Navajo EPA: Feds reluctant to move on uranium cleanup

By Cindy Yurth
Navajo Times, DECEMBER 13, 2007

CHINLE - A meeting of federal agencies involved in the cleanup of radioactive sites on the Navajo Nation was "a good start," but not the definitive call for legislation the Navajo delegation was hoping for.

That's according to Navajo Environmental Protection Agency executive director Stephen Etsitty, who attended the Dec. 5 meeting in Washington, D.C., along with Attorney General Louis Denetsosie.

The meeting was a follow-up held by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., after he called federal agencies on the carpet during an Oct. 23 hearing on the legacy of the Cold War uranium boom before the House Committee on Oversight and Governmental Reform.

Waxman, who chairs the committee, had asked the agencies - the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, U.S. Department of Energy, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Indian Health Service - to come up with a cleanup plan for the 1,300 abandoned uranium mines, mills, structures and tailings piles left behind on Navajo land when the bottom dropped out of the uranium market in the 1980s.

Waxman had specifically asked for dollar amounts on cost and what legislative authority would be necessary, but those specifics were conspicuously absent from the agencies' reports, Etsitty said.

"We did see some action plans drafted," he noted, "but as far as requests for additional authority or additional resources, that really didn't come up."

A possible exception is the energy department, which submitted proposed legislation directly to the committee. Etsitty did not see the legislation, but was told it contained language to extend DOE's authority to clean up abandoned mine sites under the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act of 1978, which expired in 1998.

"If we could get the DOE's authority under UMTRCA extended, that would be very helpful," Etsitty said.

At the earlier hearing, Navajo officials had asked for $500 million and 20 full-time USEPA employees assigned to uranium cleanup on the Navajo Nation, but those figures were not addressed by the agencies.

Etsitty believes the agencies' vague response to Waxman may reflect the tension between the Democratic-led House of Representatives and federal agencies that are under the Bush administration.

"I'm sure the Office of Management and Budget has been scrutinizing the action plans and really restricting any kind of commitment of additional resources," he said.

Still, Etsitty praised Waxman's leadership, saying this is the most attention the uranium issue has gotten in Congress in years.

"He's really trying to open the door to the federal agencies to ask from Congress what they need," he said.

Waxman has called for another follow-up meeting in six months to further develop the action plans.

"Hopefully the federal agencies will be able to come back in six months with requests for additional tools that would be provided by legislation ... new authorities or renewed authorities," Etsitty said.

"We will continue to use our time in D.C. and our people in the (Navajo Nation) Washington office to impress upon our folks in Congress that we need this to form into legislation, so we can make a serious start on lessening the risks posed by radiation here on the Navajo Nation."

In cases where the companies that left the mess still exist, the Navajo EPA will lobby them directly for help.

"We know generally who these companies are, and, at least in a couple of examples, we have been able to work directly with them to get them to commit some resources," Etsitty said.

This has already borne fruit near Tuba City, where El Paso Natural Gas Co. is working with the tribe to pressure DOE for additional cleanup money for the old Rare Metals Inc. site, which the company acquired after it had ceased operations.

Following a federally funded cleanup of the old Rare Metals mill, arsenic contamination in groundwater was discovered and will require additional money to clean up.

"We're very hopeful that together with the Navajo Nation, we can get DOE to allocate some resources to get this site cleaned up," said Richard Wheatley, an El Paso spokesman at corporate headquarters in Houston.

Other companies, like United Nuclear Corp., are under a court order to clean up their sites. Work is proceeding on cleaning up the abandoned UNC mine north of Church Rock, N.M., Etsitty said.

"Options are being looked at, and at some point soon we will have a short public comment period," he said. "By the spring we should be seeing construction equipment at the mine site."