Residents: Clean it up

Pinedale area resident Teddy Nez addresses Environmental Protection Agency representatives during a public meeting about soil contamination caused by the Northeast Church Rock Mine at the Pinedale chapter house Tuesday. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Cable Hoover

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

PINEDALE — Kathryn Duncan rolled her walker to the front of the room at Pinedale Chapter House Tuesday evening and pleaded with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials to fix the contamination problems that have plagued the community for nearly 30 years.

The elder Duncan told officials she has lived in the community a long time. “I look around and I look at me. I’m not healthy. I look at you and you’re all healthy.”

She expressed concern for her grandkids, her sisters and community members still living near the Northeast Churchrock Mine and said the area needs to be cleaned up for their sake. She asked EPA to extract the 870,000 cubic yards of radium-contaminated soil “and take it away. Don’t just cover it there.”

“You see me here at these meetings and I’m just barely getting around. What I’m asking you is to fix the land so we can use it again,” she said. “You come from beautiful places where there’s plenty of water and vegetation, but our land has been ruined.”

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