
miners died before funds were released.
''Of course they used us as guinea pigs, all in the name of national defense,''
Gilbert Badoni told Indian Country Today. As a child, Badoni lived in a uranium
mining camp where his father worked in southwestern Colorado.
Badoni's father died of cancer and his mother, brothers and sister all developed
cancer. Now, radioactive rocks remain in Badoni's backyard in Cudeii near
Shiprock, N.M. among the rocks and tailings left behind by a uranium industry
that never cleaned up after the Cold War.
Meanwhile, Taxpayers for Common Sense Action joined ENDAUM and Udall in
opposition to the corporate uranium subsidies.
''The 50-year-old nuclear industry has benefited from cradle-to-grave
subsidization for too long,'' cofounder Jill Lancelot said in a statement.
''These subsidies distort price signals and undermine the natural market forces
of the energy industry. This $89 billion energy bill is ballooning in cost, and
at a time of unprecedented deficits it is the taxpayers of the next generation
that will foot the bill.''
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