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Navajo Nation is 'Back Peddling' by Allowing Uranium Transport through Dine' Communities and More Dumping on Utes
By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Feb. 8, 2025
TUBA CITY -- Leona Morgan, Dine' co-founder of Haul No!, said the Navajo Nation is now "back peddling" by allowing radioactive uranium waste to be transported through Dine' communities. This radioactive transport from the Grand Canyon means even more deadly waste for another Native community -- the White Mesa Ute community in Utah.
Speaking at a community forum in Tuba City on Saturday, Leona said there has been little or no information along the haul route. The Navajo government expects the Dine' Chapters on the route to each have an emergency preparedness plan. Leona asked if the Dine' communities are aware of this and whether the Navajo Chapters are certified to deal with radioactive emergencies.
"Who are their First Responders?"
Ultimately, Dine' will have to confront the Navajo President and the Navajo Department of Justice, she said.
"We were not included in that agreement," Leona said of the agreement between the Navajo Nation and Energy Fuels.
"There was no free, prior and informed consent," Leona said, quoting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. "The people in the communities were not consulted."
"How can they start transporting on February 12th, when there aren't even any checkpoints? We don't even have an air monitoring system," Leona said of the lack of preparation for radioactive transport on the Navajo Nation.
Energy Fuels plans to pass through Navajo communities with six to ten trucks of radioactive waste, beginning on Feb. 12, 2025.
Leona urged communities to organize, and pointed out that Navajo Chapters can have their own checkpoints.
With the new push for "Drill baby drill," by the U.S. President, the Navajo Nation faces an uncertain future, she said. The U.S. is investing money into the development of critical earth minerals and investing in Energy Fuels mill at White Mesa Ute.
"We need to push our government to do what we want -- not what the federal government wants."
"It's going to get worse because they think nuclear is clean energy," Leona said of the push for alternative energy.
The Navajo Nation's agreement with Energy Fuels means more dangerous radioactive dumping in the White Mesa Ute community. In the agreement, Energy Fuels states it will transport 10,000 tons of uranium-bearing cleanup materials from abandoned uranium mines within the Navajo Nation.
Leona was recently voted by the Navajo Nation Council to serve on the Diné Uranium Remediation Advisory Commission, in an advisory position to the Navajo President and Council.
Speaking in Tuba City on Saturday, Leona said Haul No! began in 2016 when it became known that the Pinyon Plain uranium mine would begin mining in the Grand Canyon. Now, there is the new battle as the Navajo Nation government has approved uranium transport through Navajo communities to the White Mesa Ute community.
Energy Fuels Pinyon Plain Mine, and the mill in southern Utah, threaten Native communities throughout the region.
The route used by Energy Fuels Inc. trucks carrying uranium ore from Pinyon Plain Mine to White Mesa Mill for processing in Utah. The route passes through Flagstaff before heading northeast through Navajo Nation land. (By Stephanie Smith/Grand Canyon Trust)
Speaking at the Community Forum here on Saturday, Leona said the trucks haul route will pass through the City of Flagstaff -- then Cameron, Tuba City, Kayenta and Mexican Water on the Navajo Navajo Nation -- before reaching the mill in Utah. The region was part of the Haul No! awareness campaign in 2017, with direct action training and an awareness campaign, beginning at the White Mesa mill and informing Navajo communities.
Now, the uranium mill has been operating for a year, and the uranium hauling began with radioactive trucks through Navajo communities in July. Leona described how the Navajo President became involved in July, along with the Arizona governor.
"A lot of people didn't realize it was just a pause."
"We know when people are aware, they can speak up and make change," Leona told those gathered in Tuba City. She described the recent efforts to shut down the mine and the push for a new environmental assessment of the risks and threats.
"We submitted 17,000 names on our petition to the governor, that didn't do anything." She said what did make a difference is when the Navajo President got involved.
However, the Navajo Nation does not have jurisdiction on the highways through the Navajo Nation. The state and federal government have jurisdiction over those highways. So, now, with the negotiations, the Navajo government has set restrictions on the transport, and the company has agreed. One of the restrictions is not hauling between 8 am and 3 pm, when the children are in school.
"The company is trying to look like the good guys, saying, 'We support tribal sovereignty' -- but they don't," she said.
The reality is that the pause was just for six months while the Navajo Nation was putting its regulations in place. The Navajo Nation is still working on these regulations and how to implement the new regulations, she said.
"The Ute Mountain Ute community is not happy with us," she said, adding that now there will be more radioactive waste hauled into the White Mesa Ute community in Utah.
