TERC Environmental News:

Navajos file petition against uranium mining in N.M.
Arizona Daily Sun
Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Navajo tribal members went to court Monday to try to stop plans for uranium mining near the Navajo communities of Church Rock and Crownpoint in northwestern New Mexico.

A petition filed in the 10th U.S. Circuit Court in Denver asks the court to reverse Nuclear Regulatory Commission orders in the past several years over proposals by Hydro Resources Inc. to mine uranium near the two communities.

The petitioners also want the court to revoke the NRC's license to Hydro Resources.

The petition, which lists NRC rulings dating back to 1999, argues that the NRC violated the Atomic Energy Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and its own regulations.

Eastern Navajo Dine Against Uranium Mining, the Albuquerque-based Southwest Research and Information Center and Grace Sam and Marilyn Morris of Pinedale, near the proposed Church Rock mine, filed the petition after losing their fight to overturn the NRC's uranium mining license to Hydro Resources.

The Navajo Nation banned uranium mining and processing on its land in 2005, but companies have been trying to revive it as uranium prices soar. Cibola and McKinley counties have passed resolutions supporting uranium mining, pointing to its potential to create jobs.

New Mexico-based Hydro Resources wants to inject chemicals into the ground to release uranium and pump the solution to the surface in a process called in situ leaching.

Hydro Resources did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press seeking comment.

The NRC issued the license despite Hydro Resources' failure to ensure it would protect the groundwater that is the sole drinking water source for 15,000 people, said the lead attorney for the case, Eric Jantz of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center in Santa Fe.

The case also argued that Hydro Resources has not ensured that residents would be protected from radiological air emissions in an area that already exceeds federal radioactivity standards from past mining contamination. Jantz also contends the company has not posted an adequate bond to ensure cleanup if the company is unable to reclaim land or water impacted by mining.

"Our clients stand a much better chance of protecting Navajo communities from unsafe uranium mining in federal court, which is unburdened by the pro-industry bias exhibited by the NRC," he said.

Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ruled that a 160-acre parcel near Church Rock is "Indian Country" -- meaning Hydro Resources must apply for an underground injection control permit from the EPA, not the state of New Mexico as it previously had done.

Tribal officials have said they want the EPA to make the determination, rather than the state, because the United States has a higher obligation to protect American Indian interests than states do.

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