EPA awards $220 million for uranium mine cleanup on Navajo Nation
From the late 1940s through the 1960s, Kerr-McGee mined more than 7 million tons of ore on or near the Navajo Nation, leaving behind uranium mine sites.
Credit: Danika Worthington
Klee Benally of the Navajo Nation at a 2016 protest outside the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, demanding cleanup of abandoned uranium mines. Even though mining stopped decades ago – and was banned by the tribe in 2005 – the fight to clean up the toxic sites has lingered. Author: Cronkite News, Haleigh Kochanski Published: 2:51 PM MST February 16, 2021 Updated: 2:51 PM MST February 16, 2021
WASHINGTON The Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it will award contracts worth up to $220 million to three companies for the cleanup of some of the hundreds of abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation.
EPA awards $220 million for uranium mine cleanup on Navajo Nation Klee Benally of the Navajo Nation at a 2016 protest outside the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, demanding cleanup of abandoned uranium mines. Even though mining stopped decades ago - and was banned by the tribe in 2005 - the fight to clean up the toxic sites has lingered. (Source: Cronkite News) By Haleigh Kochanski | February 15, 2021 at 7:52 AM MST - Updated February 15 at 7:52 AM
WASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday, Feb. 11, it will award contracts worth up to $220 million to three companies for the cleanup of some of the hundreds of abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation.
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Feb. 12, 2021
Klee Benally of the Navajo Nation at a 2016 protest outside the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, demanding cleanup of abandoned uranium mines. Even though mining stopped decades ago – and was banned by the tribe in 2005 – the fight to clean up the toxic sites has lingered. (File photo by Danika Worthington/Cronkite News)
WASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it will award contracts worth up to $220 million to three companies for the cleanup of some of the hundreds of abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation.
Work could start later this year following the completion of assessments for mining sites coordinated between the EPA and the Navajo Nation’s environmental agency, the federal agency said.
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The EPA says the cleanup at 50 mine sites will employ Navajo tribal members and start local workforce training programs in radiological contamination, construction and other areas. The contracts totaling $220 million over the next five years went to companies with experience at abandoned mine sites in the Southwest, and two are Native American-owned.
Most of the funding comes from a 2015 billion-dollar federal settlement with the Kerr McGee and Tronox companies, and will be concentrated in New Mexico’s Grants Mining District and 10 Navajo chapters. Work on the cleanup effort is slated to begin later this year.
The EPA says it’s also secured funding though agreements and legal settlements to remediate 200 additional sites in the area. In all, there are more than 500 abandoned uranium mines on and near the Navajo Nation left over from the Cold War when 30 million tons of uranium were extracted. Only a small number of the sites to date have been cleaned up.
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NAVASSA, N.C. (January 27, 2021) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is issuing a revised proposed plan for OU1 for the Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp – Navassa Superfund site. EPA will hold a virtual public meeting to explain the proposed plan and answer questions. EPA released a proposed plan for Operable Unit 1 (OU1) in October 2019. It defined OU1 as 21.6 acres with an anticipated commercial/industrial land use. After receiving additional information from the town of Navassa, EPA and the state of North Carolina determined the reasonably anticipated land use for OU1 may include residential uses, not only commercial, industrial, or recreational uses. As a result of the change in anticipated land use, additional sampling was conducted in August 2020 to evaluate residential risk. Based on the sampling results, the 2021 proposed plan revises OU1 from 21.6 acres to 20.2 acres. The currently proposed 20.2-acre OU1 poses no current or potential thr