EPA to Relocate Toxic Mine Waste from Navajo Nation
By Neely Bardwell
Native News Online
January 8, 2025
The Environmental Protection Agency will move uranium mine waste from Churchrock, New Mexico to the Red Rock regional landfill where it can be safely stored forever.
The federal agency signed an action memo to transport radioactive waste at the Quivira Mining Co. Churchrock Mine to a disposal site at the Red Rock regional landfill about six miles east of the Village of Thoreau. The cleanup will begin in early 2025 and continue for 6-8 years.
Cleanup of abandoned uranium mines set to start after Navajo Nation, EPA reach agreement
By Arlyssa Becenti
Arizona Republic
January 8, 2025
After years of demanding the cleanup of uranium waste at the Kerr-McGee Quivira Mines on the Navajo Nation community advocates got the news this week that the Environmental Protection Agency will remove waste rock from three areas of the site and move it to a new off-site repository.
The removal of over 1 million cubic yards of radioactive waste from the sites about 20 miles northeast of Gallup will begin in early 2025, the EPA said. The waste will be taken to a new off-site repository at Red Rocks Landfill east of Thoreau, N.M. The process, including permitting, construction, operation and closure of the repository, is expected to take 6-8 years.
EPA finalizes plan to move uranium mine waste to landfill near Thoreau
By Hannah Grover
New Mexico Political Report
January 8, 2025
Uranium mine waste rock that has been sitting for decades near the Navajo Nation community of Churchrock will be moved to a landfill six miles east of the Village of Thoreau.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency signed an action memo Monday finalizing the plan to transport the low-level radioactive material to the Red Rock Landfill property.
Environmental Protection Agency Approves Relocation of Uranium Mine Waste in New Mexico
By Isaac Cruz
KRQE News
January 8, 2025
NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – Radioactive waste left behind from uranium mines in New Mexico will now be relocated. This is following a decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
EPA gives first approval for moving uranium mine waste off Navajo Nation land
By Cathy Cook
Albuquerque Journal
January 8, 2025
Uranium mine waste northeast of Gallup is a step closer to being safely stored after the Environmental Protection Agency and Navajo Nation finalized a plan Monday to transport 1 million cubic yards of waste from the Quivira Mines site to a disposal cell near Thoreau.
EPA OKs plan to remove uranium mine waste near Navajo community
By Alaina Mencinger
Santa Fe New Mexican
January 8, 2025
The Environmental Protection Agency announced this week it has approved a plan to remove and store more than 1 million cubic yards of uranium mine waste from a Navajo Nation community near Church Rock.
EPA Signs Action Memo to Move Uranium Mine Waste from Churchrock to Red Rock Landfill
January 7, 2025
MASE Supports EPA Decision that will Protect Uranium Impacted Communities
Navajo people living with uranium mine wastes in the Churchrock area since the late 1960s today praised a decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) that will pave the way for disposal of more than 1 million cubic yards of wastes at a regional landfill property where it can be safely stored forever. …
NMELC Names ABQ City Council President Dan Lewis & Other Councilors Toxic Polluters of the Year for 2024
Announcement Revealed During Annual Environmental Justice Awards Event
December 13, 2024
Albuquerque, NM—The New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC) announced the winners of its Annual Environmental Justice Awards for 2024. The winners were celebrated during NMELC’s Annual EJ Awards event held on Thursday, December 12th at the Harwood Art Center in downtown Albuquerque. The five awards given out include the tongue-in-cheek “award” for Toxic Polluter, which was “awarded” to Dan Lewis, Klarissa Peña, Louie Sanchez and Brook Bassan. NMELC staff presented a mock “certificate” to the Toxic Polluter of the Year for harming the environment and the health of New Mexicans.
The trouble with tritium: Venting on hold as community concerns continue
By Alaina Mencinger
Santa Fe New Mexican
December 7, 2024
A plan to release vapors from containers of radioactive waste has been put on ice.
As Los Alamos National Laboratory and the National Nuclear Security Administration wait for regulatory approval and warmer weather, the venting of four 51-gallon, stainless steel pressure containers containing tritium waste will likely have to wait until the spring, at least.
Venting wasn’t scheduled for this year, as the New Mexico Environment Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hadn’t yet authorized the release, wrote LANL spokesman Steven Horak in an email to The New Mexican. Nevertheless, “readiness activities were conducted throughout the year” in case those approvals came though. …
Grassroots organization has been working 20 years to remove uranium waste from sacred homeland
By Alexandra Wittenberg
Navjajo-Hopi Observer
December 2, 2024
Bertha Nez was born in a hogan built by her grandfather in 1944 in the Red Water community, 15 miles north of Church Rock, New Mexico. She has lived there her whole life, and her umbilical cord is even buried in her family’s old sheep corral on the property.
In 1979, Church Rock became known as the site of the largest radioactive spill in U.S. history. Long-term residents like Edith Hood remember those who trudged through the contaminated areas with their sheep and cattle. The humans got sores on their legs. The sheep and cattle died. …
Nonprofit group critical of Los Alamos National Laboratory plan to dispose of radioactive waste
By Cathy Cook
Albuquerque Journal
November 19, 2024
An Española-based nonprofit is criticizing Los Alamos National Laboratory over its plans for disposing of radioactive gas.
Tewa Women United released two scientific technical reports Tuesday that assess LANL’s proposal to release tritium near White Rock. …
Tewa Women United says LANL tritium venting plan could put children at risk
by Hannah Grover
New Mexico Political Report
November 19, 2024
An indigenous advocacy group says Los Alamos National Laboratory’s plan to vent a radioactive form of hydrogen known as tritium into the air could put nearby residents, particularly children, at risk.
Tewa Women United has released two independent scientific reports backing those claims.
TWU is partnering with groups like the New Mexico Environmental Law Center in opposition of the tritium venting plan. …
Lawsuit Says Navajo Mine Cleanup Stalled by Mineral Rights Claims
by Alaina Mencinger
Santa Fe New Mexican
October 12, 2024
Nearly four decades after a uranium mine on Navajo land closed up shop, a site was proposed for permanent storage of its waste left behind.
A portion of the municipal Red Rock Landfill in Thoreau was identified for a “geotechnically engineered facility.”
The location was ideal to store the low-level radioactive waste, which includes dry dirt and rocks contaminated with uranium, as well as mining equipment, said Eric Jantz, legal director of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center. While the “hottest stuff” — the most radioactive debris — had already been removed from the mine site, there were remaining concerns about the health effects to nearby residents from long-term exposure to uranium-contaminated waste, as well as other heavy metals like cadmium and mercury. …
San Agustin Plains Decision Headed Back to Court
by Jessica Carranza Pino
El Defensor Chieftain
October 10, 2024
On September 23 Augustin Plains Ranch, LLC appealed the Final Order Granting New Mexico State Engineer’s Motion for Summary Judgment. The judgment upheld the denial of the application to pump 54,000 acre-feet of water a year from the San Agustin Plains basin.
The appeal will go to the New Mexico Court of Appeals. …
Diné Community Seeks Justice
by Laura Paskus
Our Land on New Mexico In Focus
KNME/NMPBS
September 27, 2024
This week, Laura Paskus sits down with two community members from Red Water Pond Road, where the waste sits now, to understand why they’re so desperate to get it away from their home. As one community member, Edith Hood, points out, she wishes the leadership of the Navajo Nation could find solutions that don’t pit Diné communities against one another.
View program at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ6Xnp-J10c