 |
| Photo via Navajo Nation |
Navajo President Deploys Police to Stop Uranium Trucks
By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, July 30, 2024
Update: Navajo President Issues Executive Order to Halt Radioactive Uranium Trucks
Update: Two uranium trucks reached mill as tribal police pursed
WINDOW ROCK, Arizona -- Navajo President Buu Nygren deployed Navajo police today to stop trucks carrying uranium across the Navajo Nation.
Energy Fuels, showing reckless disregard for Havasupai, Navajo, Hopi and Ute, is now transporting uranium from Pinyon Plain uranium mine in the Grand Canyon, where uranium mining is endangering Supai water, then transporting the uranium across the Navajo Nation, past Hopi communities, to a dangerous uranium mill on White Mesa Ute ancestral land in southeastern Utah.
"I have deployed Navajo Police to stop the illegal transport of uranium across the reservation," Nygren said Tuesday morning.
“I am very disappointed that uranium is being hauled across the Navajo Nation right now."
"I was notified 30 minutes ago, and I have ordered the Navajo Nation Police to escort the transport vehicles off our land. The lack of notification to the Navajo Nation is a blatant disregard for our tribal sovereignty and exposes our Diné people to toxic uranium, a substance that has devastated our community for decades."
“As president, I do not approve of this transport and will continue to fight to ensure our people are protected from the actions of Energy Fuels,” Nygren said.
However, ABC News in Utah reports tonight that the trucks went through the Navajo Nation and reached the mill.
By the end of the day on Tuesday, Nygren said he learned that the trucks had made it to Utah, despite his deploying Navajo police to stop the trucks earlier in the day.
“They snuck through the Navajo Nation and they made it onto the Utah side, outside of the reservation,” Nygren said. “To me, they operated covertly to travel the Navajo Nation illegally. It’s very disappointing that they did that, that they smuggled uranium across our Nation which is very inappropriate.”
The Havasupai Tribal Council told tribal members today that Energy Fuels began hauling ore from Pinyon Plain Mine to Utah Processing Mill.
The Havasupai Tribal Council said it was informed by the U.S. Forest Service that Energy Fuels started hauling uranium ore from the Pinyon Plain Mine to their processing mill in Blanding, Utah.
"Originally, EFI agreed to provide the Forest Service with at least two weeks notice prior to hauling the ore. Instead, EFI provided no advanced notice and contacted the Forest Service after the haul trucks had already left the mine site," Havasupai Tribal Council said.
"EFI has shared that their hauling route will follow State Route 64 south to Interstate 40, then to US 89 through Flagstaff. EFI intends to utilize a route that will pass through the Navajo Nation."
"Since the mine’s reopening, the Navajo Nation has continuously opposed EFI hauling uranium through its reservation. This afternoon, the Tribal Council received information that the Navajo Nation President deployed the Navajo Nation Police to stop the trucks from entering the Navajo Nation. Unfortunately, the Navajo Nation Police were unable to stop trucks in time and EFI delivered the trucks filled with uranium to the processing mill in Utah."
"At this time, the Tribal Council will issue a statement on behalf of our Tribe continuing to oppose the mine, condemning the owner’s bad faith actions, and supporting the Navajo Nation’s efforts to stop the haul trucks from entering its reservation."
"Now although today’s news is frustrating to us, this is not the end of our fight against uranium mining. The Tribal Council and Uranium Committee will be discussing a plan of action in response to today’s events which may include a protest along the haul route."
"The Tribal Council will continue to inform the community about any updates from the mine’s operation and their impacts here in Supai."
Navajos said that between 6 and 8 trucks of uranium ore are scheduled to come through the Navajo Nation on Route A. Today, there were two trucks in Flagstaff at Empire Avenue and Route 66 around 9:30 am. July 30, 2024
United States Disregarded Hopi and Havasupai Sacred Way of Life
The final environmental impact statement for the uranium mine, Canyon Mine renamed Pinyon Plain, stated the impact on both the Hopi and Havasupai sacred way of life. And then it minimized and ignored their history and culture.
The U.S. Forest Service's environmental impact statement states:
"The Hopi and Havasupai Tribes have suggested that sacred religious sites, including ruins, graves and hunting areas, exist at or near the mine site and haul routes."
"In comments regarding other proposed actions on the Kaibab National Forest, the Hopi Tribe has expressed a belief that the earth is sacred and that it should not be subjected to digging, tearing or commercial exploitation."
"The primary concern expressed by Indian tribes relates to possible water quality impacts that might result from contamination of the Redwall-Muav aquifer by mine operation. Blue Spring, located in the Little Colorado River Gorge, apt>roximately 30 miles northeast of the mine si te, and Havasu Springs, located on the Havasupai Indian Reservation approximately 35 miles northwest of the mine site, both discharge from the Redwall aquifer. Havasu Springs is an important water source and economic asset to the Havasupai Tribe. Blue Spring is an extremely important sacre~ site for the Hopi Tribe."
"There is evidence that Hopi gather turkeys, pinion nuts and sacred herbs in the area near Tusayan. Turkeys are gathered around Twin Lakes, Skinner Ridge and Red Butte. These practices have religious significance. Hopi also hunt deer for both food and ceremonial purposes in the Tusayan area and visit ruins of Hopi ancestors."
