Environmental groups, SW tribes stand together to promote clean, renewable energy

Written by ANDY BESSLERr, Sierra Club, Tribal Partnerships Program
Friday, 02 October 2009 21:48

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – As Hopi and Navajo leaders in the American Southwest evaluate their energy policies, the Sierra Club and other environmental groups remain committed to working with their tribal partners to find clean energy solutions that work for everyone.

"We are proud of our longstanding partnerships with tribal leaders in the Southwest, and we are committed to supporting efforts to transition from dirty coal to clean energy solutions," said Sierra Club President Allison Chin. "Together, we can rekindle our economy, reduce greenhouse gases and support people who have been left in the dust by a dangerous and dirty, coal-based economy."

For decades, Southwestern tribes have suffered from poisoned groundwater, air pollution, and sacred land destruction caused by coal mines and power plants. But the Navajo Nation’s recent unanimous green jobs resolution and the solar power projects in the Hopi village of Hotevilla are strong signs that clean energy solutions are gaining momentum. Dirty coal pollution also threatens nearby Grand Canyon National Park, a treasure for all Americans.

"We, the Hopi/Tewa people, have worked closely for many years with our allies from the environmental community to protect sacred lands from development and to stop uranium mining from poisoning our water," said Alph H. Secakuku, Sipaulovi Council Representative for the Village of Sipaulovi, Second Mesa, Arizona, Hopiland. "We will continue to work together—tribal communities and other clean energy jobs advocates—to bring green economic development to our lands that respects our air and water."

A report soon to be released by Natural Capitalism Solutions (NCS) shows in stark detail how a combination of renewable energy development deployed with aggressive energy efficiency measures provides far more, long term, sustainable job creation, along with overall economic benefits, than traditional sources such as coal.

"Black Mesa Water Coalition appreciates the non-native individuals and environmental organizations that have supported our leadership as a Navajo grassroots organization," said Black Mesa Water Coalition Co-director Enei Begaye. "Native grassroots people are and should be in the lead on these issues in and around tribal lands."

"We were quite amazed," said report author Paul Sheldon, Senior Economist of NCS. "In some cases the models show ten times the number of jobs created from certain solar technologies verses coal-based generation." Sheldon said the lands of the Southwest hold some of the country's greatest solar and wind potential, resources that will still be there centuries after the last ounce of coal has been mined and burned.

To address climate change and to support communities, Southwest tribes and environmental groups have worked in partnership for years to promote clean energy, health and water issues by cleaning up dirty coal plants and promoting solar and wind projects on the reservations.

"NRDC is proud to have longstanding relationships with Tribal Nations across the country," said Phil Gutis, communications director for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "We are committed to continuing our work with Tribal Nations, including local Navajo allies, to find productive, clean and sustainable economic development opportunities that power and protect their communities."

"It is truly heartening to see that the indigenous grassroots organizations have become highly proficient in working with their governments from the local to the central levels," said Tony Skrelunas, Native America program director for Grand Canyon Trust and former Navajo Nation executive. "This is something that should be welcomed by all Navajo and Hopi communities since many members of these organizations will be our future leaders."

"Global warming is a threat on and off Navajo and Hopi lands," said Hertha Woody, a member of the Navajo Nation and a Sierra Club volunteer leader in Flagstaff. "There is great potential for solar and wind projects to help reduce the emissions that contribute to global warming, and we are proud to continue to support a transition from coal to clean energy that will create a more sustainable economy."

Sierra Club is honored to work with our tribal partners in transitioning to a clean energy future, including the Black Mesa Water Coalition, Dooda Desert Rock, Hopis Organized for Political Initiatives (H.O.P.I.), the Navajo Green Economy Coalition, To’ Nizhoni Ani, C-Aquifer for the Diné, and other community organizations.

http://nativetimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2460:environmental-groups-sw-tribes-stand-together-to-promote-clean-renewable-energy&catid=56&Itemid=32

No to uranium mining: Tribes set meeting in N.M. next month

Sep 22

Indigenous Peoples from all over North America will converge at Acoma Pueblo next month to join in an inter-tribal campaign to end the latest uranium boom threatening communities throughout Indian Country, Kathy Helms of the Gallup (N.M.) Independent’s Dine bureau reports here.

