Message: No uranium mining
Shirley: ‘It is unconscionable ... allowing uranium mining to be restarted anywhere near the Navajo Nation’

Staff and wire report

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Indian leaders, scientists, local business interests and the superintendent of the Grand Canyon warned Friday of dire consequences if uranium mining is allowed to proceed near the national park, while mining advocates minimized any likely problems.

At a congressional field hearing held in Flagstaff, Ariz., proponents of a measure to ban mining around the Grand Canyon said the canyon is a national treasure worthy of protection from the impacts of such activity.

Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, Jr., told the Congressional subcommittee here Friday that the Navajo Nation remains opposed to uranium mining on or near its land, and will take whatever action necessary to prevent it.

“It is unconscionable to me that the federal government would consider allowing uranium mining to be restarted anywhere near the Navajo Nation when we are still suffering from previous mining activities,” he said. “In response to attempts to renew uranium mining, the Navajo Nation Council passed, and I signed into law, the Diné Natural Resources Protection Act.

This law places a ban on all uranium mining both within the Navajo Nation boundary, and within Navajo Indian Country.”

Testifying at a joint oversight hearing before the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands at the Flagstaff City Council Chambers, President Shirley said Navajos “do not want to not sit by, ignorant of the effects of uranium mining, only to watch another generation of mothers and fathers die.”

“We are doing everything we can to speak out and do something about it,” he said. “We do not want a new generation of babies born with birth defects. We will not allow our people to live with cancers and other disorders as faceless companies make profits only to declare bankruptcy and then walk away from the damage they have caused, regardless of the bond they have in place.”

U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., who chaired the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands, has sponsored a bill to ban a million acres near the Grand Canyon from mineral exploration under the 1872 Mining Act.

In advance of the hearing, Grijalva said it would focus on “the need to buffer this icon, the Grand Canyon, from very harmful activity around it.”

He said he introduced the legislation because the number of categorical waivers and expedited mining permits has jumped about 10 times in recent years. “That’s been the process of the Interior Department, to process mining claims,” he said.

For the Forest Service to allow such activity within a few miles of such a revered site as the Grand Canyon is outrageous, the congressman said.

“It is something that we depend on for visitors, for tourism, it’s one of the wonders of the world, and here we are as the federal government allowing the distinct possibility of uranium mining around the Grand Canyon,” Grijalva added.

Environmental groups sued the U.S. Forest Service earlier this month over its decision granting approval to VANE Minerals Group, a British mining company seeking commercial quantities of uranium ore, to drill at up to 39 sites on the Kaibab National Forest. The Kaibab sandwiches much of the Grand Canyon National Park.

Environmental advocates heavily outweighed mining proponents in the audience of more than 200.

About 200 people filled the council chamber at the Flagstaff City Hall.

Also presenting testimony during the first morning panel with Shirley was Kaibab Paiute Tribal Chairwoman Ono Segundo and Havasupai Tribal Chairman Don Watahomigie. Both also testified that their tribes are opposed to renewed uranium mining in and around the Grand Canyon region.

Appearing with Grijalva was Arizona Rep. Ed Pastor and California Rep. Grace Napolitano.

Shirley said that as the Cold War raged more than 50 years ago, the United States government began a massive effort to mine and process uranium ore for use in the country”s nuclear weapons programs. Much of that uranium was mined on or near Navajo lands by Navajo hands.

“Today, the legacy of uranium mining continues to devastate both the people and the land,” he said. “The workers, their families, and their neighbors suffer increased incidences of cancers and other medical disorders caused by their exposure to uranium. Fathers and sons who went to work in the mines and the processing facilities brought uranium dust into their homes to unknowingly expose their families to radiation.”

“The mines, many simply abandoned, have left open open scars in the ground with leaking radioactive waste. The companies that processed the uranium ore dumped their waste in open “ and in some cases unauthorized “pits, exposing both the soil and the water to radiation.”

Asked by Pastor whether the Navajo Nation sees any benefits to come from uranium mining, Shirley the opposite has been true in the past.

“Many of my people have died. Many of my medicine people have died, Congressman,” he said. “And as a result, our culture has gone away, some of it. Some of the medicine people with the knowledge they have, when they go on, it”s just like a library has gone on. You lose a lot of culture. That has happened to my people.”

He said the tragedy of uranium’s legacy extends not only to those who worked in the mines but to those who worked and lived near the mines that also experienced devastating illnesses. Decades later, families who live in those same areas continue to experience health problems.

“The remnants of uranium activity continue to pollute our land, our water, and our lives,” he said. “It would be unforgivable to allow this cycle to continue for another generation.”

Those testifying in favor of the legislation cited concerns ranging from the potential impact of radiation contamination on the watershed to the legacy and historic impact of past mining, which devastated Indian lands.

Mining proponents sought to assure congressional panelists that uranium mining today is far safer than how it was practiced more a half-century ago.

Kris Hefton, director of VANE Mineral U.S., said the industry needs to be judged on its current performance rather than its history — emphasizing that mining today is much safer and cleaner.

Corbin Newman, regional forester for the U.S. Forest Service, defended his agency’s action in giving the go-ahead to explore on the sites. He said the Forest Service had acted in accordance with the law in granting approval.

But when Steve Martin, superintendent of the national park, was questioned whether uranium mining represents a significant threat to the canyon, he replied “Yes.”
And asked to measure the risk on a scale of 1 to 10, Martin said, “Ten.”

Officials also noted that the adverse impacts of previous uranium mining have compelled their tribes to ban new uranium mining development on their lands.

Chris Shuey, director of the Southwest Research Information Center in Albuquerque said mining brings uranium to the surface and in the process its concentration is increased many times over its natural level.

Shuey said at least five radiological assessments by the National Park Service since the early 1980s at the site of a past mine — the Orphan Mine — have shown gamma radiation levels more than 450 times background levels inside the original fenced area and nearly 150 times normal on adjacent lands that tourists and park employees once routinely walked across on the South Rim foot path.

A three-strand wire fence encloses the much larger and highly contaminated area, he said.