"... it is acknowledged that commercial use of the Forest within the area of Hopi ancestral occupancy is inconsistent with these stated beliefs."
After acknowledging Hopi and Havasupai sacred places here in the environmental impact statement, the U.S. government then proceeded to disregard and minimize their beliefs, and proceeded with the mining permit.
Canada and Australia Mining Companies Profiteer in Indian Country
Energy Fuels of Canada, operating the Pinyon Plain uranium mine, is part of the wave of foreign-owned companies now targeting Native American communities, with total disregard for the people, land, water and sacred places.
Instead of championing a defense, Interior Sec. Deb Haaland, Laguna Pueblo, is promoting the destruction of Tohono O'odham and San Carlos Apache ancient sites in Arizona for the wind energy project of Pattern Energy, owned by the Canada Pension Fund. The tribes filed for a restraining order on Haaland, which a federal judge in Tucson denied. The federal court fight continues to stop the destruction of the bulldozers of SunZia transmission lines for the project.
Haaland is promoting the lithium mining now digging into the Paiute Massacre Site in Nevada by Canada's Lithium Americas, while Paiute and Shoshone women and elderly are charged in a lawsuit for protecting the remains.
In a wave of fake green energy projects deceptively operated by foreign companies that are destroying Native lands, poisoning the water, violating federal laws that protect sacred sites, and placing people, animals and plants at risk -- Haaland is promoting lithium mining into Hualapai's sacred spring in Arizona by the Australian-owned company Hawkstone Mining.
Further, the Biden administration has joined partners with the Australian-owned company Rio Tinto to fight Apaches in federal court to dig into Apaches Ceremonial Place, sacred Oak Flat, for a massive copper mine. Rio Tinto mining blew up 46,000 years of Aboriginal sacred culture and history in caves in Australia.
Grand Canyon Trust: Who Will Respond if the Uranium Trucks have an Accident?
Grand Canyon Trust said, "Canyon Mine, renamed Pinyon Plain Mine, sits near the south rim of the Grand Canyon and inside Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument, in a meadow below the Havasupai Tribe's sacred mountain, Red Butte, on the tribe's ancestral lands."
"Energy Fuels Resources, the Colorado-based subsidiary of a Canadian uranium company, owns the mine, and is transporting uranium ore through the city of Flagstaff, across the Navajo Nation (passing through the Navajo communities of Tuba City and Kayenta), and across state lines through Bluff and White Mesa, Utah to the White Mesa Mill, a mile from Bears Ears National Monument."
"The Havasupai Tribe has opposed the mine since the 1980s and fears contamination from the mine could migrate downward into the Redwall-Muav Aquifer, which supplies the tribe's drinking water. The mine has been plagued by flooding problems since miners pierced an aquifer in 2016."
"When uranium mining finally began at Canyon Mine (Pinyon Plain Mine) in December 2023, levels of heavy metals in groundwater pumped out of the flooding mine shaft skyrocketed."
The mine is "desecrating one of our most sacred sites and jeopardizing the existence of the Havasupai Tribe," the tribe said in a statement.
"A whole set of unknown and new problems will exist when the company begins transporting uranium over the land," the Havasupai Tribe has predicted.
"Energy Fuels Resources also owns the White Mesa Mill, where the ore from the mine is trucked for processing. The mill is located just up the road from the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe's White Mesa community. The tribe and the community strongly oppose the mill and are concerned that it threatens air quality, water quality, the environment, and public health."
 |
| Photo by Grand Canyon Trust |
What happens if there is an accident?
"Who will be notified and how, if one of the haul trucks has an accident or spills uranium ore? And who will be responsible for cleaning it up? This would depend on who has jurisdiction in the location where an accident occurs, and could involve state and federal agencies, but many small communities along the haul route don't have the resources or the training to respond to uranium ore spills," said Grand Canyon Trust.
"The uranium industry has a long history of poisoning land, water, and people across the Navajo Nation, where more than 500 abandoned uranium mines await cleanup. The Navajo Nation bans uranium mining and transport on its land, but the state of Arizona allows uranium to be transported on state highways that run through Navajo land."
The city of Flagstaff has long opposed the transport of uranium through the city and across Indigenous lands. As recently as February 2024, the Coconino County Board of Supervisors — the second largest county in the United States by land area — passed a resolution opposing uranium transport through tribal lands and the greater Flagstaff area, citing concerns about hauling "potentially threatening air quality and the health and welfare of those along the travel routes," Grand Canyon Trust said.
 |
Series at Censored News
Navajo President Deploys Police to Halt Uranium Trucks
Two Uranium Trucks Reached Mill as Tribal Police Pursued
Live in Cameron: Navajos Protest Uranium Trucks
Dine' in Cameron: No More Cancer! No More Death
About the author
Brenda Norrell has been a news reporter in Indian country for 42 years, beginning as a reporter at Navajo Times during the 18 years that she lived on the Navajo Nation. She was a correspondent for Lakota Times, Associated Press and USA Today. After serving as a longtime staff reporter for Indian Country Today, she was censored and terminated in 2006. She created Censored News as a result, which today is a collective. It has more than 23 million pageviews. Censored News has no ads, revenues, grants or salaries and is a service to Indigenous Peoples and human rights.
Article copyright Censored News
No comments:
Post a Comment