[House Hearing, 110 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
THE HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF URANIUM CONTAMINATION IN THE
NAVAJO NATION
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT
AND GOVERNMENT REFORM
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
OCTOBER 23, 2007
__________
Serial No. 110-97
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/
index.html
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COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM
HENRY A. WAXMAN, California, Chairman
TOM LANTOS, California TOM DAVIS, Virginia
EDOLPHUS TOWNS, New York DAN BURTON, Indiana
PAUL E. KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut
CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York JOHN M. McHUGH, New York
ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland JOHN L. MICA, Florida
DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio MARK E. SOUDER, Indiana
DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois TODD RUSSELL PLATTS, Pennsylvania
JOHN F. TIERNEY, Massachusetts CHRIS CANNON, Utah
WM. LACY CLAY, Missouri JOHN J. DUNCAN, Jr., Tennessee
DIANE E. WATSON, California MICHAEL R. TURNER, Ohio
STEPHEN F. LYNCH, Massachusetts DARRELL E. ISSA, California
BRIAN HIGGINS, New York KENNY MARCHANT, Texas
JOHN A. YARMUTH, Kentucky LYNN A. WESTMORELAND, Georgia
BRUCE L. BRALEY, Iowa PATRICK T. McHENRY, North Carolina
ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of VIRGINIA FOXX, North Carolina
Columbia BRIAN P. BILBRAY, California
BETTY McCOLLUM, Minnesota BILL SALI, Idaho
JIM COOPER, Tennessee JIM JORDAN, Ohio
CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, Maryland
PAUL W. HODES, New Hampshire
CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut
JOHN P. SARBANES, Maryland
PETER WELCH, Vermont
Phil Schiliro, Chief of Staff
Phil Barnett, Staff Director
Earley Green, Chief Clerk
David Marin, Minority Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Hearing held on October 23, 2007................................. 1
Statement of:
Arthur, George, chairman, Resources Committee, Navajo Nation
Council; Stephen Etsitty, executive director, Navajo Nation
Environmental Protection Agency; Doug Brugge, Ph.D., M.S.,
associate professor, Department of Public Health and Family
Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine; Larry J.
King, member, Navajo Nation; Edith Hood, member, Navajo
Nation; Phil Harrison, member, Navajo Nation; and Ray
Manygoats, member, Navajo Nation........................... 23
Arthur, George........................................... 23
Brugge, Doug............................................. 39
Etsitty, Stephen......................................... 30
Harrison, Phil........................................... 82
Hood, Edith.............................................. 77
King, Larry J............................................ 44
Manygoats, Ray........................................... 89
Nastri, Wayne, Regional Administrator, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, Region 9, accompanied by Keith Takata,
Director, Region 9 Superfund Division; David Geiser, Deputy
Director, Office of Legacy Management, Department of
Energy; Charles L. Miller, Director, Office of Federal and
State Materials and Environmental Management Programs, U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, accompanied by Francis
Cameron, Assistant General Counsel for Rulemaking and Fuel
Cycle and William Von Till, Branch Chief for Uranium
Recovery Licensing; Robert G. McSwain, Acting Director,
Indian Health Service, accompanied by Rear Admiral Douglas
G. Peter, M.D., Deputy Director, Chief Medical Officer,
Navajo Area, IHS; Gary Hartz, Director, IHS Office of
Environmental Health and Engineering; and Jerry Gidner,
Director, Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of
Interior................................................... 124
Geiser, David............................................ 130
Gidner, Jerry............................................ 154
McSwain, Robert G........................................ 146
Miller, Charles L........................................ 140
Nastri, Wayne............................................ 124
Letters, statements, etc., submitted for the record by:
Arthur, George, chairman, Resources Committee, Navajo Nation
Council, prepared statement of............................. 26
Brugge, Doug, Ph.D., M.S., associate professor, Department of
Public Health and Family Medicine, Tufts University School
of Medicine, prepared statement of......................... 41
Davis, Hon. Tom, a Representative in Congress from the State
of Virginia, prepared statement of......................... 14
Etsitty, Stephen, executive director, Navajo Nation
Environmental Protection Agency, prepared statement of..... 34
Geiser, David, Deputy Director, Office of Legacy Management,
Department of Energy, prepared statement of................ 132
Gidner, Jerry, Director, Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S.
Department of Interior, prepared statement of.............. 155
Harrison, Phil, member, Navajo Nation, prepared statement of. 85
Hood, Edith, member, Navajo Nation, prepared statement of.... 79
King, Larry J., member, Navajo Nation; Edith Hood, member,
Navajo Nation, prepared statement of....................... 46
Manygoats, Ray, member, Navajo Nation, prepared statement of. 91
McCollum, Hon. Betty, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Minnesota, article entitled, ``Yellowcake Blues''. 101
McSwain, Robert G., Acting Director, Indian Health Service,
prepared statement of...................................... 148
Miller, Charles L., Director, Office of Federal and State
Materials and Environmental Management Programs, U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, prepared statement of....... 142
Nastri, Wayne, Regional Administrator, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, Region 9, prepared statement of......... 126
Udall, Hon. Tom, a Representative in Congress from the State
of New Mexico, prepared statement of....................... 116
Watson, Hon. Diane E., a Representative in Congress from the
State of California, prepared statement of................. 174
Waxman, Chairman Henry A., a Representative in Congress from
the State of California:
Prepared statement of.................................... 4
Prepared statement of Bluewater Valley Downstream
Alliance............................................... 17
THE HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF URANIUM CONTAMINATION IN THE
NAVAJO NATION
----------
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2007
House of Representatives,
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m. in room
2154, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Henry Waxman
(chairman of the committee) presiding.
Present: Representatives Waxman, Cummings, Kucinich,
Watson, Yarmuth, Braley, Norton, McCollum, Welch, Davis of
Virginia, Shays, Platts, Issa, Bilbray, and Jordan.
Also present: Representatives Udall and Matheson.
Staff present: Phil Schiliro, chief of staff; Phil Barnett,
staff director and chief counsel; Kristin Amerling, general
counsel; Greg Dotson, chief environmental counsel; Andy
Schneider, chief health counsel; Jeff Baran, counsel; Teresa
Coufal, deputy clerk; Caren Auchman and Ella Hoffman, press
assistants; Zhongrui ``JR'' Deng, chief information officer;
Leneal Scott, information systems manager; Rob Cobbs, staff
assistant; David Marin, minority staff director; Larry
Halloran, minority deputy staff director; Alex Cooper, minority
professional staff member; Larry Brady, minority senior
investigator and policy advisor; Brian McNicoll, minority
communications director; and Benjamin Chance, minority clerk.
Chairman Waxman. The meeting of the committee will please
come to order.
Throughout this year, our committee has held a series of
hearings on making Government work again. We focused on
programs or agencies that once were effective but are now
broken or dysfunctional. Today's hearing is a variation on that
theme.
This morning we are looking at an instance where the
Government has never worked effectively. It has been a
bipartisan failure for over 40 years. It's also a modern
American tragedy. For decades the Navajo Nation has had to
contend with the deadly consequences of radioactive pollution
from uranium mining and milling. Last year, a superb series of
articles in the Los Angeles Times by Judy Pasternak described
the impacts of the pervasive contamination. It has been
devastating for the Navajo people and their lands.
The primary responsibility for this tragedy rests with the
Federal Government, which holds the Navajo lands in trust for
the tribes. Our Government leased the land for uranium mining,
purchased the uranium yellowcake produced from the mines to
supply our nuclear weapons stockpile, and then allowed the
operators of the mines and mills to walk away without cleaning
it up and without doing anything about the resulting
contamination.
The Federal Government's responsibility dates back to the
late 1940's when mining began under the Truman administration.
The contamination continued and remained largely unaddressed
through the next 10 administrations, Republican and Democrat
alike. As we will hear today, the Federal Government has over
the past 30 years taken some important steps to help the Navajo
reclaim some of their land, but as we will also hear today,
much contamination remains both on the surface and in the
groundwater. It is the Federal Government's responsibility to
see that this contamination is fully remediated.
As you can see from this map, and we have the map on the
wall there, the Navajo Nation covers an area larger than the
State of West Virginia. It lies within the States of Arizona,
New Mexico and Utah. Today over 250,000 Navajos are members of
the Navajo Nation, which has its own government. Between the
1940's and the 1980's, millions of tons of uranium ore were
mined from the Navajo Nation. Private companies mined the ore
in order to supply the Federal Government with the uranium
yellowcake it needed to build a nuclear weapons stockpile for
the cold war.
For many years, the U.S. Government was the sole customer
for this uranium. After the mining ended in the late 1980's,
literally hundreds of radioactive mines in the Navajo Nation
were abandoned. The companies that had leased the lands simply
walked away without cleaning them up. Many of these sites were
abandoned in the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's. In most cases, the
mines were left wide open with no warnings about the dangers
they posed. Five mill sites where uranium ore was processed
were also left behind, along with their giant mounds of
radioactive uranium filings.
Over the years, open pit mines filled with rain and Navajos
used the resulting pools for drinking water and to water their
herds. Mill tailings and chunks of uranium ore were used to
build foundations, floors and walls for some Navajo homes.
Families lived in these radioactive structures for decades.
Radioactive dust from abandoned mines and waste piles blew in
the air and were inhaled by those who lived nearby. Navajo
children played in the mines and the piles of radioactive
debris. They drank contaminated water that came straight from
the mines.
This isn't something that only happened during a bygone era
when schoolchildren kneeled under their desks during nuclear
bomb drills and Americans built underground bomb shelters in
their backyards. Navajo kids were swimming in open pit uranium
mines in the 1990's. When the U.S. EPA took readings at one
mine site, the radium levels were over 270 times the EPA
standard. That was last year. And American citizens are still
drinking contaminated water, breathing in radioactive dust, and
likely living in radioactive homes today. That's happening
today, right now.
Because of this contamination, the Navajo people,
especially those living near the abandoned mines and the former
mill sites, are at higher risk for cancer and for kidney
failure. Unfortunately, we do not have a full understanding of
the extent of this risk because there has never been a
comprehensive health survey of the effects of the surface and
groundwater contamination. But we are fortunate to have with us
today individuals who live in the Navajo Nation and can share
their personal experiences. Although they come from different
areas of the Navajo Nation, and in some cases live hundreds of
miles apart, we will hear about the very similar threats and
devastating impacts.
In recent years, Federal agencies have taken some initial
steps toward grappling with this problem. We will hear about
the work these agencies have done, and are doing, but will also
hear that much more needs to be done. If a fraction of the
deadly contamination the Navajos live with every day had been
in Beverly Hills or any wealthy community, it would have been
cleaned up immediately. As a matter of fact, there was an area
in an upper income community in Colorado where they were
exposed to the remnants of uranium mining, and that was cleaned
up right away. But a different standard applied to Navajo
lands, half measures and outright neglect has been the official
response. It is hard to review this record and not feel
ashamed. What has happened just isn't right.
That is why we are holding today's hearing. We want to know
what has to be done, who needs to do it and what resources will
be required to fix this. No member of this committee represents
Navajo lands. But we all want to know how we will finish
cleaning up the mess that was created by the Federal
Government's past need for uranium and the ensuing failure to
ensure that the mines and mills that produced this uranium did
not contaminate the land and the groundwater.
Even as we hold this hearing, there is new interest in
resuming mining on or near the Navajo Nation. I don't have any
special expertise to evaluate the wisdom of that prospect. As a
general rule, however, I think we ought to correct the wrongs
of the past before inflicting new damage. And we ought to make
sure that the mistakes of the past aren't repeated. I look
forward to hearing from our witnesses and to working with all
of them to correct this unacceptable situation as quickly as
possible.
Mr. Davis.
[The prepared statement of Chairman Henry A. Waxman
follows:]
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Mr. Davis of Virginia. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding
this hearing.
Renewed interest in nuclear energy has unearthed a sad and
dangerous legacy from the first atomic era. Those looking to
mine uranium to fuel future reactors face a desolate landscape
littered with abandoned mines and mill sites, still generating
unknown levels of health and environmental damage. That history
of negligence stretches from the Manhattan Project, through the
cold war and perhaps beyond.
The tragedy is compounded by the fact Native American lands
and all those living there were exploited by the uranium
processing operations. They were left to live and die with the
potentially toxic after-effects.
The repercussions of reckless uranium extractions fall
particularly harder on the Navajo Nation, that saw the promise
of jobs and economic growth fade into the lingering curse of
contaminated lands, fouled water and likely health effects that
could haunt them for generations.
So this hearing is an important opportunity to assess what
national and tribal governments are doing to address the
environmental and public health impacts of uranium pollution
and to discuss what more needs to be done to protect health and
repair the earth after uranium mining. The limited steps taken
so far by Federal agencies, even to determine the scope of the
problem, offer little hope those efforts will find adequate
solutions any time soon. The old adage about too many chiefs
comes to mind.
With the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection
Agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of
Interior all involved to various degrees in these issues, each
can point to the others when hard questions arise about legal
authority and spending priorities. Interior's Bureau of Indian
Affairs and the Indian Health Service face well-documented
challenges meeting their basic obligations to Native American
communities. Add to that dysfunctional mix the obligation to
respect the sovereign rights of tribal governments, and it
becomes clear by the large-scale problems the uranium
contamination has languished for too long.
Meanwhile, serious cleanup is underway at only one of the
more than 500 mines EPA found on Navajo lands. Baseline health
surveys to determine the incidence of radiation-related
illnesses among Navajo families exposed to contaminated ground
and water are just getting underway. The power and skill of all
the agencies needs to be marshaled to focus and accelerate
cleanup efforts, to cap the 40 most dangerous open mines, to
limit groundwater contamination and to distinguish discrete
uranium-related health consequences from other public health
challenges faced by the Navajos.
Not surprisingly, there is talk of litigation to sort out
the myriad of conflicting jurisdictions, legal authorities and
potential liabilities. That may be necessary. It may be
inevitable. But protracted and costly lawsuits would also
freeze an unacceptable status quo while diverting scarce fiscal
resources from cleanup to the courtroom.
I hope today's testimony will lead to a candid discussion
of the best path to justice for the Navajo people and the best
policies to address the environmental damage and public health
threats posed by uranium mining. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Hon. Tom Davis follows:]
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Chairman Waxman. Thank you, Mr. Davis.
I want to ask unanimous consent that members who represent
the Navajo Nation, Mr. Matheson, Mr. Udall and Mr. Renzi, be
permitted to participate in this hearing. Without objection, so
ordered.
I would also ask unanimous consent that this statement that
I have, and I think it's been reviewed by the minority,
unanimous consent that the statement from the Bluewater Valley
Downstream Alliance be included in the record. Without
objection, that will be the order.
[The information referred to follows:]
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Chairman Waxman. Because we have so many witnesses on our
panels today, we are going to limit the opening statements to
Mr. Davis' and mine and to the chairman and the ranking member
of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee. Mr. Kucinich.
Mr. Kucinich. I thank the Chair for holding this hearing.
Native Americans have been victims of an extraordinary
level of exploitation and injustice. This injustice has
extended over hundreds of years. They have borne a
disproportionate burden of the toxic legacy from this country's
pursuit of nuclear weapons and nuclear power. This is a topic
that has been important to me for a long time.
In this classic environmental justice story, we see how
long native peoples have been burdened with inhumane levels of
contamination and we see how long it can take just to begin to
undo the damage that the contamination brings. The stories we
will hear today will also make clear that quests for power, be
they political or electrical, have no respect for life and
exact an unacceptable cost to human health and the environment.
The EPA guesses that there are about 520 abandoned uranium
mines in the Navajo Nation and 1,200 abandoned mines in the
area. The Navajo Nation is home to five old uranium mills. Each
of the mill sites and mine sites represents a potential
groundwater contaminationsite, in addition to being a source of
air and soil contamination. There are many potential exposure
routes: children play in the water that accumulates in the
radioactive tailing piles; homes and hogans are built out of
material that is radioactive; windblown dust from tailings is
inhaled; groundwater is contaminated with uranium and its
byproducts; wildlife and plant life concentrate the
contamination and become food for other wildlife or for Navajo
living off the land.
Uranium can be toxic in two ways. First, its properties as
a chemical confer an ability to irreversibly destroy parts of
the kidney when acting in isolation. But like lead and mercury,
it is a metal which interacts with the human body. Native
Americans are known to experience disproportionately high
levels of lead poisoning. When uranium and lead both make their
way into a person, the toxic effect on the kidney can be
additive and even synergistic.
Uranium is also toxic because it naturally decays into
other elements like radium, thorium and radon, each of which is
also radioactive. Radon alone is the No. 2 cause of lung cancer
in the United States, behind smoking.
The industrial process of extracting and concentrating
uranium uses a host of other highly toxic compounds like
various acids and cyanide, which are common mine tailing
contaminants, and of course, there are other elements which co-
occur with uranium, like arsenic and fluoride, which are left
behind when uranium is refined. Each of these compounds bears
its own list of health effects, and each combination of two or
three or more of these compounds brings their own set of health
effects. It could take generations just to completely
understand the health effects of all these sites in question,
making things worse. It is a formidable challenge just to
understand the magnitude of the contamination; so much so, it
hasn't even been done yet. No comprehensive review of
groundwater contamination of all the mine sites has been done.