The 7th Indigenous Uranium Forum will take place Oct. 22-24 in Acoma Pueblo at Sky City Hotel. The Forum began 22 years ago with a series of conferences on the environmental and health impacts of uranium development in the Grants Mineral Belt in New Mexico. And, as Helms writes, it’s grown into a vehicle for strategy development and coordination of communities affected along the entire lifeline of nuclear power – from uranium mining in the Grants Mineral Belt to nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain.

Forum organizer Anna Rondon says the present political climate is perfect for organizing nationally. “For the first time in 60 years, indigenous peoples in North America have the greatest opportunity to stop further uranium/nuclear development and to promote renewable energy,” she says.

Gwen Florio

http://buffalopost.net/?p=3129

Northern Ariz. tribes united against uranium mines

10:46 AM MST on Thursday, September 17, 2009
By FELICIA FONSECA / Associated Press Writer

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) -- The Hualapai Tribe has renewed a ban on uranium mining on its land near the Grand Canyon, joining other American Indian tribes in opposing what they see as a threat to their environment and their culture.

The tribal ban adds to a temporary mining ban on nearly 1 million federally owned acres around the Grand Canyon. The combined actions mean uranium-bearing lands in northern Arizona open to companies hungry to resume mining are growing scarce.

Much of the uranium in Arizona is in the northwest corner of the state with other deposits on the Navajo Nation and other tribal lands. The high-grade ore used in nuclear energy and for medicine is especially attractive at a time when prices for uranium have risen.

But members of northern Arizona tribes say it's not worth putting their health, water and land at risk, particularly when contamination from past uranium mining operations hasn't been fully addressed.

"Contamination emanates from mining, does not know any boundaries and it could easily cross community after community without them ever knowing," said Robert Tohe, a member of the Navajo Nation, which banned uranium on its 27,000 square-mile reservation that spans three states in 2005. "I think that's the real danger, and that's why tribes have become unified."

Tribes have long struggled to develop their economies, so when mining companies promised jobs and a revenue stream decades ago, many American Indian tribes jumped at the chance to work in the mines, particularly on the Navajo Nation and around Grants, N.M.

Thus far, mining companies have been hard-pressed to convince tribes that the health risks and environmental degradation they associate with past uranium mining would not occur with new mining operations, said David Brett, president and CEO of Pacific Bay Minerals Ltd. The Vancouver, Canada, company had been in negotiations to explore for uranium on the Hualapai reservation, where tribal leaders renewed a ban this month.

"There is a perception out there that is very hard to dislodge that it poses this massive health risk," he said.

While it wasn't known how much uranium could be mined from the nearly 1 million-acre Hualapai reservation, Brett said previous work had shown there was potential.

"This is what made it so attractive; it's basically unexplored territory," he said. "It's geologically crying out to be explored."

The frustration is just as evident on the nearly 1 million-acre area around the Grand Canyon that the Interior Department in July blocked from any new mining claims for a two-year period.

Sydney Hay, president of the Arizona Mining Association, said decisions by the federal government and tribes to prohibit mining in northern Arizona means less high-paying jobs. She said it also limits the state's ability to provide low-cost energy to its citizens.

She called decisions by the Hualapai, Navajo, Havasupai and Hopi tribes to ban uranium mining shortsighted.

"It's not your grandfather's mining industry anymore," she said. "There are some legacy sites that have given uranium mining a bad name, but the way to fix that is to clean up those legacy sites."

Tribal members don't see that happening and say taking the companies' word would be difficult.

Both the Navajo Nation and the Hopi tribe have sued or threatened to over cleanup of uranium and other radioactive waste from their land near Tuba City, and other tribes have cited health effects from breathing in dust in areas where uranium was mined, groundwater contamination and livestock born with mutations.

"I think we have good reason to ignore corporate America, the mining companies," said Manny Pino, a member of Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico who teaches American Indian studies at Scottsdale Community College.

The simple fear of environmental, groundwater and air contamination was enough to prompt the Havasupai tribe to issue one of the earliest bans against uranium mining among Arizona tribes. Tribal members live in a deep gorge off the Grand Canyon that is accessible only by foot, helicopter or mule.

