The Los Angeles Times today concluded a four-part series (with photos) on uranium mining on 27,000 square miles of Navajo lands in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.
It's a depressing, but interesting, read.
Part one (nine pages) gives the background: The huge boom in uranium mining fizzled post-Cold War; when mines and processors shut down, they left piles and pits of radioactivity, seldom labeled with warning signs. Many houses were built with radioactive materials. The cancer death rate on the reservation doubled from the early 1970s to the late 1990s. Most of the Navajos were unaware of the problem; most of the government and industry figures that were aware willfully ignored it.
Part two (seven pages) digs deeper into the effect radioactivity had on the area's water -- and the children and animals who drank from it. The cases of animals born without eyes or with three legs, or children who developed corneal ulcers and liver disease, stymied medical professionals for years.
Part three (six pages) explains how a federal decontamination plan finally got underway -- then was derailed by bureaucratic delays, misunderstandings, and disputes that kept the site from Superfund designation.
Part four (four pages) has the unbelievable headline "Mining firms again eyeing Navajo land." The tribe vows a "knockdown, drag-out legal battle," according to a tribal attorney.
Fingers crossed.
Comments
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bookerly Posted 2:31 pm
23 Nov 2006
A great pre-Thanksgiving post, and very appropriate.
America needs to stop this now!! What will the Democrats do differently? Or will they ignore the problem?
patrick
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AE Posted 6:46 am
26 Nov 2006
I just heard the Udall cousins discussing energy issues on CSPAN and Tom Udall, when asked about nuclear energy, said that our two areas of concern were what to do with the waste, and nuclear proliferation. I think he forgot something.
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caniscandida Posted 7:46 am
26 Nov 2006
Tony Hillerman set one of his Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee mysteries around Mount Taylor, not far north of Grants. The cancers subsequent on working in the uranium mines near there were an important part of the story.
One would think that by now, the Navajos had enough friends to work out some decent decisions on civil suits. But probably one would think wrong. Anyway, when it is a question of life and death, the affected plaintiffs are already over the hill.
God have mercy on them. And thank God for Tony Hillerman, their friend, for putting their story into a popular form.
Ever puzzling to me is the question of the two northern corners of the Navajo/Pueblo universe. Mount Taylor is spectacular enough, in the southeast, and so are the San Francisco Peaks, near Flagstaff, AZ, in the southwest. But I have never been convinced by any candidates NW and NE.
This looks like a case for Super-Willa!
Chickens are our cousins!
So are other sensitive animals!
Enough is enough!
No more factory farms!
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Lisa Hymas Posted 3:06 pm
26 Nov 2006
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