No comprehensive review for the presence of elevated levels of
radiation in Navajo houses has been done, even though there are
dozens known to have been built with radioactive materials. No
comprehensive review of the health effects of the contamination
from the mines and mills has been done. There is no way we can
begin to address the problem if we can't define it.
Mr. Chairman, one estimate I have heard is that the entire
cleanup cost would be around $500 million. I think that is
really low. Efforts just to clean up the groundwater at three
of the old mill sites on the Navajo Nation are predicted to
take 20 years. Already the contamination has spanned
generations and will span many more if we continue the current
pace of cleanups.
Some effects can't be cleaned. Before the mines were
opened, the Navajo way of life was heavily dependent on natural
resources, which fostered a healthy respect for the
environment. Not only did they rely on it for clean water and
abundant food, but they incorporated it into their customs,
their religion and their way of life. Carol Marxim and Perry
Charlie pointed out in their chapter of the Navajo People and
Uranium Mining that the contamination of livestock, of the
medicinal herbs they use, and of the water bodies their
children played in changed the view of the land that was
embraced and used as a conceptual center for their way of life.
After the contamination, they feared it.
It is hard to imagine how destabilizing it would be if we
thought radioactive contamination permeated all that we rely on
to be safe and clean. Now, 60 years after the first uranium
contamination began, there are corporations that want to reopen
some of the very same mines and extract more uranium for
nuclear power plants. Never mind the contamination already
created that we are trying to define, let alone clean up. Never
mind the permanent social damage inflicted by this
contamination. Never mind that nuclear power is nowhere near
economical. Never mind the lack of viable or safe storage
facilities for the waste that will continue to be toxic for
thousands of years.
Mr. Chairman, this is an important hearing, not only
because it gives a chance for our Native brothers and sisters
to be able to bring to this committee their story, but it is an
important opportunity to begin to put a focus on people from
this nuclear uranium mining industry. Because they have a story
to be told too, and I hope that when it is told under oath, we
will be given an opportunity to get to the bottom of what they
are up to.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Waxman. Thank you, Mr. Kucinich.
We will hold the record open for any Member that wishes to
insert an opening statement for this hearing.
Our first panel represents the Navajo Nation. The Honorable
George Arthur is chairman of the Resources Committee of the
Navajo Nation Council. The Honorable Stephen Etsitty is
Director of the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency.
Dr. Doug Brugge is an associate professor in the Department of
Public Health and Family Medicine at Tufts University School of
Medicine in Boston, MA. Uranium mining and the Navajo Nation
has been a major focus of his research.
Mr. Larry King is a member of the Navajo Nation who lives
in Gallup, NM. Ms. Edith Hood is a member of the Navajo Nation
who lives in Church Rock, NM. Mr. Phil Harrison is a member of
the Navajo Nation who lives in Window Rock, AZ. And Mr. Ray
Manygoats is a member of the Navajo Nation who lives in Tuba
City, AZ.
I want to thank all of you for being here and for your
willingness to testify before us. It is the policy of this
committee that all witnesses that appear before us take an
oath, so I would like to ask you to rise and raise your right
hands, if you would.
[Witnesses sworn.]
Chairman Waxman. Thank you. The record will show that each
of the witnesses answered in the affirmative.
Your prepared statements will be in the record in their
entirety. We would like to ask you to limit the oral
presentation to around 5 minutes. We will have a clock that
will be green and then will turn to yellow for a minute and
then red, which will indicate that the 5-minutes is up.
Mr. Arthur, why don't we start with you.
STATEMENTS OF GEORGE ARTHUR, CHAIRMAN, RESOURCES COMMITTEE,
NAVAJO NATION COUNCIL; STEPHEN ETSITTY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
NAVAJO NATION ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY; DOUG BRUGGE,
PH.D., M.S., ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH
AND FAMILY MEDICINE, TUFTS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE; LARRY
J. KING, MEMBER, NAVAJO NATION; EDITH HOOD, MEMBER, NAVAJO
NATION; PHIL HARRISON, MEMBER, NAVAJO NATION; AND RAY
MANYGOATS, MEMBER, NAVAJO NATION
STATEMENT OF GEORGE ARTHUR
Mr. Arthur [Greeting in native tongue]. Good morning, Mr.
Chairman and honorable members of this committee. Before I
proceed with my statement, I would like to acknowledge that the
Navajo Nation is concerned and also offers its prayers for the
Congresswoman from California that is present with us in the
devastation of the fires that they are experiencing. We would
like to send our prayers to the great State of California at
this time.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman Waxman and the members of the
committee. I am George Arthur, chairman of the Resources
Committee of the Navajo Nation Council. The Resources Committee
oversees the Nation's minerals and water resources and the
Navajo Nation's Environmental Protection Agency, as well as
other natural resources within the Navajo Nation. I speak here
as a representative of the Navajo Nation government.
Few members of the committee are from the West. Many may
not have ever been to an Indian reservation like the Navajo
Reservation. I would like to give you a flavor of my land and
my culture.
The Navajo-Federal relationship is based on two treaties,
the second one signed in 1868 after about one-third of my
ancestors died in Federal concentration camps. Navajo Indian
Country now includes about 17 million acres of land within
Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Navajo land is blessed with
mineral resources. But the Navajo people have not benefited
much from these minerals until recently, because the
Reservation has served, in the words of a Government study, as
an ``energy colony'' for the United States. Navajo warriors
have served the United States with distinction in all major
conflicts since World War I, since before the Navajo Nation
became citizens and since before the Navajo people became
voters. Within these conflicts came the great representatives
of the Navajo Code Talkers, whom you may have heard of.
The Navajo Nation is not a rich tribe. Because of Federal
neglect and historic discrimination by the State, the Navajo
Nation had an infrastructure deficit of $3.7 billion in 1975,
and that deficit is much greater today. We have few paved
roads. We have few hospitals or clinics, and substandard
schools. Many of our people lack running water and electricity.
Unemployment is near 50 percent.
The Navajo Nation has no casinos, nor the surrounding
affluent population needed for substantial gaming revenues. We
rely solely on the land and on the scarce water resources
available to us. We live, and we will continue to live, within
the four sacred mountains.
We have maintained our language and traditions, including
one where the umbilical cords of Navajo babies are buried in
the land of their parents. The Navajos' ties to the land where
they are born is profound. We don't just move when conditions
become difficult. As a Federal district court observed in a
case where the United States unsuccessfully sought to relocate
a Navajo woman from land where she had lived all her life,
relocating a Navajo from her ancestral land ``is tantamount to
separating the Navajo from her spirit.''
Uranium mining and milling on and near the Reservation has
been a disaster for the Navajo people. The Department of the
Interior has been in the pocket of the uranium industry,
favoring its interests and breaching its trust duties to Navajo
mineral owners. We are still undergoing what appears to be a
never-ending Federal experiment to see how much devastation can
be endured by a people and a society from exposure to radiation
in the air, in the water, in mines and on the surface of the
land. We no longer are willing to be the subjects of that
ongoing experiment.
In legislation passed in 2005, the Navajo Nation Council
made detailed findings about the devastation caused by uranium
mining and processing. We found that ``the social, cultural,
natural resources and economic damages to the Navajo Indian
Nation from past uranium mining and processing is ongoing due
to: (i) the continuing need for full monetary compensation of
former Navajo uranium workers and their family workers for
their radiation and mining-induced diseases; (ii) the presence
of hundreds of unremediated or partially remediated uranium
mines, tailing piles and waste piles located in Navajo Indian
Country; and (iii) the absence of medical studies on the health
status of Navajos who have lived in uranium mining-impacted
communities.
Because of these and other findings, the Navajo Nation has
banned uranium mining and processing within Navajo country.
Many of us were and are directly affected by uranium mining
and processing in Navajo country. The largest release of
radioactive contamination in the United States occurred within
the Church Rock spill, where 94 million gallons of radioactive
sludge from a United Nuclear Corp. facility poured into the
wash that Navajo people and livestock used and now use in their
daily lives. I myself was present in Shiprock, the largest
community on the Navajo Nation in the late 1970's when Federal
officials decided to simply pile up all the radioactive mill
tailings on land near the center of town, with no lining under
the waste and a lot of rocks on top to limit erosion.
In what other town would the Government allow this to occur
and remain? Under today's environmental laws, it is practically
impossible to construct a municipal solid waste landfill, one
that takes ordinary household waste, without any liner to
protect underground aquifers used for drinking water.
In Tuba City, however, an open dump and mill tailings piled
up without a liner, like those in Shiprock, poses an immediate
threat to the main aquifer in the western Navajo area. The
Government has devoted the money needed to remove similar
tailings from a rural area near Moab. Are those people or their
water resources more valuable than Navajos?
I regret to say that the Federal EPA, BIA, DOE and NRC
would be doing virtually noting to protect the Navajo people
and the Navajo environment at Tuba City, Church Rock and other
locations within Navajo Country if the Navajo citizens and
their government had not acted. This Federal neglect and
environmental injustice must stop. The Navajo Nation has six
specific recommendations that we firmly believe should be
adopted and implemented by the Congress through legislation.
These are set forth as attachments to my written statement and
I will be pleased to discuss them with the committee.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Arthur follows:]
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Chairman Waxman. Thank you very much, Mr. Arthur. You may
notice that some of our colleagues have left. There is a vote
on the House floor on a procedural issue. I consider this
hearing one that I want to stay for rather than go for that
vote, so we will continue on with the hearing. They will be
coming back.
Mr. Etsitty.
STATEMENT OF STEPHEN ETSITTY
Mr. Etsitty. Good morning, honorable members of this
committee and the Honorable Chairman Waxman. Thank you for
convening this important hearing.
My name is Stephen Brian Etsitty. I am a member of the
Navajo Nation and the Executive Director of the Navajo Nation
Environmental Protection Agency. [Greeting in native tongue.] I
am Water Flows Together Clan and I am born for the Salt Clan.
The legacy of uranium mining and processing blankets the
Navajo Nation from the Eastern Agency on up to the Northern
Region near the Four Corners, across the beautiful Chuska
mountains to my home area of Lukachukai, AZ, and from there
westward toward the Grand Canyon. All these areas are a part of
what we refer to as Dine Bikeyeah, or the Peoples' Land, and
all have suffered and continue to suffer the health and
environmental impacts from uranium mining and processing.
This unfortunate legacy resulted from several past
activities: uranium exploration, the mining of uranium, either
underground or open pit mining, and the processing of the mined
uranium done at facilities that produced yellowcake for the
U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal. The legacy lingers, due to the
current slow pace of cleanup and the poor quality of
remediation of known contaminated sites.
As stated, there are five former uranium processing sites
spread across the Navajo Nation. All of these sites were
decommissioned by the U.S. Government, meaning that radioactive
mill tailings were capped with clay and rock and left in place
at or adjacent to the former mill site. However, none of the
sites were lined, no barriers were placed underneath the
radioactive materials to keep the radioactive waste from
leaching into the groundwater. And we believe that is exactly
what is happening.
We know there is radioactive and chemical groundwater
contamination under all of these sites, and that in Tuba City,
AZ and Shiprock, NM, contamination is moving toward municipal
drinking water wells. We know that the Federal Government is
working on that contamination and claims that things will be
better in 20 or 30 years. We also know that it is extremely
difficult, if not impossible, to construct a solid or hazardous
waste landfill in your home State today in accordance with
current environmental laws and regulations unless that landfill
was built with a liner to protect your groundwater. Yet in my
homeland, the Navajo Nation, we have four unlined radioactive
waste dumps threatening our groundwater.
Not one of the four mill sites has been properly remediated
with contaminants removed from the living areas of the Navajo.
As we gather mounting evidence that these unlined landfills
seep uranium waste into our groundwater, we watch the Federal
Government dig up and properly remediate a similar site located
near Moab, UT, which is outside of the Navajo Nation borders.
Why is this not happening on the Navajo Reservation? Are we
seeing environmental justice in action once again?
Regarding former uranium mining, there are over 600 former
uranium mining sites, either on or within 1 mile of Navajo
lands, and there are over 1,200 mining sites or site features,
such as contaminated waste piles, associated with these sites.
Many of these site features have been reclaimed, meaning that
mine shafts have been sealed and other physical site dangers
addressed. Only one of the abandoned mine sites has been
thoroughly assessed in accordance with U.S. EPA Superfund
program protocols, and that assessment has only been completed
within the past year.
Waste from the mines and mills found their way over the
years throughout the Navajo Nation. Radioactive building
materials have been found in Navajo homes. Grazing animals
drink water from contaminated ponds. A public highway, New
Mexico State Road 566, became contaminated with radioactive
materials spilling from mining trucks. A Geiger counter held
while driving that highway today will click and scream,
revealing a radioactive public transportation corridor.
But these statistics do not tell the full story. I would
like to share with you two stories that illustrate the efforts
being made by the Navajo people to address deadly contamination
that has been largely ignored by the U.S. Government. The
stories involve the communities of Tuba City, located near
Flagstaff, AZ, and Church Rock, located near Gallup, NM. I will
start with a demonstration involving a sample of radioactive,
contaminated soils we have had shipped here from Tuba City/Rare
Metals UMTRCA site. The sample was obtained by our consultant,
Dr. Bill Walker. Navajo EPA was left with no choice but to
initiate its own site investigation, depleting our limited
funds, after U.S. EPA refused to move forward with its own
assessment of the area.
I have also brought here the report that was finalized by
Dr. Walker, which has allowed us to move forward to begin a
more thorough environmental assessment in the Tuba City area.
We will leave copies here for the committee, not only for its
scientific content, but as a symbol of the fact that any
progress occurring in both the Tuba City and Church Rock areas
results from Navajo initiative, not Federal initiative. So the
sample that we have here today is obtained from the Tuba City
area, a site that we call Highway 160, and I have in front of
me an instrument that our Superfund program, the Navajo
Superfund program, uses to detect radioactive contaminants.
It is important to understand that background is usually
established as we search for samples or radioactive areas on
the Navajo Nation. In this particular site near Tuba City,
background was established at about one or two micro-Rankins
per hour, and the sample, as recorded in the report, was
determined to be about 30 micro-Rankins per hour. And this is
an isolated sample that we have brought here today. You can
hear the beeping.
This particular device detects gamma radiation, and gamma
radiation is all throughout the cosmos and the atmosphere, so
it will beep from time to time. The sample that I have before
me is covered, and as we get closer to it, you will hear the
detection device starting to recognize the gamma radiation from
the source. I will remove the cover and just let the device
tell you what is going on.
[Detection device beeping rapidly.]
Mr. Etsitty. This is a very basic instrument that we have
within our capability as a program. Oftentimes, when we do
detect areas on the Nation that are high, in this case it would
be 30 times or higher above background, it is definitely cause
for concern and more investigations. That is one of the reasons
we have gone forth and taken the initiative to provide this
report.
Of course, the sounds that you heard are just a small
demonstration that shows that Navajo families are living within
oftentimes a few hundred yards of materials that we are told we
shouldn't be exposed to for more than an hour. But we have
Navajo residents that have been living in these areas for
sometimes more than 40 or 50 years.
So the story about Tuba City is that it took Navajo funds,
Navajo EPA employees and Navajo local residents to get U.S.
EPA's attention and get them to admit that something needs to
be done to protect Navajo citizens. The same thing happened in
Church Rock. Navajo residents were able to wrestle a small
grant from a non-profit organization to initiate a local
monitoring project. Think about that.
Lacking a properly funded U.S. EPA investigation, local
Navajos took it upon themselves to carry radiation detection
devices across our lands, these former uranium mining sites. As
a result of their work and the encouragement from our agency,
U.S. EPA finally recognized the need for emergency action and
recently completed the excavation of approximately 5,000 to
6,000 cubic yards of radium contaminated soils located next to
and in some cases inside Navajo residences. That is the good
news.
The bad news is that about 300,000 cubic yards of the toxic
waste remains still on the mine site. We hope to have that
addressed very soon.
So our problems are just now beginning to be addressed. I
am sure that you understand, and as you will hear from the
other witnesses, that for many of these families that live next
to these toxic substances, it is very difficult to see a great
deal of progress. But I am here today, not only as a spokesman
for the Navajo Government, but as an individual Navajo who has
walked across these sites, come to know the families and the
people here, our witnesses, feel their anger and has heard
their stories of unexplained cancers, kidney failures, birth
defects and sores that don't heal.
I am here before you to request your help in putting this
pitiful response to an obvious disaster to an end and to accept
that the Navajo Nation has proven that it is capable of being a
true and equal partner with the United States in restoring our
lands and our people to hozho, or harmony. But we can't do it
with our current woefully under-funded budgets and diminishing
resources. We can't continue to have to beg the U.S. Government
for help, only to be rejected and have to prove time and time
again that we know our lands better than the Federal
authorities.
We opened the borders of our land for uranium mining in an
act of patriotism during the cold war era. Now we are left with
the legacy of uranium contamination without substantial Federal
monetary help. Navajo patriotism and Navajo per capita
contributions to American armed forces are now and always have
been unsurpassed. It is time for America to support the people
who support America.