"It will travel in the air and it will travel in the water," said tribal member Carletta Tilousi. "If we did tests right now, maybe there will be such evidence."

http://www.fox11az.com/news/topstories/stories/kmsb20090917jc-uranium-mines-opposed-tribes.18c507645.html

Acoma to host uranium forum

Published Thursday, September 17, 2009 4:49 PM MDT

ACOMA PUEBLO - An intertribal group, which opposes the resumption of uranium mining in the Grants Mineral Belt, will conduct a forum on Oct. 22-22 at the Sky City Casino Hotel.

The Seventh Indigenous Uranium Forum will address the prospect of renewed uranium mining in the Grants area as well as the proposal to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

Some recent energy proposals emphasizing the use of nuclear power as a partial solution to global warming threats have led to renewed fervor in the uranium mining sector.

Because many of the negative aspects of uranium mining have adversely affected Native peoples disproportionately to their numbers in the greater population, the Indigenous Uranium Forum was organized in 1987 to address issues facing native communities.

The forum will focus on uranium developments being proposed near Mount Taylor and throughout the Grants Mineral belt, but will also address the health aspects of uranium mining, the implications of U.S. energy policy as well as opportunities afforded by the emerging green economy.

The forum will also offer opportunities for indigenous communities to network, organize and strategize.

During the past 22 years, the forum has developed into a vehicle for strategy development and coordination among the communities affected along the whole process of nuclear power from uranium mining to waste disposal.

Look for an in-depth story on the Seventh Indigenous Uranium Forum in next Tuesday's Beacon.

For more information visit www.siuf.net/index.html.

EPA to rebuild uranium-contaminated Navajo homes

This September 2008 picture provided by the Environmental Protection Agency shows the demolition of a home in Red Valley area of the Navajo Nation that was found to be contaminated by uranium. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is prepared to spend up to $3 million a year to demolish and rebuild uranium-contaminated structures across the Navajo Nation, where mining left a legacy of disease and death. (AP Photo/EPA)

By FELICIA FONSECA – 54 minutes ago

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — The federal government plans to spend up to $3 million a year to demolish and rebuild uranium-contaminated structures across the Navajo Nation, where Cold War-era mining of the radioactive substance left a legacy of disease and death.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its Navajo counterpart are focusing on homes, sheds and other buildings within a half-mile to a mile from a significant mine or waste pile. They plan to assess 500 structures over five years and rebuild those that are too badly contaminated.

"These families, with the resources they have, they would not be able to put up a new home for themselves," said Lillie Lane, a spokeswoman for the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency. "We don't know how radiation in the home affected these families, but in the end people will be living in safe homes."

Between the 1940s and the 1980s, millions of tons of uranium ore were mined from the 27,000 square-mile reservation that spans Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Many Navajos, unaware of the dangers of contamination, built their homes with chunks of uranium ore and mill tailings.

The U.S. EPA estimates it will cost $250,000 to demolish each structure, haul away the debris and rebuild. The residents of contaminated homes will not be charged for the rebuilding.

"If we find more homes that are contaminated, we certainly will work to find the resources to address them," said Clancy Tenley, associate director for tribal programs at the EPA in San Francisco.

The effort is part of a five-year plan that expires in 2012 in which a number of federal agencies joined together to address uranium contamination and its effects on the Navajo people. Navajos who toiled in the mines and their dependents have suffered or died from cancer, lung and kidney disease, and other health problems caused by exposure to low levels of radiation over time.

"There is growing confidence that each agency is stepping up to its responsibility and doing more," said Stephen Etsitty, director of the Navajo EPA.

So far, the U.S. EPA has assessed 117 structures and demolished 27 of them. Thirteen have been or will be rebuilt, and the owners of the others received financial settlements.

Lane has done much of the outreach work, traveling to homes across the reservation to advise families of the EPA's efforts and securing agreements to allow officials to assess structures they believe are contaminated. She said most families are cooperative, though some have rejected the assessment without reason.

Crews measure the background levels of radiation against levels in the structure. If the levels are high, families are asked to move away from the property while it is demolished and rebuilt. Arrangements are made for them to stay in hotels and for their livestock and crops to be cared for if needed, Etsitty said.