"There was no free, prior and informed consent," Leona said, quoting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. "The people in the communities were not consulted."
"The other tribes -- Havasupai, Hualapai, are probably going to come after us over this, we need to speak up and tell the Navajo Nation that we do not want this," Leona said of the haul route through other Native lands and communities.
Leona described the battle in her community in the eastern Navajo Nation when the U.S. EPA announced its plan to take deadly radioactive waste from the Church Rock uranium spill in New Mexico and transport it to the uranium mill in the White Mesa Ute community in Utah.
"We said 'No!'" Leona said the Navajo Nation made a statement a couple years ago that it would not dump its radioactive waste on another Native community.
"Now they're back peddling, they are putting even more radioactive waste there."
Leona said the gathering on Saturday was held to hear from the people on their thoughts on the radioactive transport through their communities. She also asked, "Is the radioactive clean-up really clean-up?"
"This is not clean-up," Leona said. She explained how rare earth elements are needed for batteries for solar, cell phones and energy development known as transitional energy.
Based on the push for alternative energy, she said the company, Energy Fuels, plans to take uranium waste and process it for what it believes will be a big demand.
"What does this mean?" she asked, referring to the impact on Native communities. She said the new agreement opens up this whole new process involving radioactive waste being processed at the mill.
"They didn't explain it to us," she said, pointing out the Navajo Nation's new agreement, and the lack of consultation with Dine' communities.
Leona said the Navajo government is asking each chapter to provide an emergency response to the threat of the radioactive trucks passing through their communities. The Navajo government is not providing "a grand plan" in case of accidents and emergencies.
Leona questioned whether the chapters are certified to carry out an emergency response, whether each chapter has an emergency preparedness plan for radioactive emergencies, and who their First Responders are.
"Do they have the information?" Leona said, asking if the chapters have the information.
Leona said the First Responder in the case of an emergency is the truck driver -- but what happens if he is incapacitated. Then it is the first eye witness, which is essentially the Navajo police.
Encouraging those concerned to organize, she said, "We're here to listen to your concerns."
Leona praised the young people who are rising up to deal with this, like Bidí Roots. "They are like an answer to my prayers."
Ultimately, Dine' will have to confront the Navajo President and the Navajo Department of Justice.
"We were not included in that agreement."
With the new push for "Drill baby drill," by the U.S. President, the Navajo Nation faces an uncertain future, she said. The U.S. is investing money into the advancement of critical earth minerals and Energy Fuels mill at White Mesa Ute.
"We need to push our government to do what we want -- not what the federal government wants."
"It's going to get worse because they think nuclear is clean energy." She is also pointed out that there are Navajo councilmen supporting a new hydrogen pipeline, and oil and gas extraction.
Leona pointed out that the new solution to radioactive waste on the Navajo Nation is no solution at all.
While the new dump in Thoreau, New Mexico, bordering the Navajo Nation, is being hailed as "off the rez," she said of the Red Rock Landfill.
"Our relatives still live there, it's still Indian country to me."
Navajo Agreement with Energy Fuels Means More Radioactive Dumping in White Mesa Ute Community
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The new agreement allows for Energy Fuels six to ten trucks carrying radioactive ore to pass through Dine' Communities, past Dine' homes.
The Navajo Nation is only one of the Native communities at risk. The Pinyon Plain uranium mine south of the Grand Canyon is digging into the ancestral land of Havasupai. Supais' water source is at risk, while radioactive dust spews across their medicine plants and into the air they breathe.
Supai, Paiute, Hualapai, Dine', Hopi, and Ute, live on the radioactive haul route on their ancestral lands in what is known today as the Grand Canyon and Four Corners regions.
Energy Fuels agreement with the Navajo Nations means even more radioactive dumping in the White Mesa Ute community.
Energy Fuels announced the agreement with the Navajo Nation on January 29, 2025.
Energy Fuels said, "The company has committed to accepting and transporting, at no cost to the Nation, up to 10,000 tons of uranium-bearing cleanup materials from abandoned uranium mines within the Navajo Nation, which are primarily an unfortunate relic of old U.S. government uranium programs that began in the 1940s, in which Energy Fuels had no involvement."
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Tarp-covered radioactive hauling trucks of uranium ore from Pinyon Plain mines are unsafe.
Photo Blake McCord, Grand Canyon Trust. |
White Mesa Ute testified before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington in 2024, describing how Ute are sick from years of radioactive contamination in their community. Energy Fuels uranium mill is now bringing in radioactive waste from Japan and Europe.