We are a people who have a treaty with the Government of
the United States, the Treaty of 1868. It is sacred to our
people and we have always honored our obligations under that
treaty. The presence of unpermitted and unlawful hazardous
waste dumps on our lands amounts to a taking of our lands in
violation of this treaty. We now look to the Government we have
faithfully served to honor its obligations.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your leadership and attention.
I would also like to thank my staff of the Navajo EPA for their
help.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Etsitty follows:]
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Chairman Waxman. Thank you very much, Mr. Etsitty.
Dr. Brugge.
STATEMENT OF DOUG BRUGGE
Dr. Brugge. Good morning, Chairman Waxman and members of
the committee. My name is Doug Brugge. Just to give you some of
my credentials, because I will be speaking as a technical
witness: I have a Ph.D. in cellular and developmental biology
from Harvard University and an M.S. in industrial hygiene from
the Harvard School of Public Health. I am currently an
associate professor in the Department of Public Health and
Family Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. I also
direct the Tufts Community Research Center.
I have over 20 academic publications about uranium and the
Navajo people, including a 2006 book that I co-edited,
entitled, ``The Navajo People and Uranium Mining.'' I have
focused on the Navajo situation with uranium because it amounts
to such a large crisis for the Navajo Nation.
Appearing before this congressional hearing today reminds
me of the long history of hearings beginning in the 1960's and
continuing through the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's that sought
and eventually achieved a semblance of compensation for Navajo
and other uranium miners. I am deeply saddened by the fact that
so little has been accomplished over those decades to eliminate
the health hazards faced by the enormous quantities of uranium
waste in the Navajo Nation. There has been too little research
on the health impacts of uranium mining in Navajo communities.
One study underway, for example, will mostly assess kidney
disease, but not birth defects, cancer or neurological
problems.
Today, as we begin the public process of addressing
community exposures, I can only hope that the path for the
Navajo communities is shorter than the one traveled by the
uranium miners and their families.
I will now spend a few minutes describing the hazards faced
by the Navajo people today. Clearly, uranium ore is a toxic
brew of numerous, nasty, hazardous materials. Uranium itself is
highly toxic and gives rise, as has been mentioned earlier, to
a series of other radioactive decay elements that are found in
raw, natural ore. Most significant among these are radium and
thorium, both of which are highly radioactive. When radium
decays, it produces radon gas, a highly potent toxicant.
Because it is a gas and becomes airborne, when radon decays it
transforms into a series of highly radioactive radon daughters
that can lodge in the lungs.
The primary heavy metal toxicants in uranium ore, that is
the chemical toxicants, include uranium itself and arsenic, as
well as vanadium and manganese, among others. During the first
phase of processing uranium, most of the uranium is removed,
leaving behind mill tailings which retain most of the other
toxic contaminants from the ore. This is what you have heard
the Honorable Mr. Etsitty speaking about.
The milling of uranium is an industrial process that
involves crushing and grinding of the rocks and the addition of
acids and organic solvents to facilitate concentration and
removal of uranium. Hence, uranium mill tailings and mill
tailing effluent are not only high radioactive, but also
acutely hazardous.
The health effects of uranium and its associated
radioactive decay products and the heavy metals in uranium ore
have been studied extensively. Many of them are proven or near-
proven to have causal links with health effects. I will list
only a few of these. One is radon, which causes lung cancer,
and in fact is the primary source of lung cancer among Navajo
uranium miners. Two is uranium, which is a heavy metal that
causes damage to the kidneys, as you have heard previously;
there is also strong evidence that it causes birth defects and
may cause changes to the bones as well. Three is radium, which
causes bone cancer, cancer of the nasal sinuses and mastoid air
cells and leukemia, among other things. And four is arsenic,
which causes lung and skin cancer, as well as neurotoxicity,
hyper-pigmentation and hyperkeratosis of the skin.
There may be many other negative health effects from
exposure to uranium and its byproducts. In short, there is a
clear causal link between uranium ore exposure and human
health. The Navajo people, continually exposed to uranium and
its byproducts, even today, face grave threats to their health.
I would like to conclude with some observations about the
Navajo community of Church Rock, both historical and present
day. Church Rock, as you have heard, is located outside of
Gallup, NM, in the Navajo Nation. The Church Rock tailings
spill, also as mentioned previously, is the largest release of
radioactive waste in the history of the United States. This
release was substantially larger than the release at Three Mile
Island, which happened about 4 months before the release at
Church Rock. It is interesting to me that this incident has
been virtually ignored in the press and even in the scientific
literature.
For the people in Church Rock and other Navajo communities
contaminated for decades with uranium ore tailings, there are
no good options. Too much harm has already been done. But there
are ways we can gradually make things better, so that maybe the
children and grandchildren of the Navajo uranium miners are not
still grappling with this toxic legacy. A good start would be
to provide sufficient resources to secure or remove
contamination at these hazardous waste sites, and to do so in a
manner that prevents additional exposure to nearby residents.
Congress should fund the Navajo Nation and Federal health
agencies to provide resources for health studies as well, among
the tens of thousands of Navajo community members who live next
to abandoned mines and mill sites.
I leave you to ponder a simple observation about this
egregious situation. As terrible as the health effects that we
know arise from toxins and uranium tailings, there are almost
certainly additional ways that the health of the Navajo people
living near uranium mill and waste sites has been affected. If
we are to understand the full extent of this injustice, we will
also need additional health studies.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Brugge follows:]
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Chairman Waxman. Thank you very much, Dr. Brugge.
Mr. King.
STATEMENT OF LARRY KING
Mr. King. Good morning, honorable members of this
committee, and honorable Chairman Waxman. [Greeting in native
tongue.]
My name is Larry J. King. I am 50 years old. In the Navajo
clan system, Edith Hood, who is sitting here next to me, is my
sister. I was born and have lived all my life in a traditional
Navajo community called Church Rock Chapter, which is located a
few miles northeast of Gallup, NM. In the Church Rock area, we
raise sheep and cattle in the traditional Navajo way. I still
raise cattle on the land my father left to me and my two
sisters.
Between 1975 and 1983, I worked for United Nuclear Corp.
[UNC], as an underground mine surveyor and mill worker. I am
currently employed as a water system technician. I have been
active for my community on uranium issues for the last 10
years.
Church Rock and its neighboring communities of Pinedale,
Coyote Canyon and Iyanbito have suffered widespread impacts of
past uranium mining. As you have already heard, the biggest
spill of radioactive waste in the United States occurred in our
community July 16, 1979, only about 2 miles from where I live.
The contaminated fluids that escaped from the UNC uranium mine
tailings pond ran right through our property, in the Puerco
River, where we watered our livestock. I remember the foul odor
and the yellowish color of the fluids. I remember that an
elderly woman was burned on her feet from the acid and the
fluid when she waded in the stream while herding her sheep.
Many years later, when water lines were being installed in
the bed of the Puerco River, I noticed the same odor and the
same color in a layer about eight feet below the stream bed. To
this day, I don't believe the contaminations from the spills
have gone away. Our community also continues to suffer from the
poisons left from the mining operations that began in the early
1950's. There are about 20 abandoned uranium facilities in the
Church Rock area. More than half of those were developed by
companies that sold uranium ore to the U.S. Atomic Energy
Commission for use in the Nation's nuclear weapons program, and
have not been cleaned up.
I think many of us knew in our hearts that we lived in a
contaminated area, but it wasn't until 2003, when the Chapter
started the Church Rock Uranium Monitoring Project [CRUMP],
that we found out how bad the problem was, and still is, with
the assistance of many outside organizations and the agencies
which sample our air, water and land. I submitted a copy of a
recent Power Point presentation that summarized many of the
CRUMP findings. You should have that in your possession
already.
Let me tell you about just two of those in the time I have
today. The first is that the Old Churchrock Mine, which is
located within a quarter mile of my home and the homes of my
two sisters, remains highly contaminated and has never been
properly cleaned up. In the CRUMP survey, which I was trained
for and participated in, we found high levels of gamma
radiation, up to 16 times what is considered normal for the
area outside of the mine site, even on my grazing land, which
is immediately adjacent to the mine.
The Old Churchrock Mine was once operated by the Phillips
Petroleum Co. and UNC. It is now occupied by Hydro Resources,
Inc. [HRI], which has received a Nuclear Regulatory Commission
license to build a uranium in situ leach mine there. Two years
ago, the NRC ruled that the radiation from the site doesn't
have to be included in the public dose calculations, that the
wastes there are now part of ``background'' as though the Great
Spirit had placed them there from the beginning of time. NRC
said it doesn't regulate mine waste. I guess its mandate to
protect the public health and safety just doesn't apply to us
Navajos.
The second major finding of our CRUMP study was that the
soils around some of the homes of my relatives in the Red Water
Pond Road area, where Edith Hood lives, were also contaminated
with high gamma radiation levels and with uranium in amounts of
up to 30 times what is considered natural. Two abandoned mines
lie on both sides of this community. One, the Northeast
Churchrock Mine, was operated by UNC and is now owned by
General Electric Co. A Navajo residence is about 500 feet away.
As Edith Hood will tell you in her testimony, there is much
sickness among the residents of her community: cancers, kidney
disease, and miscarriages. We believe that all these illnesses
are related to the past mining and milling operation, but it is
difficult to prove because no comprehensive health study has
ever been done in our community. My own family suffered during
the uranium era. One of my uncles and his in-laws were all
killed when their car collided with a uranium ore truck on New
Mexico State Road 566, about a mile south of the UNC mill in
1975. Two years later, my brother was killed in a head-on
collision with a uranium ore truck at the gate to the old
Churchrock Mine.
As a former underground mine surveyor for UNC, I often
worry about my own health. I am not, and never have been, a
smoker, but in the past year, I have developed breathing
difficulties. My doctors can't find anything wrong with me--
yet. I don't have enough time to tell you how bad the
conditions were for the workers at UNC and how the company was
not concerned about the safety of its employees. I will tell
you that as a kid, I played on the big piles of ore and mine
waste across the road from our home, unaware of the dangers.
On behalf of my community and my family, I beg that you do
something to end this horrible experiment that the nuclear
industry and the U.S. Government have been carrying out on the
health of the Navajo people. I beg you to support our Navajo
law and order the NRC to deny permits to companies that want to
mine uranium in the Navajo communities again. Many of our
elderly do not speak English, but we all know that what is
happening is wrong. Please help us see that justice is done for
our people and our communities.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. King follows:]
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Chairman Waxman. Thank you very much.
Ms. Hood.
STATEMENT OF EDITH HOOD
Ms. Hood. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and everyone who is
here.
There is no place like Dinetah, a place of the Naabanis.
But if you are not from the Rez, you don't know the white dawn
of morning, you don't know the clear blue sky, an autumn
twilight and the twinkling stars of the night. Where I am from,
there are pinon-covered mesas, our beautiful and sacred
mountains, sandy deserts. Where I am from, in a place called
Red Water Pond, there is also yellowcake, uranium waste and
sickness. I live about 12 miles north of Church Rock on the
Navajo Reservation, between two abandoned mine sites.
I grew up with cultural teachings of a loving grandfather,
a medicine man, a traditional leader. He taught us to respect
Mother Earth, for she gives all the necessities of life. There
is a Navajo concept called hozho. Hozho is how we live our
lives. It means balance, beauty and harmony between us, the
Five-Finger people, and nature. When this balance is disturbed,
our way of life, our health and our well-being all suffer. The
uranium contamination and mining wastes at my home continue to
disrupt hozho.
I think it was in the 1960's, when I was only a teenager
that strangers arrived. I remember Grandma running to stop them
from making roads into the wooded areas. The stakes she drove
into the ground did not keep them out. No one ever told her
what was happening. The exploratory drilling people had
arrived. There was no respect for people living there, and
certainly no respect for Mother Earth.
Today, as I pray in the early morning dawn, there is a man-
made mesa of radioactive and hazardous waste about a quarter of
a mile northeast of my residence. In the other direction, to
the south, about 1,000 feet away, is another mound of uranium
mining waste. At least the one to the northeast has some dirt
on top. The one to the south has been left uncovered since it
was created in 1968, and since the company stopped mining 25
years ago. From my front yard, I can see these waste piles.
This waste seems to be piled everywhere. There are mountains of
it, 50, 60 feet high. These are the tailings, or the muck of
pulverized uranium ore. I don't know what else is in them.
They told us it is low-grade, that most of the uranium has
been extracted from it. This stuff is spread by wind and water.
We breathe it and live with it every day. Our community
continues to live under these conditions. The mining companies
have gone, but there is still equipment and tools, concrete
blocks, pieces of protective clothing, brattice cloths, bolts,
mesh wire and the vet bags sticking out of the earth, scattered
about.
My family and relatives live among these sites. Children
still play in the fields and ditches among the rocky mesas and
the arroyo that once carried contaminated mine water. The sheep
still get through the fence that is supposed to barricade these
uranium mine tailings, and yet we still eat the sheep for
mutton.
These places are still contaminated. I know because I
learned how to survey the ground for radiation when our
community got involved in a monitoring program in my area 4
years ago. I know because the Government people told us it was.
I watched as the EPA people dug up the contaminated soils from
around the home of my sister and other relatives this May.
I worked at the Quivira, also known as the Kerr McGee Mine,
2,000 feet underground with a geology unit. I was diagnosed
with lymphoma in the summer of 2006. My father has pulmonary
fibrosis. My mother was diagnosed with stomach cancer. My
grandmother and grandfather died with lung cancer. Many of my
family members and neighbors are sick, but we don't know from
what.
Today there is talk of opening new mines. How can they open
new mines when we haven't even addressed the impacts and
environmental damage of the old ones? Mining has already
contaminated the water, the plants and the air. People are sick
and dying all around us.
Waste is seeping into the ground and may have already
reached the underground water supply. I think about the shaft
and vent holes that brought out exhaust from underground, where
they cemented and sealed. If so, was the work done properly? If
not, could there be poisonous gases escaping from these vents?
Is the shaft acting as a passageway to the groundwater?
We need your help to clean up the mess that the mining
companies and the U.S. Government have burdened us with. We
need help to stop mining companies from coming in and making
new ones. We need to restore hozho, so that we may live in
balance and harmony with each other and nature, as Navajo
people and as Dine.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Hood follows:]
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Chairman Waxman. Thank you very much.
Mr. Harrison.
STATEMENT OF PHIL HARRISON
Mr. Harrison. Good morning, honorable members of this
committee and Honorable Chairman Waxman.
My name is Phil Harrison, and I reside in Red Valley, AZ. I
am 57 years old, and an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, a
veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces and an elected delegate to the
21st Navajo Nation Council.
I am not here today as an official representative of the
Navajo Government. I am here as a private citizen, a proud
citizen of the Navajo Nation and a proud citizen of the State
of Arizona, and a proud citizen of the United States of
America. I am here to tell a story. In one sense, it is my
story. But in a broader sense, it is a story of my people.
I am also here to look forward, not backward, and to tell
you what I think needs to be done to assist my people and my
land in recovering from the devastation caused by short-sighted
and in some cases mean-spirited people who put their own
private interests first and ignore the fact that their choices
and decisions would result in an inhumane experiment being
conducted on indigenous people.
I grew up in the uranium mining camps. I drank uranium-
contaminated water from those mines. We washed our clothes in
uranium-contaminated water. I watched children going into the
mines and playing on the waste piles. We made our coffee with
the uranium-contaminated water. In all likelihood, I have
continued to drink uranium-contaminated water through the
years.
For example, there are two wells in Cove, AZ, near where I
live. Both tested positive for uranium and other
radionucleides. One of the wells was closed by Indian Health
Service, but with the other, all they did was blend the water
with water from another source and tell us the problem was
resolved.
My father started working in the uranium mines in about
1950. I worked in the uranium mine in the summer of 1969. I saw
cisterns in the mines and watched miners drink three to four
cups of water a day from the mine.
My little brother, Herman James Harrison, died of a stomach
ailment at the age of 6 months. He drank the contaminated
water. Please realize when I tell you about uranium-
contaminated water, we are not just talking about a situation
that occurred 30, 40 or 50 years ago. We are talking about a
situation that is occurring today in places like Tuba City, AZ
and other places throughout Navajo Indian Country.
The experiment on our health and welfare being conducted
with the complicity of the U.S. Government continues. We are an
indigenous people. We raise sheep and cattle. We drink water
where we find it, and the sad story is that there is, in all
likelihood, plenty of uranium-contaminated water to be found on
our land. I know many people suffering from kidney problems,
and I wonder if they are drinking contaminated water.
The Navajo people revere Mother Earth as sacred within a
highly spiritual context. So when uranium mining occurs, it is
considered ripping out the guts of Mother Earth. For the Navajo
people, sacred sites are the foundation of all our beliefs and
practices, communing with higher spiritual powers, because they
represent the presence of the sacredness in our lives. It
properly informs us that we are not greater than nature and
that we have a responsibility to the rest of the natural world
that transcends beyond mere human desires. The more we destroy
our Earth, we shall have to learn a bitter lesson in the
future.
