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For The Navajo Nation, Uranium Mining's Deadly a legacy that poisons the land and it will never go away, which lingers from one generation to the next generation.
The federal government is cleaning up a long legacy of uranium mining within the Navajo Nation — some 27,000 square miles spread across Utah, New Mexico and Arizona that is home to more than 250,000 people.
Many Navajo people have died of kidney failure and cancer, conditions linked to uranium contamination. And new research from the CDC shows uranium in babies born now.
Mining companies blasted 4 million tons of uranium out of Navajo land between 1944 and 1986. The federal government purchased the ore to make atomic weapons. As the Cold War threat petered out the companies left, abandoning more than 500 mines.
Many Navajo unwittingly let their livestock drink from those pools, and their children play in mine debris piles. Some even built their homes out of uranium.
"Flint (Michigan) might feel really far away from the Navajo Nation in rural Arizona. But when you look at the demographics of it, it really isn't," he says. "This is a community that has found themselves voiceless."
A sign at the old Kerr-McGee uranium mill site in Grants, N.M., warns of radioactive material. This week, the Justice Department announced a $5 billion settlement against the mining company to pay for the cleanup of toxic sites the company left across the U.S. over a period of more than eight decades.
~Navajo Nation Farmers Feel The Weight Of Colorado Mine Spill~
The U.S. Justice Department has recently gone after some of the mining companies. Since 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency has hauled away thousands of cubic yards of mine waste and has rebuilt nearly 50 contaminated homes, says EPA Regional Administrator Jared Blumenfeld. But there's still much more to be done.
One company, Anadarko Petroleum, and its subsidiary Kerr-McGee recently paid $1 billion to the Navajo Nation for cleanup and as compensation to people living with the effects of uranium contamination.
But one-third of the mining companies have shut down or have run out of money. The federal government knew about some of the dangers decades ago, but only started the cleanup in recent years.
And the uranium issue on the Navajo Nation is part of a much bigger problem. Across the western United States there are more than 160,000 abandoned hard rock mines — thousands of which continue to pollute.
Since 2006 prices for Uranium ore has been climbing and now the mines are back and they want to take more Uranium from the land and the South West Tribes oppose these advances to pick up where the mines left off.
The Legacy of Uranium in Northern Arizona is three Superfund Clean Ups, two in Tuba City, the Rare Metals Mill and the AEC Ore Buying Station (stockpiled uranium ore from other sites for processing) and the Monument Valley Mill site, the New Mexico Tumor Registry is providing information on clusters of cancers, many premature deaths of Uranium Miners many with lung cancers and still decades of study and little action.
Many Navajo people have died of kidney failure and cancer, conditions linked to uranium contamination. And new research from the CDC shows uranium in babies born now.
Mining companies blasted 4 million tons of uranium out of Navajo land between 1944 and 1986. The federal government purchased the ore to make atomic weapons. As the Cold War threat petered out the companies left, abandoning more than 500 mines.
Many Navajo unwittingly let their livestock drink from those pools, and their children play in mine debris piles. Some even built their homes out of uranium.
"Flint (Michigan) might feel really far away from the Navajo Nation in rural Arizona. But when you look at the demographics of it, it really isn't," he says. "This is a community that has found themselves voiceless."
A sign at the old Kerr-McGee uranium mill site in Grants, N.M., warns of radioactive material. This week, the Justice Department announced a $5 billion settlement against the mining company to pay for the cleanup of toxic sites the company left across the U.S. over a period of more than eight decades.
~Navajo Nation Farmers Feel The Weight Of Colorado Mine Spill~
The U.S. Justice Department has recently gone after some of the mining companies. Since 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency has hauled away thousands of cubic yards of mine waste and has rebuilt nearly 50 contaminated homes, says EPA Regional Administrator Jared Blumenfeld. But there's still much more to be done.
One company, Anadarko Petroleum, and its subsidiary Kerr-McGee recently paid $1 billion to the Navajo Nation for cleanup and as compensation to people living with the effects of uranium contamination.
But one-third of the mining companies have shut down or have run out of money. The federal government knew about some of the dangers decades ago, but only started the cleanup in recent years.
And the uranium issue on the Navajo Nation is part of a much bigger problem. Across the western United States there are more than 160,000 abandoned hard rock mines — thousands of which continue to pollute.
Since 2006 prices for Uranium ore has been climbing and now the mines are back and they want to take more Uranium from the land and the South West Tribes oppose these advances to pick up where the mines left off.
The Legacy of Uranium in Northern Arizona is three Superfund Clean Ups, two in Tuba City, the Rare Metals Mill and the AEC Ore Buying Station (stockpiled uranium ore from other sites for processing) and the Monument Valley Mill site, the New Mexico Tumor Registry is providing information on clusters of cancers, many premature deaths of Uranium Miners many with lung cancers and still decades of study and little action.
