Clean up the Navajos' poisoned land
Uranium mining has wreaked havoc on the Navajo people.
The country owes it to them to clean up the mess.
November 26, 2006
DURING WORLD
WAR II, the federal government made a deal with Navajos:
If the tribe allowed uranium mining on its 27,000-square-mile
reservation, the land eventually would be returned "in
as good condition as received."
Instead,
when the diggers left by the mid-1960s, the land was
scarred by open shafts, contaminated well water and
radioactive piles — often without fences or warning
signs. As a Times series (latimes.com/navajo) reported
last week, federal inspectors knew about the damage
but did little to prevent or fix it.
What followed
was unconscionable. Navajos drank from contaminated
pools, slept on radioactive floors and fed their herds
on land irrigated with death. Children suffered mysterious,
painful illnesses and died young. One couple, Helen
and Leonard Nez, lost six of their children; Helen had
drunk poisoned water while pregnant.
Blame can
be laid at the feet of the mining companies and even
the tribal government. But it is the job of the Environmental
Protection Agency and the Bureau of Indian Affairs to
prevent environmental wreckage and safeguard the tribe's
interests. Both fell down on the job spectacularly.
Cleanup of
toxic sites has happened only in fits and starts. One
obstacle is that the federal government, unaccountably,
has failed to conduct the comprehensive health and environmental
studies necessary to determine the extent of the harm
done. After several unsuccessful efforts to obtain funding,
the tribe solicited the EPA's Superfund program, to
help squeeze money out of mining companies or draw from
the fund's $1.6-billion cleanup money. But the low population
density of the area has prevented Navajos from qualifying.
Now the tribe
is once again making the case to have its radioactive
land placed on the Superfund list. This should be an
EPA priority; if it takes an act of Congress, then fine.
The country has a historical, ethical and contractual
obligation to remove the toxic health hazard it created
on Navajo lands.
Mining companies,
excited about cleaner new technologies and an exponentially
growing demand for uranium, are once again knocking
on Navajo doors, offering jobs and swearing environmental
responsibility. The tribe has said no, and no it should
remain — at least for now. The government should not
buy from any tribal mines until the country proves that
its promises and contracts aren't as flimsy as the onion-skin
paper on which they were once typed.
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