With more than 500 abandoned uranium mines across the vast reservation, EPA officials acknowledge that the issue of uranium contamination is bigger than assessing and rebuilding structures. "We might have taken care of a good piece of the problem," Lane said, "(but) that's just a little part."

Navajo EPA officials worry about recontamination when it rains and contaminated soils are carried toward homes or into the drinking water supply. The caps that cover some former mining sites are eroding, and Etsitty said "we run the risk of the exposure happening again."

Tenley said that President Barack Obama is seeking $7.8 million in the 2010 federal budget to work on structures and abandoned mines on the Navajo reservation.

The project is stretching the staff at Navajo EPA thin and has forced other projects to be put on the back burner, Etsitty said. For every three U.S. EPA officials who go out in the field, two Navajo staffers must accompany them, partly to serve as interpreters.

The U.S. EPA has taken notice of the Navajo EPA's efforts and is honoring the agency in the tribal capital of Window Rock on Tuesday.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iE9YcrnAhGi4nnO016XBqoWm9yHAD98QICOO4

Deadly Water: Part 2 - Mohawk Protest Continues

Black Falls: Water Sources, But None To Drink
Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

BLACK FALLS, Ariz. — The Navajo Nation has weathered severe drought conditions for about the last 20 years, so when a water source presents itself, the last thing usually considered is whether it might be contaminated.

“Water is precious,” said Eleanor Peshlakai, 67, of Black Falls. “Last year I was hauling water in my truck during the middle of a real dry spell. As I was filling up at a water trough, some of the water sprayed out from the hose and out of nowhere the lizards came running. They were thirsty.

They, too, are suffering the drought, just like the humans, waiting for any form of moisture.”

Peshlakai used to haul water from Box Spring, a source now posted for uranium contamination by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Last year, EPA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sampled approximately 250 unregulated water sources and found 22 of those exceeded drinking water standards for radionuclides. Four are in the Black Falls area.

Lillie Lane from Navajo Nation EPA and Zoe Heller from U.S. EPA spent weeks posting warning signs at springs and livestock watering points, and along with representatives of the DINEH Project conducted outreach at impacted chapters.

Despite their efforts, word apparently has not trickled down to residents in some of the more isolated areas of the reservation. Don Yellowman and Marsha Monteresky of the Forgotten People said they have documented at least 14 families in the area of Box Spring alone that are still using uranium-contaminated water for personal consumption.

Not Safe To Drink

Rolanda and Larry Tohannie live near Box Spring and continue to utilize the bad water. They did not know it was contaminated until recently when they went to fill up the gallon water jugs they carry in the trunk of their car.

Since they do not have a pickup, they get water from the pipe that feeds the livestock troughs rather than pulling into the water station and loading 55-gallon barrels from the overhead pipe. It was only by accident that Larry stumbled on the metal warning sign embedded in concrete.

“Water from this well is not safe to drink,” the sign states.“This water has been tested and found to exceed Navajo EPA and U.S. EPA human drinking water standards for uranium or other contaminants. Navajo Nation policy is that livestock-use-only wells are not to be used for human drinking water.”

Rolanda, 46, has lived in the Box Spring area off and on since she was 5 years old and grew up drinking the water.

Now, she and Larry have a permanent home just a few hundred yards from the house where she was raised by her grandparents.“Twenty-five years ago I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

They gave me radiation and now I’m taking medication, which I have to take for life. I need to go back to the clinic to get my blood drawn again so they can regulate my thyroid.

I don’t have any thyroid, so it’s just replacements,” she said.“About 13 to 15 years ago I was going into the hospital in Phoenix and I had really bad acid reflux. I just kept throwing up. I didn’t know what it was from. They told me that I had esophagus cancer. It was at the very first stages, so now it’s what they say, in remission.”

She has a sister who has been diagnosed with stomach cancer, she said.“Larry has heart problems and the doctors told him it’s not possible he can do heavy work. He just doesn’t have the strength to do it any more. So we’re just taking care of one another the best way we can. We don’t have reliable transportation and water is right near there, so we just run down there and get the water.”

