Environment

Navajo Nation seeks $500M for uranium cleanup

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

The Navajo Nation is asking Congress for $500 million to clean up uranium contamination on its reservation.

Tribal officials testified yesterday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. They said contamination has caused health problems, including cancer, and polluted the environment for more than 50 years.

"Our land today is poisoned," Ray Manygoats testified, The Los Angeles Times reported. "Today, I am a man who has lost his health, his family and his ancestral way of life because of uranium. I am here today to ask you to act to stop the suffering and needless deaths of my people."

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-California), the committee chairman, asked the the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Indian Health Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs to determine what it would take to clean up the reservation. He asked for a response by December.

Rep. Tom Udall (D-New Mexico) asked BIA Director Jerry Gidner whether the government has met its obligations to the Navajo Nation. That's hard to say," Gidner responded, according to the Times.

Get the Story:
Navajos seek funds to clear uranium contamination (The Los Angeles Times 10/24)
pwday
Navajos: Old uranium tailings leave land radioactive, people sick (The Salt Lake Tribune 10/24)

Hearing Information:
Hearing on the Health and Environmental Impacts of Uranium Contamination in the Navajo Nation (October 23, 2007)

Relevant Links:
Indigenous World Uranium Summit 2006 - http://www.sric.org/uraniumsummit
Eastern Navajo Dine Against Uranium Mining - http://www.endaum.org