[CPEO-MEF] The environmental legacy of Navajo uranium mines

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

BLIGHTED HOMELAND
A peril that dwelt among the Navajos
During the Cold War, uranium mines left contaminated waste scattered 
around the Indians. Homes built with the material silently pulsed with 
radiation. People developed cancer. And the U.S. did little

By Judy Pasternak
Los Angeles Times
November 19, 2006

MARY AND BILLY BOY HOLIDAY bought their one-room house from a medicine 
man in 1967. They gave him $50, a sheep and a canvas tent.

For the most part, they were happy with the purchase. Their Navajo hogan 
was situated well, between a desert mesa and the trading-post road. The 
eight-sided dwelling proved stout and snug, with walls of stone and 
wood, and a green-shingle roof.

The single drawback was the bare dirt underfoot. So three years after 
moving in, the Holidays jumped at the chance to get a real floor. A 
federally funded program would pay for installation if they bought the 
materials. The Holidays couldn't afford to, but the contractor, a friend 
of theirs, had an idea.

He would use sand and crushed rock that had washed down from an old 
uranium mine in the mesa, one of hundreds throughout the Navajo 
reservation that once supplied the nation's nuclear weapons program. The 
waste material wouldn't cost a cent. "He said it made good concrete," 
Mary Holiday recalled.

For the entire article, as well as links to other published 
installments, go to
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-navajo19nov19,1,1753262.story?ctrack=1&cset=true



This is just the first of a major, four-part series.

ABOUT THIS SERIES

From 1944 to 1986, 3.9 million tons of uranium ore were dug and blasted 
from Navajo soil, nearly all of it for America's atomic arsenal. Navajos 
inhaled radioactive dust, drank contaminated water and built homes using 
rock from the mines and mills. Many of the dangers persist to this day. 
This four-part series examines the legacy of uranium mining on the 
Navajo reservation.

SUNDAY: Unaware of the danger

MONDAY: Toxic water

TUESDAY: Botched cleanup

WEDNESDAY: New technology

--


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org


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