My father died of lung cancer in 1971 at the age of 46. My
cousin's father, also a mine worker, died of lung cancer at the
age of 42. All my brothers and sisters have thyroid problems
and disorders. They did not work in the mines, but they grew up
in places around contamination. I had scarring on my left lung
in 1999 and my kidneys failed. I was on dialysis until 2001,
and I received a kidney transplant from my sister. My story is
not unusual. I only worked in the mines for a few months, but I
have lived in the uranium mine waste land all my life. This is
the story of my people, a people whose patriotism and loyalty
to the United States of America is unparalleled. Code Talkers
are finally being recognized in the movies and the newspapers
for the heroes that they are. Yet I have known some of these
very same Code Talkers who have suffered and died from diseases
caused by continued experiments on my people. When will this
experiment end?
I don't know what will happen next to me. I suffer from a
skin disorder that I have been told is connected with exposure
to uranium. I don't know what if anything will happen as a
result of the scarring on my lung. I consider it to be very
lucky to be here today, and in one sense, I consider myself to
be in great shape for the shape I am in.
Having said all this, I believe that I lead my life looking
forward and not backward. You have the power to change things.
You have the power to end this tragic experiment. Here are some
of the steps that you can take, starting today, to bring life
in what we call Dine Bikeyeah back into harmony. And harmony,
or hozho, is perhaps the most central concept in our view of
the world.
You can support the proposed amendments to the Radiation
Exposure Compensation Act of 2000 as set forth in the exhibit
to be submitted with my testimony. You can remove the illogical
barriers to provisions of compensation to former Navajo uranium
workers and their families. For 65 years, since 1942, Navajo
men, women and children have been subject to the catastrophic
health effects of exposure to uranium mining and milling and
the effects of the downwind exposure to nuclear test sites.
This has benefited the United States, but has been a tragedy to
the Navajo Spirit. It is too late to help those like my father
who have died from this devious exposure. Apologies are
appreciated; however an apology is hollow without just
compensation. Please change the laws to allow justice for the
Navajo people. You can also support the measures set forth in
the testimony of our Resources Committee chairperson, George
Arthur.
It has been about 25 years since the last mine closed. My
people should not have to wait another 25 years for the Federal
Government to accept the responsibility that it should have
accepted many years ago.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Harrison follows:]
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Chairman Waxman. Thank you very much, Mr. Harrison.
Mr. Manygoats.
STATEMENT OF RAY MANYGOATS
Mr. Manygoats. Good morning, Mr. Chairman. My name is Ray
Manygoats, and I am 53 years old. I live near Tuba City, AZ, on
the land where my family has lived for many generations.
A uranium mine was built near our home and the home of
other family and community members when I was a young child. My
father and other family members were recruited to work in the
mill. They had no training or background in the processing of
uranium.
The Rare Metals Corp. of America promised to train my
father and other family members to keep them safe. But these
promises were lies. The company failed to protect my father and
the other workers. I am told the Department of Energy and the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Bureau of Indian
Affairs all had promised to guard our health to make sure that
we would not suffer from the consequences of uranium mining and
processing. But our land today is poisoned. Today, I am a man
who has lost his health and family, and that is just a way of
life because of uranium. I am here today to ask you to stop the
suffering and the needless death of my people.
On our homeland near what is now called Tuba City, AZ, we
cared for our grandparents, herded sheep, planted vegetables
and raised our children. As a young boy, I remember seeing the
Rare Metals Mill, which had been built across the highway from
our home. My father was recruited to work at the mill. The
company provided him with a uniform that he was asked to wash
at home. When he would come home each day, he was covered with
yellow, thick dust. Each day, we would wash his uniform. To
wash the uniform, we would gather water near the uranium mill.
We scrubbed, but the uniform was always yellow with dust.
The Rare Metals Mill had no fence around it. Our horses,
sheep and livestock would graze on the grass growing in and
around the mill. We planted and ate food grown in the area. As
we had done for generations, we made use of what we found
around us. We cooked on grills my father brought back from the
mill. These grills had been used to sift the yellowcake
uranium. My father also brought home large metal drums from the
mill. We played in the drums and used them to store our food
and belongings.
My brother Tommy and I would often bring lunch to my father
at the mill. Yellow stuff was always everywhere. I saw liquids
bubbling and tried to stay away from them. But 1 day my sister
Daisy walked through one of the open ponds near the mill and
burned her feet.
We would play in the yellowcake sand near the mill, jumping
and rolling around in it. We also found many small metal balls
at the mill. The balls were used to crush and process the
uranium. We played marbles with them and had contests to see
how far we could throw them.
My father began to have trouble breathing. His breathing
troubles never went away, even after the mill was closed. I
have always had problems with my ears and eyes. I have had
surgery three times to remove growths from my eyes and I have
sores on my ears. Many of my sisters and brothers also have
problems with their eyes. I lost my mother to lung cancer and
stomach cancer that grew inside her lungs and throughout her
body. Another family member, Lucille, was never able to grow
hair and has worn a wig all her life.
Today, I still live in the same area, the land of my
family. The mill is no longer in operation but the waste from
the mill is everywhere. Today I walk the land and see streaks
of yellowcake uranium in our washes and our topsoil. It is
always windy, and the wind blows the earth into the air. I see
the uranium marbles of my youth in areas where trucks dumped
materials and waste from the mill back across the highway into
our land. I see in the ground old rusting chemical barrels and
cables that were once used to operate the mill.
We now know that we are sick because of the uranium. Now
people come with machines called Geiger counters and they click
and make noise. The noise tells me what I already know: that my
family's land is poisoned. But no one helps us to remove the
poison. I am here on behalf of my community to ask you for your
help; to ask that we move past promises to actions, actions
that may save our children from the sickness and the poison
that we are now living with.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Manygoats follows:]
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Chairman Waxman. Thank you very much, Mr. Manygoats.
Let me thank all of you for your presentation to us. You
have given us very powerful testimony. And all of us here feel
empathy with you and your family and people we haven't even met
who we know have suffered. I have to say that I feel enormous
shame that the Federal Government has treated the Navajo Nation
as poorly as it has.
I want to ask some questions. And each Member will have a
chance to ask questions as well.
Mr. King, Church Rock, NM is a few miles outside the Navajo
Reservation, and there is an abandoned uranium mine there now.
It is called the Northeast Churchrock Mine, and it was the
largest underground uranium mine in the country. You worked
there for 8 years, is that right?
Mr. King. Yes, sir, 7 years underground and 1 year at the
mill site.
Chairman Waxman. And Ms. Hood, you lived your whole life in
the immediate area near that mine, is that correct?
Ms. Hood. Yes, I have.
Chairman Waxman. Mr. King, the mine was operated by the
United Nuclear Corp. [UNC]. Did UNC clean up the mine site when
it closed it in the 1980's?
Mr. King. No, sir. We have been conducting tours and we
have also been in contact with the former worker. He was one of
the last few to go. He tells about a lot of contaminated
materials that he had to bury, per instructions from the
supervisor.
Chairman Waxman. But the company that ran the business,
they closed it and they never cleaned it up?
Mr. King. They never cleaned it up. Everything is still
there.
Chairman Waxman. Everything is still there, including, Ms.
Hood, mounds of ore waste from the mine, is that right?
Ms. Hood. Yes, that is right.
Chairman Waxman. How high are some of these mounds?
Ms. Hood. Fifty, 60 feet high.
Chairman Waxman. Is it hard, solid, or is it dusty?
Ms. Hood. In part, it is hard. Then in the soft parts,
well, when the wind blows, you can see it in the air.
Chairman Waxman. When the wind blows, where does it blow
the dust from that mound of ore?
Ms. Hood. To the homes that are nearby.
Chairman Waxman. And how far away is this mound from your
home?
Ms. Hood. About 1,000 feet.
Chairman Waxman. Can people walk up to that pile?
Ms. Hood. Yes, they can.
Chairman Waxman. And do children sometimes play in that
pile?
Ms. Hood. Yes, they do.
Chairman Waxman. Now that people know better, I assume they
try to keep the kids away?
Ms. Hood. We try to do that, but children still get up
there.
Chairman Waxman. People have sheep and when the rains come,
do they cause some of the erosion of the mounds to go into the
water where the sheep drink?
Ms. Hood. Yes, it does. The water comes back down into the
ditches or the ground and into the plants where the sheep
graze.
Chairman Waxman. We heard earlier that when the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency tested the mine area, the
radium levels were 270 times the EPA standard. That is a very
exceptionally high cancer risk. When the wind blows, people
breathe this in. When the water runs in there, the water runs
over the piles and it goes into the ditches, into the river;
livestock drink from the water. Have you seen any impact on any
of the livestock, the lambs or any of the other animals?
Ms. Hood. Yes, we have. We have lambs that did not have
wool, hair, but they died within days. And we have butchered
sheep and in one case the fat was yellow, which is not normal.
Chairman Waxman. So people get exposed in many different
ways. You described some of the health effects in your family.
Could you just go through those again?
Ms. Hood. OK.
Chairman Waxman. You yourself?
Ms. Hood. I myself have had lymphoma, went through
chemotherapy. And my father has pulmonary fibrosis. My mother
was diagnosed with stomach cancer and my grandparents both had
lung cancer.
Chairman Waxman. And there are eight other families that
live near you, is that right?
Ms. Hood. Yes.
Chairman Waxman. I am very sorry to hear what you are
telling us. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency obviously
needs to clean up this area. It is absolutely unacceptable that
you and other American citizens, have continued to be exposed
to the mine waste, radioactive dust and contaminated water.
This is really just unacceptable. That is why I hope this
hearing will lead to some clear result, a final cleaning up of
this area. Thank you very much. I thank all of you.
Mr. Issa.
Mr. Issa. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for both
shedding light on it, and I look forward to the second panel to
find out whether oversight is sufficient or whether reform will
be necessary. Certainly uranium is not the only contaminant
that we deal with in America. I grew up in Ohio, where quite
frankly, the side effects of coal, which today still gives us
51 percent of our electricity, has left us with polluted water,
particularly water generating high lead contents. As Arizonans,
I know you deal with arsenic as a naturally occurring but
clearly carcinogenic poison.
We have an obligation to make sure that either the
companies that mined those facilities or the U.S. Government,
if necessary, clarify what the responsibilities are and get it
fixed and get it fixed, in a timely fashion. And on a
bipartisan basis, you have an assurance from this committee
that, not just when we hear from the EPA in the second panel,
but on an ongoing basis, this is something that once started, I
believe that we will continue to work on until we get you a
resolution.
I do have one question for Mr. Harrison. Because in my
briefing book, it said that cancer rates now have dropped below
the national average. What would you say, or from your
experiences, and maybe this isn't for you, but how much of that
is a result of the stopping of mining, how much is the result
of cleaner water and how much is some other basis? Because I
know the EPA is going to come in and say, we are doing better,
things have been done. I would like to have a feel for whether
that anecdotal information is something you think is real or
whether there is more to be done besides what you have covered
here today.
Mr. Harrison. Thank you. I am not a technical person, but I
live in the midst of all my Navajo people, friends and
relatives. I hear stories almost every day about who gets
diagnosed with kidney failure, who has cancer. I know these are
coming from communities that dealt with uranium mining. I have
not seen anyone from the eastern side coming in saying that, I
have lung disease or I have cancer. It mainly has been from the
community people who have dealt with the uranium.
Mr. Issa. OK.
Doctor, you are one of the technical, although not quite
the perfect one, I mean, the information we received seemed to
be more than anecdotal. To what do you attribute the drop to
lower than the national average in cancer overall for the
Navajo?
Dr. Brugge. I am not exactly sure which statistics you are
referring to. One of the things that keeps lung cancer, in
particular, levels low in the Navajo people is that smoking is
very low. And one of the truly striking findings from research
to date about uranium mining is that is a conclusion which is
in the scientific literature and I agree with, and I think most
of us who have worked on the issue would agree with, that for
the Navajo people, uranium mining is the largest single cause
of lung cancer. That is an unusual finding, because in most
other populations, smoking would be either a major contributing
factor or the major factor.
Mr. Issa. So in your case, you would suggest we look at the
higher incidence of kidney as perhaps not offset by lifestyle,
where the lower incidence of lung cancer is partially offset by
lifestyle?
Dr. Brugge. There is no question in the Navajo population
that most of the lung cancer historically has been caused by
uranium mining. And there is no question that uranium is
clearly a kidney toxicant and that studies in other communities
that are exposed to uranium in drinking water have shown
associations with kidney disease. The study that is currently
underway in the Navajo area and the Eastern Agency is not
completed yet. When its findings come out, I think we will know
more about the magnitude and the nature of the association with
kidney disease as well.
Mr. Issa. I appreciate that.
Mr. Chairman, I think the case has been made very well, and
I look forward to getting to the second panel to see what is
going to be done to clean up these sites. I yield back.
Chairman Waxman. Thank you very much, Mr. Issa.
In fact, Dr. Brugge, as I understood it, people at one
point thought Navajos were immune to lung cancer because there
was so low an incidence of lung cancer in the communities.
Dr. Brugge. Right. I think that would have been in the
1960's when there was not a full understanding of all of the
etiology of lung cancer.
Chairman Waxman. Before the exposure to the uranium mines?
Dr. Brugge. Well, it was pretty clear by the early 1960's
that uranium miners were developing lung cancer in the United
States, including Navajo miners. It was clear 30 years before
that or 50 years before that, that in Europe, uranium miners
developed lung cancer and died. So the relationship between
mining and lung cancer has long been established and is one of
those associations that is very, very strongly proven.
Chairman Waxman. Thank you.
Mr. Yarmuth.
Mr. Yarmuth. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank all
the witnesses as well.
I must say that in my 10 months on this committee, I have
sat through a lot of hearings that made me sad and angry. But I
am not sure that any hearing has shocked me as much as this
one. This is truly a stunning example of failure on the part of
our Government. I commend the chairman and Members of both
parties for wanting to get to the bottom of this and to make
sure that our Government responds in the way it should.
We have heard from Ms. Hood and Mr. King about the
contamination at the Northeast Churchrock Mine and about all
the disease and health problems that have occurred there in
proximity to that area. I would like to ask a little bit about
the efforts of the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up
that site.
Mr. Etsitty, this is apparently, as I understand it, the
only abandoned mine site in Navajo Country that the EPA is
working on, is that correct?
Mr. Etsitty. That is correct, in terms of getting to a
cleanup. But we have been working with EPA on a more
comprehensive inventory of many sites. But the Northeast
Churchrock Mine site is the one that we have actually begun
turning dirt on and removing contaminated soils from.
Mr. Yarmuth. According to EPA, so far the agency has
removed about 6,000 cubic yards of uranium-contaminated soil
from the four properties. That doesn't sound like a lot of
removal to me, when we hear about mountains of soil that are
50, 60 feet high. Is this just a drop in the bucket and what
remains to be done, in your opinion?
Mr. Etsitty. Thank you, Representative Yarmuth. The amounts
are the beginnings of a process that is going to continue. It
was determined that initially, we would concern ourselves with
cleaning up 135 acres of the Northeast Churchrock Mine site.
But my staff and our agency pressed, because we knew that there
were residences nearby to the north of the mine site. We did
get additional analyses done to determine that those residences
did indeed have a problem. We worked with U.S. EPA to take care
of that in a time critical fashion, knowing that there is still
a lot of work left to do at the mine site.
We have yet to remove any contaminated soil from the mine
site. We have done work to characterize the levels of
contamination across the 135 acres. But the 6,000 cubic yards
you are talking about does reduce much of the exposure risks
that the residents have been living with for all these years,
and puts it to a much safer level and gives us now the
opportunity to turn our attention back to the mine site.
We do expect to work with EPA to make a final determination
as to the actual remedy that will be applied to the mine site.
And we do this, knowing full well that the residents will be
concerned, since they still live in close proximity, that any
recontamination may occur. We are going to do our best to work
with EPA to avoid that.
But there is still a considerable amount of work to clean
up surface soil. It is going to be costly. It is going to take
a lot of engineering. And we are looking for adequate disposal
capacity in the region, in the western United States. We would
like to have all this contaminated soil moved off the nation.
But as I close, we are talking just about soil, surface
soil contamination. There are other questions regarding
subsurface and groundwater that we haven't started to examine
fully yet.
Mr. Yarmuth. Is there any way you can estimate what
percentage of the problem has been rectified by removing the
6,000 cubic yards?
Mr. Etsitty. It would have to be a figure less than 1
percent.
Mr. Yarmuth. Thank you.
Dr. Brugge, I would like to ask you one question, because
Ms. Hood talked about solving these problems for future
generations. I am curious as to whether there is any way to
know what the long-term ramifications of these health problems
are for future generations. Is this something that generations
are going to be affected by, even if we were to clean it all up
today?
Dr. Brugge. I am afraid that is certainly possible.
Especially with uranium itself, there is increasing evidence,
and has been evidence for about 15 years and that is growing,
that it is associated with birth defects; most recently, that
it may be an estrogenic compound. So based on that, I think you
are right, there is a concern, and there may be a health legacy
that is passed on even after these sites are remediated.
Mr. Yarmuth. Thank you. My time is expired. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Chairman Waxman. Thank you, Mr. Yarmuth.
Ms. McCollum.
