Subject: Navajos fear more uranium mining in Crownpoint

 

> <+>=<+>KOLA Newslist<+>=<+>
>
>
> [article provided by Lona. Thanks!]
>
> http://www.indiancountry.com/articles/headline-2000-4-19-3.shtml
>
> Navajos fear more uranium mining in Crownpoint
>
>
> By: Brenda Norrell
> Today staff
>
>
> CROWNPOINT, N.M. - Weary from a half-century of uranium
mining and
> cancer-related deaths, Navajos in New Mexico are opposing the
> Crownpoint Uranium Project and urging the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory
> Commission to reopen licensing hearings.
>
> Navajos submitted new evidence to the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission
> showing the method of cleansing groundwater after uranium mining
poses
> serious health problems to local residents.
>
> Kathleen Tsosie, administrative officer for the Eastern Navajo Dine'
> Against Uranium Mining, said the license issued to Hydro
Resources Inc.
> will put Navajos at risk of kidney disease.
>
> "The Nuclear Regulatory Commission seems to think it's OK to
allow Hydro
> Resources Inc. to pollute our drinking water," Tsosie said.
>
> "Uranium is a poison, and the federal government has no business
> letting a mining company poison our precious water supply."
>
> Eastern Navajo Dine' Against Uranium Mining and Southwest
Research and
> Information Center provided scientific studies and the expert
testimony
> of Crownpoint physician John Fogarty.
>
> The research states that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission erred
when it
> issued the Crownpoint Uranium Project a secondary groundwater
> restoration standard for uranium more than 30 times the level of
uranium
> in drinking water now linked to kidney damage in humans.
>
> Navajo and environmental groups argue that the Nuclear Regulatory
> Commission 's groundwater restoration standard for uranium of 0.44
> milligrams per liter is unsafe.
>
> Fogarty testified that human and animal studies conducted in
Canada in
> the 1990s demonstrate that uranium ingested in drinking water
causes
> kidney damage in humans and animals at levels lower than those
assumed
> by the National Regulatory Commission.
>
> "The National Regulatory Commission staff is wrong to have
accepted a
> uranium cleanup' level that is at least 20 times greater than the level
> of uranium in drinking water that has been shown to cause kidney
> impairment in chronically exposed individuals," Fogarty stated in
his
> affidavit.
>
> He said the National Regulatory Commission staff used outdated
and
> flawed scientific research for the standard. More recent studies
> demonstrate that humans show signs of kidney damage after
consuming
> water over long periods of time with levels of uranium as low as
0.014
> mg/l.
>
> Further, Fogarty recommended that the uranium standard be
suspended
> immediately and then amended so the standard requires Hydro
Resources
> Inc. to return the groundwater concentration in the restored water
back
> to acceptable levels.
>
> The groups said the new evidence is significant enough to warrant
> reopening and supplementing the record of their ongoing
adjudication of
> a January 1998 license issued to Hydro Resources Inc. for the
project.
>
> Hydro Resources Inc. plans to construct and operate uranium in
situ
> leach mines at sites in Church Rock and Crownpoint. It plans to
convert
> the uranium solutions into yellowcake at a processing plant in
> Crownpoint. Solution mining involves extracting uranium from host
rock
> by injecting oxidizing chemicals into hundreds of injection wells at
> each site and pumping the solution to the surface for processing.
>
> Mining would be carried out in the Westwater Canyon Aquifer,
which
> serves the drinking water needs of more than 10,000 Navajo in
Crownpoint
> and other eastern agency chapters. It is also an important source of
> domestic and livestock water in the Church Rock-Mariano Lake
area.
>
> Chris Shuey, environmental health specialist with the Southwest
> Research and Information Center, said the Nuclear Regulatory
> Commission can not ignore the risk to Navajos.
>
> Uranium is dangerous at very low levels, and most regulatory
agencies,
> with the exception of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, are
beginning
> to recognize this," Shuey said.
>
>
************************************
Bob Dorman, KD7FIZ
redorman@theofficenet.com
"The Activist Page"
http://www.theofficenet.com/~redorman/welcome.html

 

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