[ RadSafe ] Fwd: [graffis-l] Navajo Nation Outlaws Uranium Mining

[Norm Cohen]

fyi
norm

------- Forwarded message -------
From: "Mark Graffis" <mgraffis at vitelcom.net>
To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
Subject: [graffis-l] Navajo Nation Outlaws Uranium Mining
Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2005 20:14:04 -0400



Navajo Nation Outlaws Uranium Mining

The Associated Press
The Guardian.co.uk
Friday 22 April 2005

   Window Rock, AZ - The Navajo Nation has outlawed uranium mining and
processing on its reservation, which sprawls across parts of Arizona, New
Mexico and Utah and contains one of the world's largest deposits of uranium
ore.

Tribal President Joe Shirley Jr. must give the bill final approval. His
spokesman said Thursday that Shirley "strongly" supports it.

Mining companies began blasting holes on the reservation, which covers
27,000 square miles, in the 1940s and continued for nearly 40 years until
decreased demand closed the operations.

By then, the Navajos were left with radiation sickness, contaminated
tailings and abandoned mines. To avoid repeating the past, Navajo leaders
and grassroots organizations have been working for years to keep mining  
from
starting again.

The Navajo Nation Council voted 63-19 Tuesday in favor of the mining ban.
Several council delegates predicted the legislation will be challenged in
court - possibly as far as the Supreme Court.

Members of Navajo grassroots organizations celebrated outside the council's
chambers after the measure was approved.

"This legislation just chopped the legs off the uranium monster," said
Norman Brown, a member of one of the groups, Dine Bidzii. Dine is the
Navajos' name for themselves.

The legislation prohibits pit mining as well as "in-situ" processing, which
involves using a solution to leach out uranium and pump it to the surface.

Hydro Resources Inc. has been working with the federal Nuclear Regulatory
Commission for years to get approval for in-situ mining near the Navajo
communities of Crownpoint and Church Rock. The company estimated nearly 100
million pounds of uranium exist at the sites.

Hydro Resources has argued that in-situ mining is safer than older methods,
but opponents note that 15,000 people rely on the area's underground  
aquifer
and they fear contamination from the proposed operation.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/042205EB.shtml




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inner truth, men do not easily assume
the task of opposing their government's
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- Martin Luther King Jr.

 


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