Post-71 wants Homestake cleaned up

By Helen Davis
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — More than 35 people heard an update on efforts to help former uranium industry workers Tuesday.

Post-71 Co-chair and spokeswoman Linda Evers told the group, mostly former miners or their families, that the big issue now is cleaning up the abandoned pond at the former Homestake mine. She said the water table affected by the pond is only a mile and a half from the Milan water supply and that it should be cleaned up before it can affect Milan water. The group met in the Grants Convention Center in the county services building.

Evers said that Post-71 representatives who went to Washington to talk to legislators were successful in gaining the attention and support of U.S. Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., for the sought-for changes to the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. Post-71, among others, is asking that health damage compensation covered by RECA be extended to cover all miners, mill workers, and haulers who worked in the uranium industry up to and including Dec. 31, 1990. In its current form, RECA covers only those who worked in similar positions from 1942 through 1971, before purchase of yellowcake was opened to private companies and no longer exclusive to the Atomic Energy Commission, now the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

“They are finally starting to hear what we have to say,” Evers told the assembly. “Now that we have their attention, we’re going to work on petitions,” she said, and asked individuals to pick up a copy of a prepared petition form requesting support for the amendment to RECA, copy the form, get signatures and mail the completed petitions to the Post-71 headquarters.

Post-71, a nonprofit volunteer organization, marked its first anniversary, the election of new officers and the formation of the Multicultural Coalition for a Safe Environment on Jan. 19. The MCSE coalition, pronounced “mace,” is a collection of small groups including Laguna and Acoma citizens, Sierra Club representatives, the Sage Council, the Bluewater Downstream Coalition and others who will work to create safe conditions if and when uranium mining comes back to the northwest New Mexico area.

Post-71 circulated a survey last year for former miners and others involved to report their experiences, especially concerning their health. Fourteen hundred surveys have been received back completed. Evers said that Post-71 will extend the time for surveys to be filled out and allow additional questions to be added to the next form. Anyone with concerns is encouraged to submit questions. The spokesperson added that Post-71 might receive financing for one of two interns to help process surveys and research the issues covered by next summer. The group has submitted an application for UMN intern assistance.
Information: Post-71

Uranium Workers Committee, P.O. Box 1591,
Grants, NM 87020
On the Web: http://www.post71exposure.org/