"Our ancestors remains were desecrated to build the mill," Anferny Badback, Ute Mountain Ute at White Mesa, told the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights today in Washington. Badback testified that Energy Fuels uranium mill has contaminated the groundwater, plants, birds, wildlife, and air in his community in southeastern Utah.
The young people are getting asthma, and the people can no longer use their spring water for ceremonies. Ute must buy bottled water to drink, and no longer hunt because of the contamination. Now, the mill is bringing in international waste and has become a low-level radioactive waste repository, because of the lax standards of the state of Utah.
"We want the mill to be shut down," Badback told the Commission.
US EPA Deceives Public with Announcement of Abandoned Mine Cleanup
Havasupai, Dine', Ute, Arapaho and Lakota testified before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington on February 28, 2024, on the history of this environmental racism and the current threats.
Eric Jantz, legal director of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, pointed out to the Human Rights Commission that the U.S. EPA doesn't actually clean up the radioactive waste left from Cold War uranium mining and scattered radioactive tailings on the Navajo Nation -- it only announces plans to clean it up.
Janz testified that there are 524 uranium mine sites waiting to be cleaned up on the Navajo Nation. Zero of the mines have been fully cleaned up.
Navajo Agreement for Uranium Transport Dishonors Legacy of Klee Benally
Klee Benally, co-founder of Haul No! will be honored with a Nuclear Free Award in New York in March, which will be accepted by his mother Berta Benally. The Navajo Nation dishonored Klee's legacy by agreeing to the radioactive transport through the Navajo Nation, which Klee fought against during the last years of his life.
Read more:
Havasupai, Dine', Ute, Arapaho and Lakota testify before Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, by Censored News
Energy Fuels agreement with the Navajo Nation:
Hammon Trucking Inc. Emergency Response Plan:
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| Grand Canyon autonomous action Sunday, August 4, 2024. Photo: Haul No! |
Community Forum in Tuba City: Uranium Transport
Feb. 8, 2025
Join us from 12 -- 2pm for a community dialogue on Saturday, February 8, 2025 in Tuba City, Arizona regarding the transport of uranium ore through our communities. Haul No! will help host and facilitate to uplift community concerns. On January 29, 2025, Energy Fuels announced that it reached an agreement with Navajo Nation was regarding uranium ore transport regulations ending the temporary transportation pause. The agreement includes Energy Fuels to take 10,000 tons of abandoned uranium mine (AUM) waste from Navajo Nation to the White Mesa Mill, in Utah impacting Ute relatives. On January 30, 2025, Energy Fuels announced transport of uranium from Pinyon Plain mine across Western Navajo Nation to White Mesa Mill to begin on or around February 12, 2025.
Shut Down Pinyon Plain Uranium Mine in Grand Canyon: Awareness Walk
February 22, 2025
Haul No! This outreach rally, in solidarity with the work of Haul No! will meet at the Flagstaff City Hall lawn at 4:30pm on Monday, Feb. 10th in preparation for the trucks hauling uranium through Flagstaff before entering the Navajo Nation and other Indigenous lands. The effects most impact Indigenous communities living on traditional lands near the mine and mill, and on the transport route. The efforts of Haul No! are centered to protect those who have been and continue to be harmed by the horrors of nuclear colonialism for generations. There are many people in the Flagstaff community who care and have the resources available to stop this from happening. Let's make some noise and alert people to the dangers that this imminent threat poses to everyone! Let's work toward preventing this disaster by educating the public. Flagstaff Haul No! Solidarity is a collective advocating independent actions and Flagstaff folks to self organize for this area to prevent the harms of Pinyon Plain mine from reaching more vulnerable communities.
#haulno #flagstaffhaulnosolidarity #łeetsodooda #nouraniummining #nouraniumtransport #stopcanyonmine #stoppinyonplainmine #protectthesacred #waterislife #nativerights #environment #nouranium #uranium
#nonukes #nuclear
#kinłani
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1 comment:
Hey Brenda. Great reporting, as always. So, I noticed that Buu Nygren was sucking up to Trump at the inauguration and wondered what was up with that? I think Nygren was looking for an investor for the casino/resort that he wants to build. I'll bet a lot of folks aren't happy about the development. What have you heard?
https://opvp.navajo-nsn.gov/navajo-president-buu-nygren-approves-lease-for-700-million-horseshoe-bend-development-called-model-for-navajo-tourism/
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