NYTs Article on Uranium Contamination at Navajo

Here’s a link to the article. An excerpt:

The legacy wrought from decades of uranium mining is long and painful here on the expansive reservation. Over the years, Navajo miners extracted some four million tons of uranium ore from the ground, much of it used by the United States government to make weapons.

Many miners died from radiation-related illnesses; some, unaware of harmful health effects, hauled contaminated rocks and tailings from local mines and mills to build homes for their families.

Now, those homes are being demolished and rebuilt under a new government program that seeks to identify what are very likely dozens of uranium-contaminated structures still standing on Navajo land and to temporarily relocate people living in them until the homes can be torn down and rebuilt.

Stephen B. Etsitty, executive director of the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency, and other tribal officials have been grappling for years with the environmental fallout from uranium mining.

One thought on “NYTs Article on Uranium Contamination at Navajo

  1. Phillip E. Thompson July 27, 2009 / 10:46 am

    I was working on this issue back in 1992 when I worked in the Office of the Solicitor at DOI and here we are 17 plus years later and still nothing has been done. I could probably find 50 more examples of environmental issues I worked on while at DOI in the mid-90’s that are still unresolved. Its border line criminal because we advised the BIA leadership to conduct audits on all BIA lands and they refused. Its a complete disregard of the trust responsibility and once the Vigil decision came down removing Tucker Act liability, Indian Country’s faith was seeled. Shameful on all levels.

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