Ms. McCollum. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Arthur, Mr. Etsitty, Dr. Brugge, Mr. King, Ms. Hood,
Mr. Harrison and Mr. Manygoats, I apologize for the disruption
and my leaving for a while, but I was called on the floor to
vote. I want you to know that I read your testimony and it was
no disrespect that I left while you were speaking.
You have all suffered greatly, and in my opinion,
needlessly for corporate greed and for our Nation's weapons
program. I am personally embarrassed at the lack of concern for
the Navajo people who lived and continue to live, those who
have passed, I offer my condolences to your families for your
loss. As you pointed out, the Navajo have stood valiantly by
the United States in their time of need. As an American, I
thank you for that.
I can't go back and change the past, but I am here today to
do what I can to make a better future for our children and for
our planet. So I am going to ask you, and I would like you to
be as specific as possible--I am sure my colleagues will
followup with more extensive questions--what you think the
Federal Government needs to be doing? Flying overhead in
helicopters and taking photographs and doing very cursory
studies of where there may or may not be uranium waste is not
my idea of doing a full-scale cleanup.
What do you think needs to be done in health effects,
studies, care, treatment, cleanup of water and land? And I
understand there are tunnels underneath that connect some of
the water. Are you concerned about the rising costs of uranium
right now on the market and the pressures that might come to
be, when this problem has not been addressed fully?
I will just listen. Thank you.
Mr. Arthur. Mr. Chairman, members of the honorable
committee here, I would also like to recognize our Congressman,
the Honorable Mr. Udall, also the Honorable Mr. Matheson, who
are present in this room. The Navajo Nation asks for a few
things. I had stated in my closing remarks that I would be
willing to discuss those issues and also recommendations.
First, we would ask the Federal Government to establish a
moratorium on any uranium mining and processing in Navajo
Indian Country, as we have established legislation of our own
that bans that. We also ask that until the following things
happen, that the human costs of past activities be adequately
addressed and compensated when the Navajo Nation and EPA have
jointly determined that all contaminated sites have been
cleaned up, consistent with their standards.
Second, the United States should provide funding for at
least 20 full-time employees and should detail up to 20 Federal
environmental specialists at the Navajo EPA offices to address
groundwater, surface and air and human health impacts of prior
uranium mining activities with an appropriation of at least $5
million for overhead and indirect costs.
Third, all contaminated materials at the four so-called
UMTRCA sites on the Navajo Nation should be removed and
disposed of off-reservation in the same manner that our
Honorable Congressman's State of Utah, and several other UMTRCA
sites in non-Indian areas.
Fourth, the Federal Government should fund and conduct
comprehensive health assessments and site assessments at all
520 or so abandoned uranium mines in Navajo Country. Fifth,
there is sufficient data available today showing an urgent need
to take comprehensive remedial action at the Tuba City and
Church Rock sites, and that action should be mandated.
Finally, based on the costs of cleaning up comparable
sites, the Navajo Nation estimates that an initial
appropriation of $500 million is needed for the cleanup of
radioactive waste throughout the Navajo Nation. In conclusion,
Mr. Chairman, I would just state again that in this room, there
are honorable members of this committee, as well as highly
intelligent staff that are associated with you as individual
representatives. I heard earlier that maybe you do not
represent us directly. But as elected officials, such as
myself, although I come from one particular region of Navajo
Nation, I speak here before you as a representative of all
Navajo.
Thank you.
Chairman Waxman. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ms.
McCollum.
Ms. McCollum. Mr. Chair.
Chairman Waxman. Yes.
Ms. McCollum. For the record, I am going to submit an
article called Yellowcake Blues. It was published on October
11, 2006, and it speaks to the resolution that the Honorable
Mr. Arthur spoke to. It was a vote of 63 to 19.
Chairman Waxman. Without objection, that will be made part
of the record.
[The information referred to follows:]
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Chairman Waxman. We have Mr. Welch next.
Mr. Welch. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Distinguished members of the panel, I too would like to
apologize for being called to vote. I did not wish to suggest
any offense by leaving, Mr. Arthur, during your testimony.
I also agree with my colleague, Mr. Yarmuth from Kentucky,
that serving on this committee, we have heard some pretty bad
things. But nothing quite so bad, quite so arrogant, quite so
thoughtless, quite so consequential as what has happened on
your lands. I think I speak probably for all of us.
Ms. Hood, you talked about harmony and respect for Mother
Earth and the way you were raised. It would do us all a lot of
good to pay more respect to that.
So I do have some questions. One of the incredible
challenges that you all have talked about is the cleanup.
Literally, we have hundreds of abandoned uranium mines. The EPA
admits to 520 mines in the Navajo Nation, and depending on how
I guess we define a mine, it could be up to 1,200. My
understanding about your study is that 90 percent of these
mines have been capped or filled by the Navajo Nation itself.
But those caps don't do anything about the groundwater. They
don't eliminate the radiation threat from the mines that you
are exposed to, that your children are exposed to and in all
likelihood, your grandchildren are or will be exposed to. We
definitely need the EPA to do that.
And the first step, in cleaning up the mines, is doing
environmental site assessment. Mr. Etsitty, the U.S. EPA has
done a site assessment at one mine, I guess the Northeast
Churchrock Mine, is that right?
Mr. Etsitty. That is correct.
Mr. Welch. So they have one done and 519 more to go?
Mr. Etsitty. There are numerous other mines to be
addressed. But we have been working with the U.S. EPA and
receiving grants to build our Navajo Superfund program. Through
grants, we have amassed capacity and we now do several site
assessments a year.
Mr. Welch. So that is you, the Nation is doing that?
Mr. Etsitty. Yes.
Mr. Welch. What I understand from our briefing is that the
EPA flew over the mines and took aerial radiation levels. But
they aren't detailed enough to create a cleanup plan. So they
just gave you a list of the mines with information about nearby
settlements in the water sources and asked you to prioritize
them? And the EPA said it would then begin site assessments on
the highest priority? Is that your understanding of what is
going on?
Mr. Etsitty. Yes. We have had a project going back several
years to inventory and identify as many of these sites, and it
did begin with aerial surveys. Now we are at a point where we
have prioritized the top 32 sites with Northeast Churchrock
being the top priority site on that short list.
Mr. Welch. How long has the EPA had your list of
priorities?
Mr. Etsitty. We have been on this project, which we call
the Abandoned Uranium Mine Collaborative, and we have been
working with EPA pretty close to 10 years. The list was
developed early on. It was just a matter of compiling all the
site characteristic data into a data base. We did have
ambitious goals at the beginning. We ran into cost difficulties
with the final product, but we do have a completed product.
I would say that the information has been available for
about 8 years.
Mr. Welch. So has the EPA begun any site assessment of the
mines you have identified?
Mr. Etsitty. Directly, just the Northeast Churchrock Mine
site.
Mr. Welch. So just one?
Mr. Etsitty. Yes.
Mr. Welch. So we haven't even begun the assessments, let
alone the cleanup?
Mr. Etsitty. As I said earlier, through the Navajo
Superfund program, we have done preliminary assessments and
site investigations of some of the known abandoned uranium mine
sites. We have information that we have collected in
coordination with U.S. EPA, so we have information on other
mine sites.
But EPA has taken the initial remedial action at Northeast
Churchrock alone.
Mr. Welch. So there is a long way to go, obviously.
We have heard a lot of testimony about some of the Navajo
homes being built with radioactive materials. I gather you
build homes in the traditional way, with materials that are on
your lands. You didn't realize, obviously, that there was any
threat of danger. Has the Navajo Nation, has EPA tested homes
to see how many of them might be contaminated? Have you had any
testing on them from the EPA?
Mr. Etsitty. Through another grant program, under the radon
program we have done surveys of hundreds of homes across the
Navajo Nation. We have identified a number of those homes that
do have high radon readings.
Mr. Welch. And these are homes that people are now living
in?
Mr. Etsitty. Homes that people did live in, and in some
places continue to live in. We are trying to assess how many
people still live in homes with high radon levels. Again, radon
is a naturally occurring element. But we are also trying to
pinpoint those homes that have been constructed with materials
that are radioactive.
Mr. Welch. Let me ask Dr. Brugge, if I could, what type of
threat that poses to the inhabitants?
Dr. Brugge. The homes that are built with uranium ore
tailings or materials that have uranium in them are going to
have all the decay products from uranium, including radium
itself. Radium decays into radon. So there are going to be high
levels of radon, especially if the space is enclosed and it
doesn't have good ventilation. Depending on the amount of
uranium and the ventilation, those levels can be very high.
There was one very notable case in Monument Valley that was
well documented, and the levels of radon in that home were
exceedingly high, and in my opinion presented a very, very
strong risk to the family that had lived there for a long time.
Chairman Waxman. Thank you, Mr. Welch. Your time is
expired.
Mr. Welch. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Waxman. Thank you.
Ms. Norton.
Ms. Norton. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Manygoats, I have a question for you. I understand
there are five closed mills in the Navajo Nation, and my
question concerns the Tuba City, AZ mill. I understand you grew
up right across the highway from the Tuba City mill, and that
your dad worked in the mill, is that correct?
Mr. Manygoats. Yes, it is.
Ms. Norton. Did you ever play around the mill, Mr.
Manygoats?
Mr. Manygoats. Yes.
Ms. Norton. In what way were you playing?
Mr. Manygoats. I would play around, like a little kid would
do, roll around and jump through the yellow powder.
Ms. Norton. So you would roll around what amounts to be
yellowcake?
Mr. Manygoats. Excuse me?
Ms. Norton. So when you would roll around in the mill, you
were really rolling in yellowcake, is that correct?
Mr. Manygoats. Yes, I did.
Ms. Norton. Did anyone at the mill warn you or your dad
about having you or youngsters playing in the yellowcake?
Mr. Manygoats. No, they didn't.
Ms. Norton. In your testimony, you mention 3 to 4 inch
metal balls that were used at the mill. Did you play with those
balls?
Mr. Manygoats. Yes, I did.
Ms. Norton. What did you think they were? How did you play
with them?
Mr. Manygoats. Well, being a little boy, as a marble, shot
put.
Ms. Norton. Shot put, marbles?
Mr. Manygoats. Yes, seeing how far we could throw it.
Ms. Norton. Could I ask Mr. Etsitty, are you familiar with
these metal balls, and would they have been radioactive?
Mr. Etsitty. Thank you, Representative Holmes Norton. I am
familiar with the metal balls. They are part of the machinery
and processing equipment that were present at the mills, not
only metal balls but ceramic balls as well. The actual
radioactive nature of these--they come in contact with the ore,
they are usually part of the crushing of the raw ore, and
creating the finer yellowcake dust.
The metal ores may take up some radioactivity and be
radioactive themselves, but the ceramic balls----
Ms. Norton. So these youngsters were essentially playing
with radioactive marbles or balls?
Mr. Etsitty. Yes, many of these materials were part of the
processing process, so they came in contact directly with
uranium ore and yellowcake.
Ms. Norton. Mr. Manygoats, could I ask you, when your dad
came home, what did his work clothes look like?
Mr. Manygoats. My father had a uniform, and the yellowcake
was all over his uniform.
Ms. Norton. So he came home with yellowcake on his clothes.
Were there any other ways that you believe uranium yellowcake
got into your home?
Mr. Manygoats. By my dad bringing his uniform with the dust
on him.
Ms. Norton. Is it the case that your parents actually
cooked on a screen from the uranium mill?
Mr. Manygoats. Yes, we did.
Ms. Norton. Did anyone warn your family that the yellowcake
on this screen was radioactive and dangerous?
Mr. Manygoats. No, they didn't.
Ms. Norton. Did you and your brothers and sisters ever get
hurt from the waste that was at the mill?
Mr. Manygoats. Yes. My sister, Daisy, she stepped in one of
the boiling chemicals and burned her feet and has scars. Also
my brother, Tommy.
Ms. Norton. Did anyone say that might be from uranium or
yellowcake or anything radioactive? Did anyone tell your
parents that?
Mr. Manygoats. No.
Ms. Norton. Have you, or has anyone in your family had
health problems?
Mr. Manygoats. Yes, all of my brothers and sisters, we have
health problems.
Ms. Norton. Including what?
Mr. Manygoats. Excuse me?
Ms. Norton. What kinds of health problems?
Mr. Manygoats. We have our eyes and hearing, with our ears,
and also the itchiness, the itch and the skin discoloration.
Ms. Norton. Have you had three surgeries to remove----
Chairman Waxman. Ms. Norton, your time is expired and other
Members are waiting.
Ms. Norton. Could I just offer my appreciation to Mr.
Manygoats for being here today to tell his story? I know in
light of the three surgeries you yourself have had, and the
growth in your own eyes and the problems with your sister's
eyes, this has not been easy for you or for them, but you have
done an important public service for the Navajo Nation and for
the Congress and the Nation. Thank you very much.
Chairman Waxman. Thank you, Ms. Norton.
Mr. Shays.
Mr. Shays. Mr. Chairman, first, thank you very, very much
for having this hearing. I thank you for acknowledging that
this is a problem that crosses both sides of the aisle and goes
back many, many years.
I purposely came back to this hearing, I had a bill on the
House floor and we did have votes and I apologize for missing
your statements. But I did want to personally say that I will
support any legislation and I will speak to anyone within our
Government that we need to speak with, and I will work with any
of my colleagues to once and for all address this issue to the
extent that we could address it. And I want to apologize to
each and every one of you that, in the year 2007, we would
still have to be dealing with this issue.
I don't know which one to ask this first question, but my
question is, and maybe you will just decide it for me, my first
question is, did the U.S. Government pay for these resources,
or did we just simply say, we will provide you employment if
you let us mine what is on your reservation?
Mr. Arthur. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee,
Congressman Shays, the Navajo Nation did make lease agreements
in the processing and also of mining the ores that were on the
trust land. There are lands that are off the trust land but
within Navajo Indian Country.
Mr. Shays. When you look at the 5 milling areas and the 520
mines, and you look at groundwater contamination, what do the
experts tell you is the first, most serious health threat? That
would be my question. And after that, which do they say is the
most expensive aspect to deal with?
Mr. Etsitty. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee,
Congressman Shays, thank you for the question. I would have to
say that most of what we have heard regarding the five mill
sites, in getting to the question of cleaning up contaminated
groundwater, has been primarily that the locations of these
sites are far from high population centers and that there is
very little threat to our groundwater. That is what we have
heard in the past.
The costs to continue cleaning up groundwater is growing
and making sure that the groundwater that is recognized as
threatened, that the protections necessary to keep that
groundwater safe for our purposes, for drinking water or for
livestock or for other agricultural or other uses of that
water, remain a top priority for us today. We would like to
make sure that those resources are protected.
Mr. Shays. You can close off the mines, correct? You can
block them, you can board them up, whatever you do. Is that
true?
Mr. Etsitty. Mine features and mines themselves, the
exploratory holes or the actual mining vents, can be closed off
physically.
Mr. Shays. Have they been?
Mr. Etsitty. Many of them have, yes, under the authorities
of SMCRA and the Abandoned Mine Lands----
Mr. Shays. Are the areas where you have had milling, are
those basically fenced off, are they operational?
Mr. Etsitty. The former mill sites have been closed under
the UMTRCA law. Where they sit today, there are caps covering
all the mill tailings and groundwater treatment systems in
place to handle ongoing----
Mr. Shays. So is there a concern that we continue to
contaminate the groundwater or that we just have to deal with
what has already been contaminated?
Mr. Etsitty. At the mill sites, the caps were placed, but
there were no liners that were engineered at the time. We do
have concerns now, knowing what we know now about putting in
waste into the ground. We ask that these considerations be
taken up by the Federal agencies and we take another look at
exactly how proficient and how effective the current
groundwater monitoring systems are, and take a look at the
potentials for contamination coming out from underneath the
UMTRCA caps.
Mr. Shays. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, just a desire on my part to make sure that as
this committee works on it, that we can collectively work
together on this issue.
Chairman Waxman. Thank you very much, Mr. Shays.
Mr. Braley.
Mr. Braley. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank all of
our witnesses who traveled so far from the Navajo Nation to
enlighten and inform us here today.
Mr. Arthur, you noted in your statement that Navajo
warriors have served the United States with distinction in all
major conflicts since World War I. I think you could make an
argument, I wouldn't be sitting here today without the bravery
and distinguished service of the Navajo Code Talkers who served
on Iwo Jima.
The committee staff provided us with a map of the Navajo
Nation showing these abandoned uranium mines. One of the sites
that jumped out at me was the site in Mr. Matheson's district
in Utah, Montezuma Creek. My father graduated from Montezuma
High School in Iowa in 1943, before joining the Marine Corps
and serving on Iwo Jima. One of the most moving things I have
ever seen was the 50th anniversary on Iwo Jima, when a
representative of the Navajo Nation sang the Marine Corps hymn
in Dine on top of Mount Surabachi. So I want to thank you all
on behalf of my family for allowing my father to return home.
Dr. Brugge, I want to talk to you about some of the
chilling descriptions we have heard from the panel's witnesses
about the contamination of soil and groundwater on the Navajo
Nation with uranium mine and mill waste over the period of 30
to 40 years. What does science tell us about the health effects
on a population with long-term exposures to uranium mine waste?
