Residents tell of mining's tragic impact

By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

Larry King shows a class of public health master's degree students where a uranium mine used to be near his property in Church Rock Friday afternoon. While environmentalists and students visited the Church Rock mine sites, Navajo Nation and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency personnel spoke with residents at the Church Rock Chapter House about plans to clean certain sites in the area. [Photo by John A. Bowersmith/Independent]

CHURCH ROCK, N.M. — Ed Carlisle of Church Rock Chapter used to sit in the back of the wagon and go with his grandfather to haul water. "He'd park in the lake and he would give me water to put in the barrel, and I had this barrel covered with a piece of cloth," he said.

"He used to pour the water in the barrel to get the tadpoles out. Now, we're pretty much doing the same thing. Water is really precious and scarce," Carlisle told U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and New Mexico Environment Department, and Navajo Nation EPA officials, who were at the chapter Friday to listen to community concerns regarding cleanup of the Northeast Church Rock Mine.

But this time, it's not tadpoles in the water they're worried about. It's radionuclides and heavy metals. And it's been there for years. So many years, in fact, Navajo residents were not necessarily impressed with EPA's accelerated cleanup plan, which ideally would wipe clean nearly 40 years of uranium mining in the area in one year.

Community member Robert Dodson told EPA, "The reason I wanted to come here today is to tell the people that are not from around here that there is a big issue about this uranium" that those "from 'civilization,' where you people are from," don't see.

"In these remote areas, people are still in need of electricity and water. And when people come in to develop something to make money on, on Indian land, and they go home and get rich on that, like Mr. George Bush, it hurts me. Because they leave here people sick.

"And you come here and tell us you're going to do this in one year it's not going to happen in one year," Dodson said. "The sickness people are getting is going to continue because of the vegetation, the ground. The uranium that soaked into the ground is going to take years. How are you going to clean that? It's not going to happen."

Dodson worked for the Kerr-McGee uranium mine in the 1960s and 1970s. "I used to be an underground electrician. We used to run blasting wire and I used to work down there and eat down there. We even drank water down there because the water was cool. We weren't aware of all this contamination that had gone on with uranium and underground water.

"When they do blasting, you know, you go in there and pull your blasting wire back out of there not knowing that you're being contaminated from all the dust particles that goes on. And today, you go to the hospital and you get an exam. The guy before me was talking about asthma. Yes, I have that, and the doctor says, 'There's nothing wrong with you.'

"Our medicine man in return tries to help us. Our medicine man tells us those are the herbs that will help us for maybe two months, two years, to be well again. I went to the hospital for a physical examination. I told my doctor, 'I don't know why I come over here. My medicine man tells me it's from this. I get herbs and I feel better again. When I go to the hospital, they give me medicine. I don't feel better.

"It costs money to pay for these medicine men. And do you know what the doctor told me: 'Just keep on doing what you're doing. Go see your medicine man.' And he's getting paid by the government to tell me that. So if you're here today to say that you guys are going to help us, I feel sorry for you," Dodson said.

Oh, that smell
Raphael Martin of Pinedale Chapter told state and federal officials, "At times, in continuation today, we smell what we smelled about 25 years ago. We smell the odor of the ponds. The odor of the dried-up ponds continues to blow over the mountain of where we live.

"In driving through that location today, it's going to make me wonder," he said. It's going to make me wonder excuse my language when in the hell is this place going to ever get cleaned?

"How long are we going to talk about what we're talking about today? When is someone going to really mean business to clean up that area? When? Nobody seems to have the answer."

Martin said he was serving as a council delegate when the first meeting was held after the July 1979 tailings spill released about 93 million gallons of tailings and pond water into the Rio Puerco. "They had a timeline (for cleanup), and for some reason, those timelines have maybe got covered by the wind or something, the dust.

"There seems to be no end. We just talk, talk, talk. Bring the people together, bring a sandwich and all that, saying we're going to do this, we're going to do that again there's no end to this.

"So many investigations have taken place. So many studies are continuing today. All that's doing is giving employment to those that are involved, because the investigations, the studies there's no end."

Martin said the Pinedale community wants to know when they are going to complete the cleanup. "We're depending on Navajo Nation EPA alot, but what are the productivities from there? What are the productivities of the Nation? None, as far as I know, other than the studies that we have currently going on. So far, there is nothing going on, but the wind is continuing to blow."

He told EPA's Andrew Bain that in order to complete the accelerated cleanup, they would have to collect data. How long is that going to take? Another 25 years? And then we're going to have to show disposal options. Where are they going to dump what they're going to collect?

"And then we're going to have a heck of a time meeting the local requirements, the county requirements, the state and the federal requirements. Which way are they (wastes) going to go? It's for darned sure they aren't going to fly, because we don't have an airport out there," he said.

"Our recommendation is we need to come together a little bit more, not to just talk and have sandwiches. We need to get to where we want to get. There's a mess back there and we just talk about it. Let's do something. I'd like to see some results."

Out of harmony
John Benally told EPA he lives where all the drainage comes together from the Church Rock mine. "I'm concerned about the people, the livestock, the land. Whoever signed the agreement for the mining of uranium, they compromised the health and safety of the people," he said.

"The uranium was used in a negative way. They used it as an atomic weapon. Unless we can fix that problem we will still have these problems. ... We should respect Mother Earth. This desecration of Mother Earth ... you fall out of harmony with Nature.

"I know. I worked down in the mine. There was a rock that came down. Maybe that was sort of a punishment. So I had to get the services of a medicine man," he said.

Benally worked in the mine 11 years, doing various jobs. "Before the mine was put up, they had exploration. They drilled holes here and there. They drilled wells every thousand feet so they could locate the uranium. And during that process they desecrated gravesites," he said.

The spill
Lorraine Livingston told EPA that back in the 40s and 50s, the mine area was a beautiful place to live. "Every home had sheep. My neighbor had a lot of sheep, and across the arroyo, that family had sheep. Now, you don't see anything over there."

The vegetation used to be good before the mine came. When they left, according to Livingston, they left the land where she lives pock-marked from drilling.

The sheep used to go drink from the ponds near the mine, she said. "We lost a lot of sheep. Once they get in, they don't come back out. Whatever it is gets stuck on their wool, even after they were all covered with dirt. They would go around to where the water used to run. It would get between their hoof and they can't walk good."

She said they were finally told not to go across the arroyo because of the tailings. "They put signs there, but I guess that was no good. Animals don't read."

When the dam on the south cell breached, Livingston said, "They didn't notify us right away that the tailings broke. Early in the morning when I got up, I heard water running down in the arroyo. I said it must be (raining) at Pinedale, because usually it rains in Pinedale and all our soil will be going by our homes."

But then she smelled something. "That water smells funny," she told her husband.

"As usual, my husband didn't say nothing. ... He went to work. I guess the next day on his way to work, he came upon water still down at the arroyo.

"There was rock where the sheep used to drink. He said, 'That's vanished. That water that's down there is red, or it looks like coffee,' he said. And then I said, 'Well, I told you it smells funny.' "