At first, Rolanda was frustrated, she said. “Now I’m just like, ‘OK, I don’t think anybody can do anything.’ There’s people that come down with their children and they carry buckets and put it into the barrels every day, day and night. I know people that drink it and give it to the cattle,” she said, lifting a dead frog out of the trough with a stick.

Nina Tohannie, Rolanda’s sister-in-law, understands her feeling of frustration. “That’s the feeling that probably set in 15 to 20 years ago, at least for me. ... At that time I was really voicing what I thought and felt – people just come in and they study us and then they leave and there’s no return.

“Now, people are advocating for us and that helps. Hopefully somewhere, somehow they can come together and realize that it is an emergency situation. It’s a public health issue,” she said.

Grassroots

The Forgotten People grassroots organization was awarded a $20,000 Environmental Justice grant from U.S. EPA earlier this year and has been using the money to identify solutions, such as getting exterior elevated water tanks for Black Falls families that do not have access to piped water.

“I think it is very important that we do not just complain,” Nina said. “We need to go forward and help other communities have safe clean drinking water. We need to replicate what was done here in the Black Falls community.

Now we need a water truck, well maintained roads and access to safe, clean and affordable drinking water.”

Clancy Tenley of U.S. EPA said his agency’s goal has been to find wells that may be contaminated with uranium, sample them, post them if they are contaminated, and do public outreach. Additionally, EPA is trying to find alternative sources of water for residents in impacted areas.

“Together with Indian Health Service we are constructing new water sources in Black Falls, Monument Valley, Dennehotso and also Sweetwater. These are projects that are now in line for funding,” he said. The projects will serve families in the vicinity of contaminated wells so they have an alternative without driving long distances.

EPA also has invited the Navajo Nation to apply for five water trucks to do water-hauling pilot projects. “We hope to get funding to Navajo Department of Water Resources in the fall and they may be able to select this area and other areas like it on the reservation for this pilot water-hauling project,” Tenley said.

“We are going to test approximately 100 more wells this fall in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control. We’ll be sampling some wells that we were not able to get to last time because they were frozen or it was too muddy to get in.

"We’ll sample in the area where CDC did their study, and then we’ll do a few in the area of homes located really close to mines.”

EPA Superfund officials have visited area residents three times in the past year – something virtually unheard of among most federal agencies.“We were there the day Katherine Peshlakai turned on her faucet,” Tenley said. “It was very inspiring to us.”

Last August they met with area residents for about eight hours. “Every single person said the same thing. They said, ‘The roads are not good, there’s no power, but what we really want is water,’” he said.

“I was so thankful that there is somebody that is down here that really cares,” Rolanda said. “We need good, safe drinking water to maybe let us live like five to 10 years longer. If they can’t pave the road, then just grade it. It’s terrible out here.”

http://nativeunity.blogspot.com/2009/06/deadly-water-part-2.html

Uranium Mining Firm Asks For Appeals Court Review

Comment: Greedy uranium co., go back and mind your own business. Most places in the area are already SuperFunds sites where the other uranium co. just left the land and water polluted. So the so call new mining method, ISL, In-situ leaching which is not new, used in the 1940-50 in Europe which left a mess. ISL uses the following chemicals, acid or alkali, sounds nasty and will ruin the water!!! No uranium mining or milling anywhere in the world. Let's get real and try modern green power, which is cheaper and does last forever!!


Company Challenges EPA Ruling That Mining Site Is On American Indian Land
POSTED: 3:12 pm MDT June 1, 2009

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A uranium mining company said it will ask a federal appeals court to review an April decision that a proposed uranium mine site in western New Mexico is on American Indian land.

The Lewisville, Texas-based Uranium Resource Inc. said in a news release it will ask the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver for an "en banc review" of the decision that sided with the Environmental Protection Agency.

Such a review would bring the case before the entire 10th Circuit Court.

A three-judge panel denied a petition from URI subsidiary Hydro Resources Inc., which challenged an EPA ruling that the site near Church Rock where it hoped to develop uranium mines was on Indian Country.

The ruling makes it harder for Hydro Resources to get the necessary groundwater injection permits.

http://www.koat.com/news/19625998/detail.html