Dr. Brugge. The science is very extensive, and I don't have
enough time to tell you all of it. But I will reiterate the
primary points that I think are particularly salient and that
also have the strongest science behind them. I think at the top
of the list we have to put radon. Radon is an extremely potent
lung carcinogen and off-gases from uranium ore. So I think that
has to be on the list.
Uranium itself is more of a heavy metal toxin. It is well
known in terms of its effects on kidneys, which you heard
testimony about, concerns about kidney disease. It has also
been shown to cause birth defects and numerous other health
outcomes for which there may be somewhat less evidence but
suggestive possibilities. Radium is a highly radioactive
material in the uranium ore. Radium, among other things, is
associated with bone cancer, with cancer of parts of the head,
the mastoid air cells and the nasal sinuses. It is also
associated with leukemia.
I would include arsenic as an important contaminant that is
out in the Navajo area, which is strongly known to cause skin
and lung cancer as well as skin changes. I was struck by the
description of pigmentation changes, which are clearly
associated with arsenic exposure. So there is a very large and
deep scientific base that shows that these hazardous materials
cause health effects. Some of them are proven at a causal level
from a scientific perspective. Others are not so certain.
What we don't know, and I was struck by Mr. Manygoats'
story, is what the health effects on a child rolling around in
yellowcake might be, with the mixture of contaminants and at
that age in particular, being a very young child. So I think
there are some areas where we don't know all of the health
outcomes, but we know enough to know that this is very
hazardous stuff.
As I was coming here today, I though the analogy is, none
of you would want your children playing in this uranium ore.
None of you would permit it. We have in the Navajo Nation, lots
of children playing in this ore as if it were a sandbox,
almost.
Mr. Braley. You have reviewed the studies that have been
done to date on the health effects of uranium contamination on
the Navajo Nation, is that correct?
Dr. Brugge. That is correct.
Mr. Braley. In your view, are those studies adequate to
determine whether the communities and individuals are at risk,
and the types of health effects for which they are at risk?
Dr. Brugge. I believe there is a need for additional
research, particularly because most of the studies showing
these associations with uranium ore components have not been
done in the Navajo area. So to know specifically what has
happened out there I think is important.
Mr. Braley. Are you aware of any types of cluster studies
that have been done from an epidemiological standpoint to
analyze the types of cancer that have been reported and the
locations to determine whether there is a causal relationship?
Dr. Brugge. That is something that has not been done in the
Navajo area and could be done as one of the possible directions
that research could take.
Let me just take a moment, though, to make clear that one
thing that I want to be absolutely clear about is, we don't
want to say that we need more research before we start
remediating these sites. This contamination is highly toxic, we
know it is toxic to humans. We know enough about the toxicity.
The reason why we need more research is to understand more
fully the extent of the injustice that was done out there, and
how it has affected the Navajo people.
Mr. Braley. Has anybody done any type of economic analysis
of the long-term health costs to the Navajo people resulting
from this contamination and looking forward who will bear the
ultimate responsibility for those costs?
Dr. Brugge. I am not aware of such a study.
Chairman Waxman. Thank you, Mr. Braley. Your time is
expired.
Mr. Cummings.
Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Etsitty, this is serious business, isn't it? Or let me
go to Dr. Brugge, I am sorry. I was getting my name tags mixed
up. This is serious business, isn't it?
Dr. Brugge. I would agree with that, yes.
Mr. Cummings. And I would take it that, I believe very
strongly in what the Bible says, it says do unto others as you
would have them do unto you. I just wonder, these houses that
these folks lived in, are living in, it is kind of dangerous,
isn't it?
Dr. Brugge. I would say that living in a home that is
constructed with uranium-contaminated material is extremely
dangerous, yes.
Mr. Cummings. And going back to you, Mr. Etsitty, you
provided the U.S. EPA with a list of homes that the Navajo
Nation EPA believes may be radioactive, is that right?
Mr. Etsitty. Yes, Representative Cummings, we have.
Mr. Cummings. How long ago did you do that, sir?
Mr. Etsitty. That list has been available for about 5
years, as we have developed all the inventory information.
Mr. Cummings. So that the committee will be clear what you
mean by available, did you present that to the EPA, or has it
just been sort of out there?
Mr. Etsitty. It was collected through our Abandoned Uranium
Mining Collaborative effort, and it has existed in a list form.
Mr. Cummings. So EPA would have possession of it, or
wouldn't they?
Mr. Etsitty. They do have possession of it, yes.
Mr. Cummings. I see. And they have had it for 5 years, you
said?
Mr. Etsitty. Yes.
Mr. Cummings. That is a long time, isn't it?
Mr. Etsitty. Well, we have taken a long time in developing
our inventory and putting together all this information, yes.
Mr. Cummings. And they didn't even immediately offer to
retest these homes and tear down and replace any radioactive
homes that people were living in?
Mr. Etsitty. Congressman Cummings, we were fortunate to
have a visit by Representative Patrick Kennedy in 2001, which
resulted in the cleanup of two homes.
Mr. Cummings. Wait a minute. Let me get this right. How
many homes were on the list? I thought I heard you say a little
bit earlier 80 to 90.
Mr. Etsitty. Eighty to 90 homes, yes.
Mr. Cummings. Eighty to 90, and 2 were removed, is that
right?
Mr. Etsitty. Two were demolished, and new homes were
constructed for those families back in 2001.
Mr. Cummings. So I think you testified, is there still some
ongoing testing with regard to radon in these homes?
Mr. Etsitty. Yes. We have an annual program that does radon
testing for many residents, and Head Start schools and elderly
centers across the Nation.
Mr. Cummings. Now, let me make sure I am clear on this. Is
that above the 80 or 90 that you talked about? In other words,
you have your 80 or 90 and then you are still testing for
others? Is that right?
Mr. Etsitty. Yes. The 80 or 90 refers to homes that were
built with contaminated radioactive materials.
Mr. Cummings. So they are still there?
Mr. Etsitty. Yes.
Mr. Cummings. Are people living in those homes to your
knowledge?
Mr. Etsitty. To some extent, we don't have exact
information, and that is what we continue to try and update on
an annual basis, those families that continue to use those
homes for various purposes, including residing.
Mr. Cummings. Wait a minute. Let me get this right. You
have 80 or 90 homes, you know where they are, like 2014 Madison
Avenue, and you mean you don't go to those homes and see if
people are still living there? Is that what you are trying to
tell me?
Mr. Etsitty. From time to time we do, but we need to update
that inventory on a regular basis.
Mr. Cummings. So you don't know whether people are living
in the 80 or 90 homes or not, is that what you are telling me?
Mr. Etsitty. That is part of our situation, yes.
Mr. Cummings. Let me ask you this, Dr. Brugge. We are going
to have some higher-ups from the EPA come up in a few minutes.
They are going to be sitting in those chairs that you are
sitting in. Not very long ago, we had the head of FEMA and we
were talking about trailers down in the Gulf Coast with
formaldehyde. And as a result of our hearing, a hearing just
like this, the head of FEMA said, you know what, we have to get
those people out of there, we have to warn them, because they
are in danger.
I am just curious, what would you want the EPA folks
sitting behind you, and I am sure they wouldn't want their
children or families to live in these houses, but I am just
curious as to what you would love to see them do. This is the
Government of the United States of America. We have a duty to
treat people right. That is where our moral authority comes
from. I am just wondering, what would you have them do? It is
going to be interesting to hear what they have to say. Because
I am going to ask them how they feel about what you are about
to say.
Dr. Brugge. Thank you, Congressman.
I don't know the details of all those homes and exactly
what level of contamination that they have. But to the extent
that they are similar to the home in Monument Valley that was
demolished and replaced, then I think that should happen to the
rest of those homes as well. It is critical to understand that
I believe the reason that hasn't happened is a lack of
resources. You can't just condemn someone's house. You have to
give them another place to live.
So I think that would be what I would want to see happen.
Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much.
Chairman Waxman. Thank you, Mr. Cummings.
I want to now recognize our colleague, Representative
Udall. Congressman Udall has talked to me about this issue a
number of times. We are holding this hearing today, but I don't
want anybody to think it is only a one hearing matter. We are
going to continue to pursue this issue until we get it right.
So Congressman Udall, I want to recognize you to question the
witnesses and tell you that I look forward to working with you
to get this situation resolved and restore justice to those
people who have been denied it.
Mr. Udall. Thank you very much, Chairman Waxman. I also
apologize to the early witnesses for not being here during your
testimony because of the vote that took place on the floor. Mr.
Chairman, I would like to put an opening statement for myself
into the record, if that would be acceptable.
[The prepared statement of Hon. Tom Udall follows:]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T5611.080
Mr. Udall. Mr. Chairman, what you have done here is very,
very important, because the legacy, by holding this hearing,
the legacy of uranium mining has been a real tragedy for the
Navajo people. I think each one of the witnesses today has
talked about pieces and parts of that.
But the tragedy for the 250,000 people that live at the
Navajo Reservation cuts across all families. The things that
you are hearing today, where you could go to any home on the
Navajo Nation and ask questions about these kinds of issues,
and most families would have similar stories, and may have well
lost a breadwinner due to uranium mining and to lung cancer or
some other health problem. So it is absolutely clear that not
only this committee but other committees of Congress need to do
the things like a RECA update, the Radio Exposure Compensation
Act. There are families, as Dr. Brugge and others have
testified, that were exposed to health hazards and there have
not been studies of those families and what the health care
impacts have been.
There is a massive cleanup problem that the Navajo Nation
is trying to tackle through Mr. Etsitty's agency, but it still
is enormous and the Federal Government hasn't put the resources
behind it. We have a situation today where a company is trying
to move out onto the Navajo Reservation and mine in the
groundwater under Crown Point with an experimental technology
where these people that drink from this groundwater, their only
source of groundwater, would be exposed to this experimental
technology, and possibly have their groundwater polluted
forever.
So there are many, many problems there. I think we need to
remember when folks step forward and tell us that nuclear power
is green power, that the real legacy of the nuclear age you are
seeing here, you are seeing here first-hand. People don't know
it, but the costs I know, because I have been involved with my
family in a variety of lawsuits, the costs have been enormous.
Thousands of claims have been paid by the Federal Government;
hundreds of millions of dollars have been paid out in
compensation for these injuries. When you talk about hundreds
of millions of dollars, they were in sums of $100,000,
$150,000, $50,000. So there have been some very, very serious
injuries and deaths caused by what has happened.
I would like to talk a little bit with Mr. Harrison about
exposures of mining families and ask you a couple of questions.
Is it true, Mr. Harrison, that your father worked in different
uranium mines when you were young, a number of different
uranium mines?
Mr. Harrison. Yes, Congressman Udall. My father started
mining around Cove, AZ and eventually moved out to Colorado,
worked the Colorado mines, then some small mines in the Utah
area for over 20 years.
Mr. Udall. Did your family live near where your father was
working at the mine?
Mr. Harrison. In early childhood, when we were not in
school, we lived in the mining camps. We did that off and on
for, I would say from the mid-1950's to the 1970's.
Mr. Udall. While you were a child living at the camp, did
you play on the piles and have occasion to see other children
playing out on these piles?
Mr. Harrison. All of these mining sites were up in the
mountains, to the point where transportation would be a
problem. So the miners would live right next to where they
mined, and also the waste piles would be there, where all the
families had access to these waste piles, living on them, and
also children there would have access to the entrances of the
mines, too.
Mr. Udall. Where did you get your drinking water for your
family?
Mr. Harrison. If the water source runs out, you bring the
water supply to the mountains. If the water source runs out,
then you would go to the mines to collect water for drinking
water.
Mr. Udall. So you were drinking water that was out of the
uranium mines?
Mr. Harrison. Yes. If it was there, we would use the water
for all purposes.
Chairman Waxman. Will the gentleman yield to me on that
issue?
Mr. Udall. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Waxman. Mr. Harrison, as I understood your opening
statement, you said that the drinking water that had uranium in
it was being mixed with water that had less contamination in
it. This was at the urging of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Is
that an accurate statement?
Mr. Harrison. Yes, Mr. Chairman----
Chairman Waxman. Or was that the Indian Health Service?
Mr. Harrison. Indian Health Service. I stated that I lived
in a community where the mining took place; I grew up in Cove,
and I lived just east of Red Valley. We had two water wells
that produced over 115 gallons a minute. Both of these wells
exceeded EPA standards.
We tried to resolve that by working with General Electric.
We were asked to pursue a grant through USDA. Because of the
bureaucratic system that they had, we ran out of time to
address the water well in a 24 month period. So the Indian
Health Service went to another course of action, to blend that
water well with another source of water to cut down the EPA
readings.
Chairman Waxman. I just find that unbelievable, that their
solution was to take contaminated water and mix it with less
contaminated water and have people drink it. This is to me
amazing that would be the solution that the Indian Health
Service would come up with, after not being able to figure out
what to do, they would come up with a solution that to me can't
be a solution to protect people's health.
Mr. Davis.
Mr. Davis of Virginia. I just have a couple of questions,
Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Waxman. Just a minute. Mr. Udall, were you
finished?
Mr. Udall. I would like to just wrap up with a couple more,
if I still have time, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Waxman. Please proceed.
Mr. Udall. This contaminated water was used for making
coffee, washing, and even baby formula, is that correct, in
your household?
Mr. Harrison. Yes, Congressman Udall. If there was a
sufficient amount of water that was in a mine, the workers
would make a cistern in the mines where they would build almost
like a pool of water, and there would be cups around it, where
they had access to it. Many of these families would take this
water home. They traveled back to the Navajo Nation from
Colorado.
I remember very well, they would take water in a canvas
bag, say that this is mountain water, and they would take it
back to their homes.
Mr. Udall. You lost a brother, 6 month old died of a
stomach ailment, is that correct?
Mr. Harrison. Yes, sir. He was born in June 1955 and he
died in November 1955. My mother was telling me that she was
taking this mine water and mixing it with the baby formula.
Back then they had powdered milk. So they would use that to
feed babies. I know of one family that lost four little babies
during those years.
Mr. Udall. Your father died of lung cancer?
Mr. Harrison. My father died from lung cancer at the age of
46 in 1971.
Mr. Udall. Three of your other siblings have thyroid
problems?
Mr. Harrison. They are on medication now to control and to
correct the thyroid disorders.
Mr. Udall. And we have heard that you lost a kidney. Thank
you, Mr. Chairman, I hope we will get a chance for a second
round.
Chairman Waxman. Thank you very much, Mr. Udall.
Mr. Davis.
Mr. Davis of Virginia. Thank you all very much.
I was recently reading a letter sent by Senators Bingaman
and Domenici which states that the Navajo Nation believes it is
the responsibility of the Department of Energy, pursuant to the
Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act [UMTRCA], to clean
up the sites in the vicinity of the uranium mill. Is this
accurate? Is this your understanding? Let me just ask the
Navajo leaders.
Mr. Etsitty. Yes.
Mr. Davis of Virginia. OK. Do you think that a
comprehensive health study would be either necessary or helpful
to determine what the actual problems are that exist in the
community health-wise?
Mr. Arthur. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee,
another study would probably help. But I think today we have
sufficient data and information to immediately proceed with
solutions.
Mr. Davis of Virginia. OK. The reason I asked, the second
panel takes a little bit different view on this. And if you can
get something comprehensive, they may view some of this as
anecdotal and the like. It could strengthen the case for it.
According to the EPA, they have done aerial surveys,
sampled the water and looked at homes suspected of being made
from contaminated material. But ultimately, they contend that
how these mines are handled rests in the hands of the Navajo
Nation. Do you agree with that?
Mr. Arthur. No, sir.
Mr. Davis of Virginia. If it is a matter of funding, has
the Navajo Nation yet determined what, if any, additional funds
will be necessary to address the problem?
Mr. Arthur. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee and
Congressman Davis, we just recently, or in this testimony
requested an estimated amount.
Mr. Davis of Virginia. Are we in the process of determining
how much will be needed to resolve the issue? Is anybody doing
a study at this point to try to get at how much is needed?
Mr. Etsitty. Thank you, Congressman Davis.
The inventory that we have compiled gives us a list upon
which we can start to construct an estimation. And the work
that we have done with U.S. EPA at Northeast Churchrock Mine
gives us some initial cost figures. But we have not done
anything at this point that would lead toward something total
and comprehensive.
Mr. Davis of Virginia. I guess the only question I would
have from this vantage point is, we want to understand what the
costs are as we get into this in a comprehensive way. I know
you would want to do that too, before we jump in.
Thank you very much. I appreciate your testimony. Thank
you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Waxman. Thank you, Mr. Davis.
I am very pleased that Representative Matheson agreed to
join us today, because he is a leader on environmental issues,
especially cleanup issues and matters relating to uranium in
Utah, not just on this issue, but on other issues as well. So I
would like to recognize him for 5 minutes.
Mr. Matheson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thanks for the
opportunity to participate, not as a standing member of this
committee, thank you for the opportunity to participate in the
hearing today.
