The supporters of nuclear power seldom talk about the pollution and devastation caused by uranium mining. All over the world in remote areas, native peoples are seeing their landscapes destroyed and their health endangered by the mining of uranium. I have blogged about uranium mines in Africa, Australia and Canada. There are also uranium mines in the U.S. with a legacy of environmental and health damage. The Navajo Nation in the South Western United States has endured the pollution of their environment by old uranium mines and is fighting attempts to mine more uranium on their lands.
Uranium mining began in the Four Corners region where Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico meet during World War II and ramped up to major operations during the Cold War. When the uranium deposits were exhausted, the mining companies moved on leaving ruins and pollution behind. It is estimated that Colorado has spent over a billion dollars to clean up old mining and mill sites. There are over thirteen hundred abandon sites remains throughout the state. An entire mining town in west-central Colorado was so contaminated that it had to completely torn down.
Past uranium mining operations have also contaminated soil, water and homes at over five hundred sites across the Navajo Nation in the Four Corners area. Water from twenty two wells is too contaminated for people or livestock to drink. Cancers and other illnesses among the Navajo have been attributed to radiation and heavy metal poisoning from uranium mining. The Navajo Nation has been working with the EPA for years to clean up contaminated sites and train Navajos to assist in the cleanup of their lands.
The uranium market has been very volatile in the last decade but the general trend has been down. There was a brief spike in 2007 but the market is still soft. In spite of their savaging of Navajo lands, uranium mining companies are looking to return to the region to start more mining operations when market conditions improve. There are numerous mining sites owned by Canadian Energy Fuels on the Utah-Colorado border. Uranium Resources Incorporated (URI) holds two hundred thousand acres of uranium holdings in the area, a license to produce several millions of pounds of uranium a year and a couple of licensed milling plants.
URI began working with the Resources and Development Committee (RDC) of the Navajo Nation Council in 2014. They have mining rights to private lands adjacent to the Navajo Nation but they need right of way to move their uranium from the mines. In December of 2014, the RDC, without the authorization of the full Council, voted to allow URI to mine uranium on private land near the eastern border of the Navajo Nation in New Mexico and move the uranium across tribal lands.
During the Summer Session this year, the Navajo Nation Council voted overwhelmingly to rescind the legislation passed by the RDC and deny URI the right to transport uranium over their lands. The Navajo have a strict law against uranium mining and another against uranium transportation. They cannot prevent the mining on nearby private lands but they are vehemently opposed with good reason to the transportation of uranium across Navajo land. The Navajo are not interested in having anything to do with uranium mining or transportation and they have to be ever vigilant because the mining companies are always seeks to circumvent the Navajo anti-uranium laws.
The red dots are the contaminated sites:
