Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
5/1/2015
Navajo Nation President Ben Shell called on the prompt completion of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission license amendment that would enable the cleanup of the Church Rock uranium mine site near Gallup, N.M. to begin, according to a statement released late last week. The NRC staff issued last week in the Federal Register a finding of no significant impact for amendments to the ground water standards at the United Nuclear Corporation Superfund site, where the Church Rock site is located. This environmental review should pave the way for the issuance of a license amendment by the NRC. “I appreciate the action taken by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the final environmental review,” Shelly said in a statement. He added, “Again, I request that the license agreement request is quickly submitted, so that the cleanup of the northeast Church Rock mine can begin. There are hundreds of other sites across the Navajo Nation that must be addressed. We need swift action to cleanup these sites for the safety of the Navajo people.”
The Navajo Nation earlier this year received approximately $1 billion in a settlement that will aid in the cleanup of 50 abandoned uranium mine sites across the tribe’s land in Arizona and New Mexico. The money comes in conjunction with a larger settlement from the Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, the parent company of Kerr-McGee Corporation, which agreed to a settlement with the Department of Justice for $5.15 billion, a record sum from the federal government for the cleanup of environmental contamination. The Church Rock uranium mine site would top the list of cleanup sites ready for remediation, the Navajo Nation has said in the past. For the project to move forward, however, the United Nuclear Corporation (UNC) uranium mill site, located adjacent to Church Rock, needs a license-amendment from the NRC to enable disposal from Church Rock there, which is the preferred option of the EPA.
Assessing contaminated sites within the Navajo Nation and focusing on the cleanup of the Northeast Church Rock Mine Site and Tuba City Dump topped the priority list for the Environmental Protection Agency and four other federal agencies in their second five year plan to address the uranium contamination within the Navajo Nation, released last year. The five year plan attempted to better define the work needed to be completed along with clearer roles for each involved federal agency. Those include the EPA, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Department of Energy, the Indian Health Service, and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, in consultation with the Navajo Nation.