I also want to thank all the witnesses for their time and
their effort and their testimony. It is interesting, if you
think about the environment in which all this started back in
the 1940's, when uranium fever really swept this country,
Congress passed something called the Atomic Energy Act in the
1940's and created the Atomic Energy Commission. By one
estimate, Americans went out and bought 35,000 Geiger counters
in 1953 alone. Native Americans became a big part of the effort
to look for uranium supplies because of their knowledge of the
land.
What should also be noted is that even back in the 1940's,
the Government knew that folks were at risk when involved in
this activity. A U.S. public health researcher named Henry
Doyle found in 1949 that the Navajo workers were not given pre-
employment exams and there were no medical programs for miners
in those days. Adverse health effects to miners were already a
concern at the time, to say nothing of the risk to the public
and others in the Navajo Nation.
I am proud to represent the Navajo Nation, at least the
Utah portion. It has been one of the best experiences I have
had to be a Member of Congress, and I am honored to have that
opportunity. I am the son of a down-winder who lived in
southern Utah during the nuclear weapons testing. He died when
he was 61 of multiple myeloma. I have worked with
Representative Udall extensively on looking at the Radiation
Exposure Compensation Act to see if there are ways that we
ought to be amending that act and expanding it.
The important thing about the Radiation Exposure
Compensation Act is not necessarily the compensation, but it is
the acknowledgement on the part of the Federal Government that
it did something wrong. Because back in this euphoria of the
1940's and 1950's, when the Atomic Energy Commission and
uranium fever took over this country, a lot of mistakes were
made. Folks in southern Utah were referred to by the Atomic
Energy Commission as a low-use segment of our population. For
those of us who had families there, we didn't really agree with
that statement, and I am sure the Navajo Nation doesn't agree
with that as well.
So it is important, and I thank the chairman for addressing
this issue and bringing this matter to light in this hearing.
There is so much work to be done.
I wanted to ask Mr. Harrison a question. I really
appreciated your comments about the need to readdress RECA,
particularly as it relates to the Navajo Nation. I have been
concerned about this for some time, that we had some provisions
in RECA that are very difficult to implement, because of the
difficulty on the Navajo Nation in meeting the requirements for
documentation to prove eligibility for RECA. It is something
that I think Congress needs to address, and I would welcome any
suggestions you may have on how we ought to be amending the
Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. Do you have anything to
offer on that?
Mr. Harrison. Thank you, Mr. Matheson. Currently, Navajo
Nation has drafted three technical amendments and three statute
changes to pursue RECA changes. We would very much like to have
Members of the U.S. Congress work these provisions to where all
these former miners would be adequately compensated with less
stringent requirements. It is very important also to consider
the post-1971 uranium workers. We have many of them come to our
offices to get compensation.
Mr. Matheson. I look forward to reviewing those
suggestions. I am very interested in pursuing that.
Dr. Brugge, I would like to thank you for the research you
have done. You have asked that Congress conduct more health
research, and I would like to know if you have suggestions
about which studies you believe would be most beneficial.
Again, I think you may face some of the challenges because of
the lack of documentation and how that affects researchers
trying to conduct statistical studies or epidemiological
studies. Do you have any thoughts on what else we should be
doing?
Dr. Brugge. Yes. I think there are basically two types of
approaches that could be taken to future research studies. One
would be what has been referred to here as sort of a
comprehensive public health study that looks for a clustering
of diseases and uses Indian Health Services cancer registry,
maybe other data of that sort, to look for what diseases are
higher in the communities that have more uranium exposure.
I think the other approach would be to look for some of the
diseases that we know are associated with uranium from other
studies, and see whether the same association holds. These are
called case control studies, where perhaps you would identify
children with birth defects and children without, and then look
back at their exposure history. The kind of rich detail that
Mr. Harrison was providing has not been brought into those
kinds of studies, and to do that, and see whether the baby
formula, playing on the tailings piles and those sorts of
things are clearly associated.
I think it would be interesting, but I would reiterate, not
necessary, to proceed with remediation of these sites.
Mr. Matheson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will yield back.
Chairman Waxman. Thank you very much, Mr. Matheson.
I do want to thank all of you for your very powerful
testimony. I guess there are two comments I want to make as we
move on to the next panel. One, aside from the fact that this
is very, very powerful, Mr. Etsitty brought in some dirt that
he showed was very radioactive. As I understand it, Mr.
Etsitty, that is not the most radioactive part of the dirt that
is on your property. Is that correct?
Mr. Etsitty. Mr. Chairman, that is correct. There are many
other samples and places from where this sample came from that
are much higher. But for the demonstration that we did here
this morning, we had to abide by shipping constraints and also
safety overall. What I demonstrated was exposure, and what we
had here was very limited exposure. The levels that we picked
up on the particular sample were high, but not putting us in
this room immediately at risk. If members were to consider that
the levels that people are being exposed to over the terms of
tens of years, decades, it does amass to a grave public health
concern.
Chairman Waxman. We had to go through extraordinary efforts
to allow you to bring that sample into this hearing. The
Capitol Police were very concerned about it. We had a lot of
people who were concerned whether we should even bring that
small little sample into the room. And yet we should realize
that this is the kind of radioactive dirt that the Navajo
people are being exposed to every single day.
The second point that I want to make, Mr. Harrison, is that
the idea that we would have blended water, blended water, water
contaminated with uranium; it is radioactive, and then blended
with non-contaminated water; I don't think anybody in this
Capitol would drink it. And yet we are asking people in the
Navajo Nation to drink that water, and the Federal Government
is giving its OK to this?
If we are not willing in this Congress to be exposed to the
dirt or the water that you are exposed to every single day,
then I don't think we ought to ask you to be exposed to it,
either. And I think that is a telling point for how people here
in Washington think it is maybe different for you. Why they
should think it is different for you and they wouldn't want it
for themselves underscores the neglect that we have given to
this very serious problem.
I thank you, each and every one of you, for being here
today. We are going to dismiss you and move on to the second
panel.
But before we do that, I want to declare a 10 minute
recess, just a short recess, then we will have the second panel
here and move on with the hearing.
Mr. Arthur. Mr. Chairman, members of the honorable
committee, on behalf of the Navajo people and certainly the
Navajo Nation government, the Navajo Nation Council, that
consists of 88 members, and we don't have a party system. I
only ask that you do not approach this as a Republican or a
Democrat or an Independent. This is an issue related to the
human being, my people. Please, I ask that you go forward with
this discussion in a manner that would be more on the human
concept, rather than on a party line.
Chairman Waxman. I appreciate that comment, and I am sure
you noticed that both the Democrats and Republicans on this
committee were very clear that we want to work together, that
we are all outraged by what we have seen happening.
Mr. Arthur. Thank you, sir, and thank you, members of the
committee.
Chairman Waxman. Thank you. Ten minute break.
[Recess.]
Chairman Waxman. The committee will please come back to
order.
Our second panel consists of the relevant Federal agencies.
Mr. Wayne Nastri is the Regional Administrator for Region 9 of
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Mr. Nastri will be
accompanied by Mr. Keith Takata, Director of Region 9 Superfund
Division, who will be available to help answer Members'
questions.
Dr. David Geiser is the Deputy Director of the Office of
Legacy Management at the U.S. Department of Energy. Dr. Charles
Miller is the Director of the Office of Federal and State
Materials and Environmental Management Programs at the U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Dr. Miller will be accompanied
by two colleagues at the NRC who will be available to help
answer questions: Mr. Francis Cameron, the Assistant General
Counsel for Rulemaking and Fuel Cycle, and Mr. William von
Till, Branch Chief for Uranium Recovery Licensing.
Mr. Robert McSwain is the Acting Director of Indian Health
Service in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Mr. McSwain is accompanied by two IHS experts who will be
available to help answer questions, Rear Admiral Douglas G.
Peter, M.D., Deputy Director, Chief Medical Officer for the
Navajo Area, IHS, Gary Hartz, Director of the IHS Office of
Environmental Health and Engineering. And Mr. Jerry Gidner is
the Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the U.S.
Department of Interior.
I thank you all for being here today. It is the policy of
this committee to swear all witnesses, and those who may be
answering questions, and take the oath. I would like everybody
to please rise and raise your right hands.
[Witnesses sworn.]
Chairman Waxman. The record will indicate that all of the
witnesses answered in the affirmative.
Mr. Nastri, why don't we start with you? All of you should
be aware that your prepared written statement will be in the
record in its entirety. We would like to ask you, if you would,
to please limit the oral presentation to around 5 minutes.
STATEMENTS OF WAYNE NASTRI, REGIONAL ADMINISTRATOR, U.S.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, REGION 9, ACCOMPANIED BY KEITH
TAKATA, DIRECTOR, REGION 9 SUPERFUND DIVISION; DAVID GEISER,
DEPUTY DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF LEGACY MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF
ENERGY; CHARLES L. MILLER, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF FEDERAL AND
STATE MATERIALS AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS, U.S.
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION, ACCOMPANIED BY FRANCIS CAMERON,
ASSISTANT GENERAL COUNSEL FOR RULEMAKING AND FUEL CYCLE AND
WILLIAM VON TILL, BRANCH CHIEF FOR URANIUM RECOVERY LICENSING;
ROBERT G. MCSWAIN, ACTING DIRECTOR, INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE,
ACCOMPANIED BY REAR ADMIRAL DOUGLAS G. PETER, M.D., DEPUTY
DIRECTOR, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, NAVAJO AREA, IHS; GARY HARTZ,
DIRECTOR, IHS OFFICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH AND ENGINEERING;
AND JERRY GIDNER, DIRECTOR, BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR
STATEMENT OF WAYNE NASTRI
Mr. Nastri. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the
esteemed committee. Mr. Chairman, as you note, our comments
have been prepared and submitted for your review. I would just
like to briefly summarize my thoughts on what we have heard
thus far.
First off, I want to thank you for your attention on this
matter. I too am sickened and saddened by what we heard today.
Working with tribal nations has been an area of extreme
importance for us. We have done extreme amounts of work with
the tribal operations committee, with the regional tribal
operations council. I myself have visited Navajo lands twice
and had a chance to see first-hand the beauty of the land and
to understand some of the challenges--it is so large, it is so
vast--some of the challenges on an Indian nation, particularly
Navajo, where over 30 percent of Navajo residents don't have
access to safe drinking water.
We have many challenges on Navajo Nation. We have worked
with Navajo Nation and Navajo Nation EPA for many years. The
recent culmination of the inventory, I have brought a copy of
the six documents that reflect the various chapters and regions
where uranium mining is ongoing. We have identified this
assessment through a number of different techniques, starting
with helicopter surveys, followed up with additional historical
research. This has really given us the foundation to evaluate
the situation and to move forward.
We heard today about many sources of drinking water where
people drink. I want to point out that there are literally
thousands of drinking water sources that are unregulated. The
definition of regulation for us is are there 25 people or more
drinking from it, are there 15 connections. But I can tell you,
when I visited Navajo and Hopi, I was out in the plains on the
arroyo, and here was a giant rock, and there was a hole in it.
They said, that is our drinking water. They said, you can drink
that. And I wouldn't drink that.
But we have a lot of challenges that we try to get. One of
the things that we have done is worked with Navajo Nation on
outreach, trying to inform the communities about the hazards
and to try to utilize its safe drinking water systems. We have
worked to try to increase the amount of drinking water systems.
Mr. Chairman, I know you talked about the issue of
blending. The issue of blending is one that I am sure we can
get into a little bit later. But it is an area that we actually
engage quite a bit in. So I would be more than happy to answer
your questions on that.
I think in hindsight, there are certain actions, and what
we heard today is that perhaps we have studied issues too long,
and perhaps we needed to take action. With regard to some of
the hogan issues, I am aware of two studies where we identified
28 hogans directly from Region 9 and 33 additional hogans from
our Office of Radiation and Indoor Assessment. Those hogans
where there was an immediate impact on the initial 28
assessments, we took action, we demolished those 2. Of the 33
that I am also aware of that were conducted by what we call
ORIA, our Office of Radiation Indoor Assessment, one of the
things we try to do is, we respect the sovereignty of the
Navajo Nation. We work with Navajo Nation and we say, here is
the information that we have. How do you think we should
proceed?
It is easy to say we have developed an inventory and that
we should take action. But there are a number of other factors
that perhaps we don't appreciate, that we don't have the
ability to understand the spirituality of the land. Those are
issues that we need to work with Navajo Nation, so that we can
understand and really develop a true prioritization that
reflects both of our agencies.
We are going to continue to work and take action where
necessary. We have a standing offer with Navajo Nation that if
we need to take removal action, we will do so. There are
various actions right now that we are contemplating, but
because of the challenge in the courts and the other systems,
we are on hold. We intend to move quickly where we have that
ability. We intend to utilize the authorities where we have the
authority. And we intend to work more closely together, and I
think that is a common commitment that we all share and we all
recognize that we do need to do a better job.
I don't think that when we work individually, whether it is
here on Navajo Nation or in any area of the Nation, we get as
much done as when we work in collaboration. I think by raising
your attention and bringing this all together, you certainly
have our commitment at EPA to address these issues in a
collaborative approach, to address these issues in a manner
that provides the hopefully efficient and speedier answer that
we all need on these.
With that, I will conclude my comments. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Nastri follows:]
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Chairman Waxman. Thank you very much, Mr. Nastri.
Mr. Geiser.
STATEMENT OF DAVID GEISER
Mr. Geiser. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and distinguished
members of the committee.
The Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act of 1978
required DOE to remediate four inactive uranium milling sites
on the Navajo Nation. The four sites are referred to as Mexican
Hat, Monument Valley, Shiprock and Tuba City sites. The
remediation of these sites included the construction of three
disposal cells and surface reclamation. Groundwater remediation
continues at three of those sites.
The surface reclamation program was completed in 1998, and
the authority of DOE to conduct further surface cleanup expired
at that time. The cost of the surface cleanup on the Navajo
Nation, including the construction of three disposal cells, was
$137 million. The groundwater program is ongoing today, at a
cost of approximately $3 million per year, and has no statutory
expiration date.
The four Navajo Nation milling sites are being cleaned up
under a cooperative agreement with the Navajo Nation that
provides the opportunity for a participative decisionmaking
process as required by the act. In addition, ongoing
communication includes regular meetings and consultation on
draft reports. This process ensures that DOE addresses the
concerns of the Nation and that the Nation has full knowledge
of current and planned activities related to the cleanup.
Work at the Tuba City site is staffed by Navajo operators
under contract with the DOE technical assistance contractor.
DOE has worked with the Navajo Nation over the last 20 years.
We currently have a positive working relationship. DOE provides
funding of approximately $300,000 per year to the Navajo Nation
so that their staff can participate. Staff from the Navajo
Nation assists with site inspections, monitoring and
maintenance activities. DOE holds quarterly meetings with the
Navajo Nation to update the progress of site cleanup, address
the nation's concerns and plan for technology transfer and
education opportunities.
DOE is currently remediating groundwater at the Tuba City,
Monument Valley and Shiprock sites. The groundwater plumes are
as a result of former uranium milling site ponds that contained
large volumes of process water. I will briefly address
groundwater remediation at each of these sites.
The primary contaminant of concern at the Monument Valley
site is nitrate. There is a pilot study underway that uses
native plants to facilitate the reduction of the nitrate in
groundwater at the site. The pilot study was approved under
environmental assessment in cooperation with the Navajo Nation.
The pilot project has been successful to date, and a deeper
well was recently drilled to continue to provide water for
irrigation. In addition, a water line was built by DOE for the
few residents who might be impacted by the groundwater plume.
The major contaminant of concern at the Shiprock site is
uranium. There are two areas of groundwater contamination, the
terrace and the floodplain. Both of these locations are
difficult to remediate, because of very small volumes of
groundwater. We have taken actions both for the terrace and the
floodplain. We believe those are having positive results in
helping us contain the groundwater contamination.
The Tuba City site has a state-of-the-art treatment system
to collect and treat contaminated groundwater. The system is
effective enough that the treated groundwater can be re-
injected into the ground. Navajo operators have been hired to
operate the groundwater treatment plant.
In addition to conducting remedial action on the milling
sites, DOE has also remediated contaminated soils surrounding
the sites and properties in the vicinity of the sites as part
of the vicinity property program. That was done between 1978
and 1998. DOE investigated ten properties near the Tuba City
milling site for possible inclusion in this program. Out of the
10, 1 site was included, the other 9 did not exceed the
standards, and therefore, no action was taken.
Groundwater issues generally do not occur on vicinity
properties, because large volumes of process water normally
used for milling are not present at those vicinity property
sites, and so generally do not impact groundwater quality.
Reauthorization of UMTRCA surface remediation authority would
be required to perform additional remediation of vicinity
properties.
I would be happy to answer any questions you may have on
our activities.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Geiser follows:]
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Chairman Waxman. Thank you very much, Mr. Geiser.
Dr. Miller.
STATEMENT OF CHARLES L. MILLER
Mr. Miller. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, it
is a pleasure to be here before you today to discuss the U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission's regulatory role for uranium
recovery facilities. I am also here to address any related
concerns you may have regarding the health and environmental
impact on the Navajo land from these NRC-regulated operations.
I have submitted my written testimony for the record. With
my allotted time this morning, I will summarize the key points.
