Uranium’s legacy

Larry King points as he talks with Lt. Governor Diane Denish as they look over an old uranium mining site near his home on Highway 566 near Churchrock. Denish toured three different sites that were once home to mining operations in the area and listened to the plight of those affected
by the mining. Brian Leddy / Independent

By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

CHURCHROCK — New Mexico Lt. Gov. Diane Denish went away from a tour of former uranium mine sites Friday better educated on what it means to live in a home wedged between two waste piles, or to grow up playing on a hill that you found out in later years was actually mine waste.

It's an education she shared with “Flat Eddie,” a hand-colored cutout of a little boy, about 8-inches tall — the school project of Roderigo Vargas of Agua Fria Elementary.

“A little boy in Santa Fe, this is his project,” Denish said, holding “Flat Eddie” in front of her for all to see. “He wanted me to take this little boy around with me for a day in my life as lieutenant governor. So we picked today to bring him and take pictures. We mail it back in and we tell him about the day.”

Among the things Denish will be able to relate to Vargas is the tale of a young boy from another time.

“You know, when you're a little kid herding sheep, you always try to find something to play with,” Larry King told Denish. He recalled a windmill near what is now his grazing area where people used to line up with their vehicles to haul water for drinking and livestock.

After the uranium mine came in, in the 1960s, “there used to be huge piles of dirt,” said King, now an adult. “That's where I used to play, not knowing what it was. A nice bluish hill. Come to find out it was a waste pile that I had been playing on all along.”

King was one of more than a dozen people taking the Churchrock Uranium Mine Tour, sponsored by Churchrock Chapter and Red Water Pond Road Community in collaboration with Southwest Research and Information Center and Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency.

Denish toured the Old Churchrock Mine, now a Hydro Resources Inc. proposed in-situ leach mine site, the United Nuclear Corp. mill tailings Superfund site, and a residential area on Red Water Pond Road where U.S. EPA last year conducted emergency soil removal due to the extent of radioactive contamination.

Denish saw first-hand the site of the July 16, 1979, tailings dam break that released more than 94 million gallons of contaminated waste through the Rio Puerco wash, the largest release of radioactive waste in the United States.
Scotty Begay, a former uranium worker, told Denish about how the lives of his family members were threatened after he began reporting concerns in the 1990s to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. That made him push even harder to try to keep mining industries away from communities such as Churchrock where families use and are part of the land.

The uranium company he worked for, “they never cared about us,” he said. “After we started the reclamation and decommissioning, and surveying was being done, a lot of the radiological surveys were done under alcohol. There was a lot of shady dealings, a lot of things that were told: 'Don't pick that up. Cut it at ground level. Don't disturb the soil.'

“They just covered over it and that was it. They even asked me to go out to the different chapters and offer them buildings that they might want, and sign off on the papers,” Begay said. To this day, the waste remains.

Chris Shuey, SRIC uranium mining technical adviser, told Denish about the disagreement between some community residents and HRI over the company's proposed ISL mining.

“We have this ongoing argument with both the federal government and with the company over this contention that the water is already contaminated with uranium,” Shuey said, adding that the overall quality of the water supports nine different public water supplies from the area that tap into the aquifer.

“The utilities can't deliver contaminated water to people. The overall quality of water is very high and supports drinking water to, we estimate, 15,000 people on a daily basis,” he said.

The home of Teddy Nez and his family is just 500 feet from an unreclaimed mine waste dump on one side and Quivera Mine on the other side.

Background radiation at the home, where EPA removed soil last year, is zero, he said. About 100 feet away, the radiation is 20 times background. At a nearby arroyo where the children like to play, the radiation readings are 50 times background level.

“That's how we're living. My wife's clan has been here for four or five generations. They want to stay here. That's why I'm staying too,” Nez told Denish. “This cleanup that they had is a temporary Band-Aid. We want a bigger Band-Aid. We want off-site removal.”

Following the tour, Denish told the group that she has had a request to meet with representatives from the uranium industry.

“I will meet with GE, HRI, whoever the mining interests are. The important thing for me is to hear what they have to say. But one reason I'm here is I need to know the right questions to ask,” about the land, about relocation, and about what they're going to do, she said.

“One of the best things you can do is continue to educate people. Of the 112 people in our Legislature, you've probably had 25 of them out here.

“My feeling is you can't start something new without taking care of the things that have been created,” she said. “In terms of water use, I think it would be very irresponsible to pass anything that would contaminate the water. ... In my view, water is precious — I call it the 'new gold.'

“We have to conserve it, we have to recycle it, we have to desalinate it to make sure we have the water resources for the people.” She said she believes the state of New Mexico has done a good job trying to recruit industry that is non-water draining, including alternative energy. “I certainly want to try to stay on that road.”