The following story was written and reported by Talli Nauman. All content © Native Sun News.

PART II

WINDOW ROCK, ARIZONA –– The Diné, seeking remedies for the violation of their human rights caused by uranium mining are asking an Organization of American States’ commission recommend several action items to the United States government.

At the top of the list are the following demands:

1. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) should stay consideration of renewing Hydro Resources, Inc. (HRI )’s materials license until (a) the company has remediated the radioactive surface contamination; (b) the United States has taken significant and meaningful steps to remediate the abandoned uranium mines within the boundaries of the Church Rock Chapter and to address the groundwater contamination from the United Nuclear Corp. uranium mill; and (c) the United States has taken significant and meaningful steps to determine and record existing environmental conditions, including existing regional groundwater, surface water, soil and air conditions, and establish existing public health conditions within Church Rock and Crownpoint Chapters.
2. If the NRC has completed renewal of HRI’s materials license by the time the human rights commission has reviewed the petition, the agency should impose a condition on company’s license prohibiting mining activities until the requirements, above, have been met.
3. The NRC should require HRI to submit comprehensive baseline groundwater quality and other hydrological, geological, and geochemical data, subject to a public hearing and in accordance with internationally accepted sampling methods and statistical analyses, by license amendment if necessary, before HRI is allowed to conduct any mining operations.

Because of the environmental record the in-situ leach mining industry and ongoing contamination from conventional uranium mining and milling, the Navajo Nation passed a law in 2005 banning uranium mining and processing within its jurisdiction, the petition notes.

The Diné Natural Resources Protection Law is based on traditional Diné law and is intended to protect all natural resources within what it calls “Navajo Indian Country.” Of HRI’s four proposed mines, the two Church Rock mines, Section 17 and Unit 1, are subject to Navajo Nation jurisdiction and the ban, plaintiffs contend. The mined uranium would be processed at a plant in Crownpoint.

Church Rock and Crownpoint are located in the eastern part of the area traditionally used and occupied by the Navajo in what is now called the Eastern Navajo Agency or Eastern Agency. As a result of colonization under the General Allotment Act of 1887, the Eastern Agency is like a patchwork quilt or checkerboard with land in different legal statuses. A parcel of privately owned land can be surrounded by Navajo reservation land, federal public land, or individual Navajo allotments. This makes it difficult for the Navajo Nation to protect traditional resources in the Eastern Agency.

The NRC does not acknowledge Navajo Nation jurisdiction and the Navajo Nation may be subject to legal challenge by HRI, petitioners note. They state that the OAS’ Inter-American Commission on Human Rights should request that the NRC rescind HRI’s license for the Church Rock Section 17 and Unit 1 sites subject to the Navajo Nation’s ban.

“The cumulative effects of the HRI project combined with the ongoing exposure to radioactive and chemical contaminants from past uranium mining and milling create an enormous barrier to guaranteeing the minimum condition of a dignified life. It is a barrier the [government] has helped to erect,” the petitioners say.

The human rights commission should ask the NRC not to issue any further source and byproduct materials licenses within the boundaries of the Church Rock and Crownpoint chapters until comprehensive environmental and public health surveys and environmental remediation have been accomplished, they say.

If HRI is permitted to commence mining operations as planned, the U.S. government should provide or require HRI to provide adequate financial and non-financial redress to the petitioners, the affected communities, and the Navajo Nation, including, as appropriate, providing potable water supplies in perpetuity, they say.

In a May 16 letter to HRI, the NRC staff noted that “a comprehensive review of the entire cost estimate and surety instrument to ensure compliance with … NRC regulations will be required prior to operations.”

In 2009, the United State Geological Survey found that no ISL uranium mine restored groundwater to pre-mining conditions in Texas, the state with the longest history of ISL mining and with the most comprehensive database of restoration information.

In the ISL project for Moore Ranch in Wyoming, the NRC’s environmental impact statement conceded that, “to date, restoration to background water quality for all constituents has proven to be not practically achievable at licensed NRC IS[L] sites.” The Christensen Irigaray Ranch ISL project in Wyoming has had nearly 100 leaks and spills, dumping hundreds of thousands of gallons of contaminated water on the site. These data are typical of ISL operations in the United States.

The Smith-Highland Ranch ISL operation, also located in Wyoming, had more than 80 spills from 1988 to 2007, according to the NRC’s generic environmental impact statement for uranium mining.

(Talli Nauman is the Health and Environment Editor for Native Sun News. Contact her at talli.nauman@gmail.com)

PART I:
Native Sun News: Petition challenges uranium at Navajo Nation (7/25)