Navajo Group to Take Uranium Mine Challenge to Human Rights Commission
By APRIL REESE of Greenwire
Tomorrow, Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining, with the help of
the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, will submit a petition to the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights arguing that the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission's decision to grant Hydro Resources Inc., a
license to mine uranium ore near Churchrock and Crown Point, N.M., is a
violation of international laws.
The groups contend the mines, first permitted by NRC in 1999, could
contaminate drinking water for 15,000 Navajo residents in and around the
two communities, which lie just outside the Navajo Nation. In 2005, the
Navajo's tribal government passed a law prohibiting uranium mining
within its borders.
"By its acts and omissions that have contaminated and will continue to
contaminate natural resources in the Dine communities of Crownpoint and
Church Rock, the State has violated Petitioners' human rights and
breached its obligations under the American Declaration of the Rights
and Duties of Man," the petition reads.
"We're very hopeful," said Eric Jantz, an attorney with the New Mexico
Environmental Law Center who is filing the petition on behalf of ENDAUM.
"I think we have very solid claims. It's always been our client's
position that clean water is a human right."
The United Nations also recognizes clean water as a human right, he added.
The groups cannot take their case to the Inter-American Court of Human
Rights, which is separate from the commission, because the United States
does not recognize the international court's jurisdiction, Jantz said.
ENDAUM and the law center are hoping the commission will put pressure on
the NRC and State Department to reverse the licensing decision.
The Navajo Nation is still suffering the aftermath of previous uranium
mining, which left hundreds of abandoned mines and myriad health
problems for Navajo people, including high rates of cancer, heart
disease and birth defects.
Former Navajo mine workers who removed uranium ore during the 1950s and
'60s to feed the buildup of the nation's Cold War nuclear arsenal
continue to seek workers' compensation and health care assistance. Just
last month, Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) reintroduced the "Radiation Exposure
Compensation Act," which would allow more of those former workers to
receive restitution.
"Residents already have to live with radiation and heavy metals," Jantz
said. The cleanup of abandoned mines from the last uranium boom is still
in progress. Most recently, Canadian firm Rio Algom Mining agreed to a
$2.5 million cleanup of two uranium-contaminated sites on the Navajo and
Hopi reservations in New Mexico and Arizona.
Raising case's profile
In addition to compelling NRC to reconsider the license for the new
mines, the groups hope to raise the profile of their case
internationally and drive home the point that uranium mining is a human
rights issue as well as an environmental one, Jantz added.
Officials with NRC declined to comment on the petition, saying they had
not seen the document. They also refused to comment on the groups'
decision to challenge the license in an international forum.
Mat Lueras, vice president of corporate development for Uranium
Resources Inc., Hydro Resources' parent firm, said the company had not
heard about the petition and also declined comment. URI hopes to open
the first New Mexico mine in 2013, according to company officials.
Last March, a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals in Denver ruled that NRC had adequately considered the potential
effects of the project in its analysis and included adequate
environmental safeguards (Land Letter, Sept. 23, 2010).
But critics of NRC's licensing of Hydro Resources' New Mexico mines
argued the agency should have evaluated radiation emissions from
existing waste piles in the area, including tailings left from past
uranium mining dating back decades. They also argue that NRC failed to
require sufficient protections for groundwater from the new mines.
The groups appealed the case to the Supreme Court, but in November the
justices decided not to review the lower court's decision. Hydro
Resources announced a few days later that it would move forward with the
project. On its web site, URI refers to its uranium holdings in New
Mexico as its largest asset.
The company plans to use an in-situ type of uranium extraction it says
has several advantages over traditional mining. For example, in-situ
recovery leaves uranium ore in the ground and extracts minerals by
dissolving the ore and pumping the solution to the surface.
The process, now widely used by uranium mining firms, generates no
tailings, but operations should be located "so that they do not
contaminate ground water away from the ore body," according to the World
Nuclear Association (Land Letter, April 24, 2008).
Groundwater concerns
An environmental impact statement for the project acknowledged that no
similar operation has fully restored groundwater quality to pre-mining
conditions. But URI has received a designation from U.S. EPA that
prohibits the aquifer from being used as a drinking water source. That
means the company will have to treat the water to meet health and safety
standards for livestock or irrigation use, but not for human
consumption.
Furthermore, radiation levels in the air will not be affected because
the company will use "down flow columns" to send radiation back
underground, according to company officials.
The company still must renew its outdated underground injection control
permit, which will be handled by the New Mexico Environment Department.
Jantz said that if the company cannot restore groundwater to drinking
water standards, the project should not be allowed to proceed. "When the
company says they'll restore groundwater, what that means is they'll
make a run at restoring it, but they can't fully restore it, so they get
a variance from the regulatory agencies," he said. "It's just on paper
-- it's a legal fiction."
Uranium prices, which plunged briefly after the Japan nuclear crisis but
have rebounded to around $68 for long-term contracts and about $56 on
the spot market, have risen in recent years as interest in nuclear power
development has grown as an alternative to greenhouse gas-emitting
energy sources like coal.
While the failures at Japan's Fukushima plant following the March 11
earthquake and tsunami have focused international attention on the
potential perils of nuclear energy, Jantz said the petition was in the
works even before the disaster in Japan.
"We actually decided to this long before Fukushima," Jantz said. "Our
clients have always been cognizant of the fact there are communities all
around the world that have suffered at the hands of the nuclear
industry."
Most of the uranium mining projects in New Mexico are being financed by
Japanese and other Asian investors, as well as some in Russia, he said.
Reese writes from Santa Fe, N.M.
Copyright 2011 E&E Publishing. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2011/05/12/12greenwire-navajo-group-to-take-uranium-mine-challenge-to-33718.html?pagewanted=all
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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