WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. – One reason Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren deployed tribal police this week is because of his priority to clean up abandoned uranium mines and mills.
On Tuesday, the President called Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety Director Michael Anderson to have Navajo police intercept Energy Fuels Resources, Inc., trucks traveling on U.S. 160 on the Navajo Nation. According to the U.S. Forest Service, two trucks were transporting uranium ore to the White Mesa Mill in Blanding, Utah. They were illegally crossing the Navajo Nation to get there.
Between 1944 and 1986, more than 30 million tons of uranium ore was extracted from the Navajo Nation for America’s national security to build the first nuclear weapons. Navajo miners extracted uranium ore without protective gear other than hard hats.
Years later, the legacy of their radiation exposure contamination and its impact continues its devastation, exposing Diné households near the mine sites and leading to premature diseases and death among Navajos and their families who were exposed.
“Cleanup of these 500 abandoned uranium mine and mill sites is a major priority of my administration,” President Nygren said. “It is why I deployed the Navajo Nation police to block what I think is the illegal transport of uranium ore across the Navajo Nation. Cleanup must happen first, and the trauma associated with premature sickness and death from the legacies of it.”
On July 30, President Nygren met with U.S. EPA Region 9 officials and Navajo EPA about the ongoing status and clean-up of uranium waste in Eastern Navajo Agency, the Lukachukai Mountains Mining District and in Cove, Ariz.
According to the U.S. EPA Region 9, cleanup at the Northeast Church Rock Mine will begin in 2025, with disposal of 1 million cubic yards off the Navajo Nation to a nearby site in Church Rock, N.M., managed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The United Nuclear Corporation operated the Northeast Church Rock Mine from 1967 to 1982.
Other clean up happening in 2025 in the Eastern Navajo Agency include the Charles Huskon #12, with El Paso Natural Gas as the potential responsible party.
“The Eastern Agency sites are critical for EPA to address first because they are located nearest to existing communities and host a significant amount of the overall volume of waste on the Navajo Nation,” said Michael Montgomery, director for U.S. EPA Region 9’s Superfund and Emergency Management Division.
In the Lukachukai Mountains Mining District, U.S. EPA 9 reported that it added 11 unfunded mines to the record for cleanup. The mining district was recently designated a Superfund site in March, meaning that is a priority by the federal government to clean up.
EPA Region 9 said that the Tronx Cover Transfer site in Cove, Ariz., disposed of 13,731 cubic yards of uranium waste to a landfill in Colorado. Restoration at the site is happening, according to the EPA.
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