Emotions run high at NRC meeting

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

GALLUP — The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission came to town Monday to receive comments on its Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement for proposed in-situ leach uranium milling facilities in northwest New Mexico, and it didn’t go away empty-handed.

Cradling her infant daughter, Lynnea Smith of Crownpoint — who helped push the Navajo Nation’s ban on uranium mining and milling — tried to hold back her emotions as she spoke, but the tears of frustration came anyway.

“I grew up in Crownpoint. I live in Crownpoint. My children and my family are from Crownpoint, and I’m sick to death of people telling us to move just because they want their money. That is my home!” she said, raising her voice. “I am sick of this! I am sick of this company coming into our communities and saying, ‘Here — here’s $100,000. Let us mine there.’”

She spoke specifically to Grants residents who showed up to speak in favor of a new round of uranium mining, and chastised Navajo elders — members of the Eastern Navajo Allottees Association — for their pro-uranium stance.

“I’m surprised at you people in Grants. The uranium boom, it came and it went. ... What are you going to do when there’s no water? Are we all going to sit at Crownpoint Dialysis Center, all chatting up a storm, saying, ‘Damn, you know what? I drank uranium mining water because they contaminated it and I had nowhere else to go because there was not enough money to relocate an entire community.’

“How can you, as traditional elderly people, encourage this? Be’eso! Give me my money! Weren’t you proud as elderly people to live off the land? What are you teaching your grandchildren if all they want is money?” The elders stared at the floor while some of the younger allottees found Smith’s outburst humorous.

Gallup Commissioner Ernest Becenti Jr. read a letter signed by the county’s three commissioners. He said McKinley County supports new uranium operations in the Grants Mineral Belt. “This region of the state is in dire need of new economic development.

“The current energy situation is a wake-up call to many Americans who realize that we cannot afford to be at the mercy of hostile foreign governments for our energy needs. We have the power in our own back yards to supply the country’s needs for future generations of Americans.”
Northeast Churchrock resident Teddy Nez, whose home is sandwiched between two uranium mine waste piles left over from United Nuclear Corp. and Kerr McGee mining activities, suggested they “store some of these wastes, let’s say, for example, behind the commissioner’s back yard.”

Mayor Joe Murietta of Grants, a former uranium company employee, said he and citizens in his community understand the uranium industry and realize its importance. Murietta said he and the Grants City Council support the Draft GEIS and feel that it’s adequate. “We are looking forward to that resurgence of the uranium industry in our community and the entire region.”

Navajo Nation Council Delegate Norman John II of Twin Lakes reminded the NRC of the Nation’s passage of the Diné Natural Resources Protection Act of 2005, which encompasses allotted lands. “I ask the NRC to have respect for the Navajo Nation’s position and to carry out your mission to protect people and the environment.”

Though the ban specifies that there is to be no further damage from uranium mining and processing within Navajo Indian Country until all the effects from the past have been eliminated, that has not stopped Hydro Resources Inc., which hopes to start up in-situ leach operations in the Crownpoint/Churchrock areas, from challenging the Nation’s jurisdiction in federal court. The court’s decision is still out.