Navajo Nation versus U.S.

from ENDAUM (Eastern Navajo Dine Against Uranium Mining)

An exceptionally important case was argued this week in a U.S. Court of Appeals. In 2005 the Navajo Nation recieved the Nuclear-Free Future Award for passing a legislative Act that allows no more uranium mining on its lands and territories. In granting permits for such mining to proceed, an agency of the U.S. government is ignoring the self-determining act of the Navajo as a people, thus undermining their human rights.

The actions of the citizens of the Navajo Nation also support their rights to health, to water that is safe to drink, to air not polluted with radioactive emissions, and to their lands being left safe for grazing cattle, a source of their own means of subsistence. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by the United States in 1992, states clearly

"All peoples have the right of self-determination" (Article 1, para 1) and "In no case may a people be deprived of its own means of subsistence," (Article 1, para 2).

Respect for and protection of these rights is a legally-binding obligation of the U.S. government at all levels, federal, state, and local.

Church Rock-Crownpoint Uranium Mine Case

Clients: Eastern Navajo Dine Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM) and Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC – 2006 Nuclear-Free Future Award recipients).

Opponents: Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and Hydro Resources, Inc.

Primary issue: Protection of Navajo communities from contamination by uranium of air and water supplies.

Background: The Law Center represents ENDAUM and SRIC in their fight against proposed in-situ leach (ISL) uranium mines in the Crownpoint and Church Rock areas.

If allowed to proceed, these mines would contaminate the sole source of drinking water of nearly 15,000 people – almost all of whom are Navajo. The mines would also release radioactive emissions into air that already exceeds federal radiation standards due to unreclaimed Cold War-era uranium tailings.

This case is of national importance for several reasons:

1) This is the first time that any community has ever challenged NRC approval of a nuclear source materials operation. For that reason, and because of the NRC's bias in favor of industry, a victory for our clients would set a major precedent. This is of exceptional significance because mining of this type has never been sited so close to public drinking water supplies, nor have any of the ISL mine sites in the U.S. ever been reclaimed to premining quality.

2) This case is important for Native Americans nationally. It is a test of the ability of a Native American community, traditionally among the least politically powerful communities in our society, to protect itself against a company's efforts to profit at the expense of those resources, and against a federal agency that favors exploitation of those resources.

3) The case is a critical test for Navajos because of the history of death and destruction caused by uranium mining in Navajo country. These are communities already devastated by uranium mining in the 1950s and 1960s, and the health impacts of this proposed mining would be devastation twice over for these communities.

ENDAUM is the first community group ever to fight the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on a nuclear source materials permit. This fight is becoming even more significant, as the price of uranium has increased significantly during the past seven years, rising to $72/lb. from $7/lb. in 2000. Subsequently, the State of New Mexico has seen a dramatic rise in the number of exploratory permits requested by mining companies during the past year, with a dozen applications currently under review.

Hydro Resources, Inc. has four proposed minesites in the Church Rock-Crownpoint region. In 2006, the NRC validated the license for all four sites; in February 2007, we filed a lawsuit against the NRC to overturn the license. We argue that the NRC has violated the Atomic Energy Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and its own regulations when it issued decisions on numerous issues. We are appealing the following points:

Hydro Resources failed to prove that it will protect groundwater from contamination by uranium and other heavy metals.

The company failed to ensure the health of residents near the mines would be protected from damaging radioactive air emissions.

Hydro Resources' proposed financial bond for the site is inadequate to ensure that the site(s) would be cleaned up in the event that the company is unable to undertake reclamation of the land and/or water impacted by the mining.

In June 2007, the Navajo Nation submitted a friend of the court brief on our behalf in this case. Oral arguments are scheduled to be held in the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, CO, on May 12th at 1pm.

[ISL mining entails injecting a solution of bicarbonate and water into an aquifer, where it strips uranium out of the rock strata within that aquifer. The "pregnant solution" of uranium-rich water is then pumped to the surface, where the mining company extracts as much uranium as is profitable. Water is then reinjected into the aquifer, or placed into evaporation pits.]