Marty Durlin

Online Editor

According to a copyrighted story by Michael Coleman in the Albuquerque Journal:

Navajo President Joe Shirley, backed by Reps. Tom Udall (D-NM) and Rick Renzi (R-AZ) is pressing the U.S. government to halt any new mining on or near the Navajo reservation.

Among the proposed extraction projects is a uranium mine at Crownpoint which abuts Navajo land where there is an aquifer supplying drinking water for thousands of people.

Four million tons of uranium were mined on the Navajo reservation between 1944 and 1986, and Shirley said there are “open scars on the ground leaking radioactive waste” from improperly closed mines, still posing health problems for Navajo families living nearby.

“Shouldn’t we clean up first before we start getting into new areas?” Udall asked. He said it was unclear whether a moratorium would require an act of Congress or an order from the Bush administration.

Navajo tribal members filed a petition in the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver in February, seeking to block Hydro Resources Inc. from injecting chemicals into the ground to release uranium in a process called in situ leaching. The Navajo petition asks the court to reverse Nuclear Regulatory Commission orders allowing the mines.

Uranium prices are soaring in response to increased demand for nuclear fuel for U.S. nuclear submarines and proposed nuclear power plants.

The Navajo Nation banned uranium mining and processing on its land in 2005. See Laura Paskus’ HCN story on the ban, and another story on Navajo mine workers’ health concerns.