NRC regulates uranium recovery facilities but does not
regulate uranium mining or abandoned uranium mine sites. There
are only two primary uranium recovery process: conventional
mills and in site leach facilities, which are referred to as
ISLs. The conventional mill processes uranium ore, which is
crushed and sent through an extraction operation to concentrate
uranium and produce yellowcake. This process produces a waste
product called mill tailings, which are a sandy ore residue.
The ISL uranium extraction process wells are drilled into
rock formations containing uranium ore. Water with oxygen and
sodium bicarbonate added is injected into the uranium ore body
so that it dissolves and can be extracted. The recovered
uranium-bearing water is pumped to a processing plant which
separates out the uranium and concentrates it.
With the enactment of the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation
Control Act of 1978, referred to as UMTRCA, mill tailings
became subject to NRC regulation. Title I of UMTRCA addresses
uranium mill tailing sits that were abandoned as of 1978. Title
II addresses uranium recovery facilities and mill tailing sites
that were operating in 1978 and thereafter. The Title II sites
are specifically licensed by NRC or an agreement State.
Under Title I, the NRC is required to evaluate the
Department of Energy's design and implementation of remedial
action for the abandoned uranium mill tailings sites, and after
remediation, to concur that those sites meet the standards set
by the Environmental Protection Agency. Title I also requires
NRC to evaluate and concur in DOE's remediation design and
implementation for vicinity properties. Vicinity properties are
lands in the areas surrounding the Title I sites that DOE has
determined were contaminated with residual radioactive
materials from the mill sites.
UMTRCA requires that after remediation, Title I and Title
II sites be under Government custodian care in perpetuity under
NRC license. To implement this requirement for Title I, the NRC
established in its regulations a general license authorizing
DOE's custody and long-term care of the remediated sites. The
general license becomes effective after NRC concurs with DOE
that its site-specific remedial action has been completed, and
after NRC accepts DOE's long-term surveillance plan for the
site. After these actions, DOE is the perpetual custodian of
the site under NRC's general license.
Once a long-term surveillance plan has been approved, the
DOE has the primary responsibility to ensure public health and
safety at the site. However, NRC continues to have an oversight
role. Four Title I sites are on Navajo lands, and have been
articulated by my colleague from the Department of Energy.
Title II of UMTRCA established the framework for NRC and
agreement States to regulate mill tailings and other wastes at
uranium and thorium mills licensed by the NRC at the time of
UMTRCA's passage in 1978.
Under Title II of UMTRCA, NRC regulates this material
during mill operation and ensures that the site is properly
closed prior to terminating the license. After license
termination, the site is managed by the DOE or a State under a
general license which imposes conditions for custody and long-
term care. Currently, there are no Title II sites on Navajo
land. However, two Title II sites are adjacent to Navajo lands.
The UNC site is currently being remediated at Crown Point
and is not operated. NRC staff has met with representatives of
Navajo EPA and Navajo Dine Policy Institute about future
uranium recovery activities and recently held a meeting in
Gallup, NM, where the Navajo interpreter translated the NRC
presentation to assist many participants from the Navajo
Nation. NRC intends to consult and interact with the Navajo
Nation on any applications that may have implications on the
Navajo Nation.
Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I hope that my
testimony provides you with an understanding of the NRC's role
with regard to these sites. I would be pleased to respond to
any questions. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Miller follows:]
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Chairman Waxman. Thank you, Dr. Miller.
Mr. McSwain.
STATEMENT OF ROBERT G. MCSWAIN
Mr. McSwain. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the
committee.
Today I am pleased to have this opportunity to testify on
what is known about health and the environmental impact of
uranium mining on the Navajo Nation. I too was touched by the
first panel, clearly, and as the people that Indian Health
Service is extremely concerned about and serves.
The IHS responsibility is for the delivery of health
service to an estimated 1.9 million federally recognized
American Indian and Alaska Natives through a system of IHS,
tribal and urban programs operated across and basically in a
government-to-government relationship in acts of Congress. The
mission of Indian Health Service is to raise the physical,
mental, social and spiritual health of American Indians to the
highest level in partnership with tribes. It is the partnership
with tribes that is very, very important at this hearing.
The agency's goal is to assure that comprehensive,
culturally acceptable personal and public health services are
available and accessible to the service population. Our duty is
to uphold the Federal Government's responsibility to promote
healthy American Indian and Alaska Native people, communities
and cultures, and to honor and protect the inherent sovereign
rights of tribes.
Three major pieces of legislation that we rely on
throughout work is the Snyder Act of 1921, the Indian Health
Care Improvement Act, which we are looking forward to
reauthorization, certainly, and of course the Indian Self-
Determination and Education Assistance Acts, which enables
tribes to assume management control of programs. In this
particular instance, there are several programs on the Navajo
that are in fact contracted with the Indian Health Service.
The IHS has 12 area offices throughout the continental
United States and Alaska. One of those offices is located in
Window Rock, where the capital of the Navajo Nation is located.
The Navajo Area Indian Health Service is responsibility for the
delivery of health services to the American Indians in the
States, in basically the Four Corners area, approximately the
size of West Virginia, with a population density which is one-
tenth of the U.S. average of 85 people per square mile, an
important distinction when we talk about population densities.
Comprehensive health care is provided by the Navajo Area
Indian Health Service and the Navajo Nation through in-patient
and out-patient contract community health and environmental
health programs through 6 hospitals, 10 health centers, 13
health stations and community-based activities. In fiscal year
2007, 1.2 million out-patient visits and 56,000 in-patient days
were provided by the 4,500 Indian Health Service and tribal
staff on the Navajo Nation.
The IHS Sanitation Construction Program funded for the
first time water and sewer service to 1,098 Navajo homes in
fiscal year 2007. The Navajo Nation and local health
corporations administer approximately $89 million in the annual
NIHS funding to deliver and support health services to the
Navajo people.
Now a little bit about the health and the environmental
impact. As you have heard by the experts, uranium is ubiquitous
in the Earth's crust, but is especially concentrated in larger
amounts in the southwest, in the Navajo Nation. An estimated
3,000 to 5,000 Navajos worked in the uranium mines and the
Navajo Nation reports the presence of over 1,300 abandoned
mines on reservation land alone.
In 2002, the Navajo Area Radiation Exposure Screening and
Education Program [RESEP], began operations as one of the seven
HHS RESEP grants in the United States. The Navajo Area Indian
Health Service worked closely with the Navajo Nation Division
of Health, Office of Navajo Uranium Workers, to implement the
grant, which incidentally is funded through August 31, 2008. In
1990 to 1991, the Indian Health Service OEHE program did in
fact work with EPA on a survey, a radon survey for a number of
private homes. The conclusion drawn was that in spite of the
surface soils, rich in natural uranium, most Navajo-occupied
homes do not have a problem with higher than recommended levels
of radon, compared to the U.S. average.
Since the passage of Public Law 86-121 in 1959, IHS has
been constructing community water systems in Indian Country in
accordance with EPA standards for safe drinking water. In the
case of Navajo area, we actually turned these systems over to
the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority to operate and maintain.
Compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act on Navajo
Reservation has been the responsibility of the Navajo Nation
since 2001.
In conclusion, the Indian Health Service strives every day
to be true to our mission to elevate the health status of
eligible Indian people. We work in partnership with tribes and
many other organizations and governments to provide preventive,
curative, community and health care facilities and services
throughout the country.
Thank you for the opportunity to present testimony before
the committee. I will be pleased to answer any questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. McSwain follows:]
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Chairman Waxman. Thank you, Mr. McSwain.
Mr. Gidner.
STATEMENT OF JERRY GIDNER
Mr. Gidner. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, thank
you for having us here today to testify about this.
I am Jerry Gidner, I am the Director of the Bureau of
Indian Affairs. I would like to talk very briefly about our
role and the role of the Department of Interior in the uranium
issues at Navajo.
Over the past several years, the Office of Surface Mining
and the Department, in cooperation and with some assistance
from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, under the authority of the
Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, did close numerous
abandoned mines on Navajo and remediated the physical safety
hazards. BIA has been working for some time negotiating with
the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Nation, EPA on what to do about the
Tuba City landfill, which has been contaminated by
radionucleides from the Tuba City site. What we understand is
that over time, mine tailings were used in the Tuba City area,
over time, some of them made their way into the Tuba City
landfill. We are remediating that landfill at present.
So our role in this remediation effort has been really very
limited, basically to what I just said. Although we lack
specific expertise in cleaning up uranium mines or uranium mill
tailings, we do stand in a position of being ready to cooperate
with the other Federal agencies, with the Navajo Nation and
with anybody else that we need to to advance this issue.
I would be happy to take your questions. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Gidner follows:]
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Chairman Waxman. Thank you very much. I want to thank each
of you for your testimony today.
Mr. Nastri, I would like to ask about the Northeast
Churchrock Mine site. When it was active, it was the largest
underground uranium mine in the country. U.S. EPA went out and
took radiation tests at this site. At the mine area, the radium
levels were as high as 875 picocuries per gram. The EPA
standard for deciding whether to clean up a site is 3.34
picocuries per gram. So that is 270 times the EPA standard.
Even in the back yards of two residences which are farther
away from the mine, the radium levels were up to 30 picocuries
per gram, that is 9 times the EPA standard. Those radiation
levels pose an exceptionally high cancer risk. In fact,
exposure to the radium levels at the mine would create an
excess risk of cancer of 1 in 100, for example, for every
hundred people exposed to this level of radium for a lifetime,
one person will develop cancer that otherwise would not.
In response to these exceptionally high levels of
radiation, EPA removed the top 6 inches of soil from a few
residential yards. Mr. Nastri, that didn't take care of the
whole problem at the site, did it?
Mr. Nastri. No, it did not.
Chairman Waxman. Even after EPA's preliminary work, the
mine is still radioactive, there is much more contaminated soil
and the groundwater is contaminated. Has EPA taken any action
so far to remediate the groundwater?
Mr. Nastri. We have not taken action to remediate the
groundwater. We are working with Navajo Nation and EPA to
address the surface extent of the contamination. As you pointed
out, we removed roughly 6,500 cubic yards. There is roughly 140
acres or roughly 1.4 cubic yards that need to be addressed.
Right now we are in the position of evaluating what are the
alternatives. You heard earlier from the panel that they would
like to see clean closure, they would like to see the material
removed and stored in a separate facility. That is certainly
one of the evaluations that we are looking at. We are looking
at a whole range of evaluations. We will discuss these with
Navajo Nation once the cost estimates have come together and
hopefully, we will be able to address that situation.
Chairman Waxman. According to the Navajo living in the
area, EPA isn't currently doing any cleanup work at the site.
You indicated you are doing studies to evaluate the costs. But
I really don't understand the delay. Why isn't there any
activity at the sites to remediate these problems?
Mr. Nastri. Well, the immediate problem was the homes and
the residence, as Director Etsitty talked about. That is where
we took immediate action. In fact, when you sort of look at
historically where do we take action, it is where there is that
immediate threat, that immediate risk. Unfortunately, when you
look a the site, yes, if you are on the site and you are
exposed to the site, there are problems associated with your
own health and your own risk.
But if that area can be fenced off and if that area can
then be assessed for how are we going to deal with it, if you
look at nationwide, how do we address contaminated sites, there
are a whole host of ways that we do that. One of the most
common options is reduce the exposure, reduce the risk. People
have talked earlier about, well, if you are going to have
containment areas, you should have liners, you should have all
these things that are necessary. I agree, and that is part of
the evaluation that we are looking at. But you wouldn't
necessarily put in a liner if you are going to simply excavate
all that material and go away.
But there are a number of complex issues that you have to
look at. For instance, if we are going to try to remove all
this material in a clean closure, how is that material going to
be transported, and transported in such a way that it doesn't
impact the roads, that it doesn't pose a health threat to
anybody else along the way? Those are part of the things that
we have to look at and evaluate.
So to say that we are not doing anything, I would disagree
with that. I would say that we are actively engaged in this
area, that we are trying to find the right course of action,
that we will continue to partner with them to do so.
Chairman Waxman. Tell us what EPA needs in order to clean
up this site. U.S. EPA and the United Nuclear Corp. need to
pick up this pace. Ms. Hood, who testified, she and her
neighbors deserve better than to be surrounded by radioactive
contamination. What do you need?
Mr. Nastri. That is a good question. Part of the challenge
that we need is, I think, time. I know there has been a lot of
time that has already been focused on this. But we need time to
complete the engineering evaluation. It should not take years;
it should not draw on. But we do need to finish that
evaluation.
The issue of resources within Navajo Nation and EPA, one of
the things that we have really done in terms of working with
them is to try to build their capacity. There was a request
made earlier for, I believe, 20 FTE for Navajo Nation to
address these issues. Certainly having the increased capacity
at the State level I think would be very helpful. As you know,
when we work throughout the Nation, we work with the States.
The States have the capacity, part of what we have done is to
try to build through the GAP program that capacity. The Navajo
Nation also needs to implement in terms of authorization of
their own Superfund, Navajo Nation Superfund program. That is
an area that we have been working on.
With any agency, the more resources we have I think the
more that we can do. At this point, though, the big issue with
the Northeast Churchrock site is making sure that engineering
evaluation cost analysis is done. After that, I would be in a
better position to come back to you, Mr. Chairman, and say,
this is the selection chosen, this is what would be needed to
implement the remedy.
Chairman Waxman. When do you expect that will be done? What
time can you give us?
Mr. Nastri. One moment.
Mr. Takata. My name is Keith Takata. We actually completed
the evaluation and we briefed the Navajo Nation last month.
Then we are actually going to have a written report this fall.
And we would like to make a decision on the long-term cleanup
early next year.
Chairman Waxman. Thank you. My time is expired.
Ms. McCollum.
Ms. McCollum. Thank you.
What standard are you cleaning up to, industrial standards?
Mr. Nastri. Typically we would clean up to a designated
land-use standard. In this particular----
Ms. McCollum. I asked you what standard you were planning
on cleaning up to?
Mr. Nastri. I don't know the answer to that. My Superfund
Division Director, Mr. Takata, may know.
Mr. Takata. We are using a residential number to compare
the analysis. We are comparing the options to the residence----
Ms. McCollum. You are using residential for everything?
Mr. Takata. Yes.
Ms. McCollum. For everything?
Mr. Takata. Well, to compare--yes.
Ms. McCollum. In the Navajo Nation, we are aware that there
isn't a lot of rain. So the drinking water for livestock and
agriculture is going to come from wells and springs. The Navajo
Nation's Abandoned Mine Lands program filled in most of the
mines, and they couldn't protect against the groundwater
contamination. They could only use the funds that they had to
eliminate physical risks posed to open, abandoned mines.
Because high levels of uranium in drinking water can cause
kidney failure, groundwater contamination is a real concern.
Mr. Nastri, the U.S. EPA conducted water samplings in 1988 and
1999. You sampled 226 wells and springs. As I understand, the
1998-1999 sampling wasn't comprehensive. There weren't multiple
samples taken from the same sites over time. The sampling was
not done any more than a snapshot in time, is that correct?
Mr. Nastri. The Army Corps actually conducted the sampling.
We had authorized them to do so. But the nature and the way you
described it is correct, yes.
Ms. McCollum. OK. Around 15 percent of the samples showed
elevated levels of uranium. I know some of the uranium is
naturally occurring. But some of these readings are very
troubling. For example, samples were taken in the mountains
above a school in Cove. One of those samples came back with a
radium, 238 level of 414 picocuries per liter. That is over 20
times the EPA standard.
Now, the EPA standard, I am also going to assume, is the
standard for a white, healthy male, not for children. That is
what it usually is, correct? Am I correct?
Mr. Nastri. I think risk looks across exposure at all ages
and sex types, but I will stipulate to your assertion. Sure.
Ms. McCollum. That is my understanding, whenever I have
done anything to find out about EPA standards.
There is a stream near a school that has a uranium, 238 at
a reading of 71 picocuries per liter. That is over three times
the EPA standard. Now, there are young children at the school
every day. I want to know if the EPA has been back since 1999
to retest this area.
Mr. Nastri. Not to my knowledge, no.
Ms. McCollum. Has the EPA done any groundwater remediation
at any of the mine sites at the Navajo Nation?
Mr. Nastri. Not to my knowledge.
Ms. McCollum. Well, this is troubling, because
comprehensive groundwater testing is essential. The U.S. EPA
needs to do a comprehensive groundwater sampling over time to
ensure that the watersheds near the abandoned mines aren't
contaminated or in a danger of becoming contaminated. Now, we
are going to be monitoring the EPA's progress, because the
Navajo, like anyone else in this country are entitled to clean
drinking water for themselves and for their livestock. I
believe the EPA needs to do more than just one round of spotty
sampling.
The NRC is in the process of allowing a company, HRI, to
start possibly looking at doing this water slurry type of
extraction. This is very concerning and troubling to me. You
don't even know currently what the status of the water is, and
yet the NRC is looking at issuing mining licenses to even
contaminate possibly more water. I point out to you that the
U.S. Geological Survey does not share the same confidence that
the NRC does in this type of mine extraction.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Chairman Waxman. Thank you, Ms. McCollum.
Mr. Cummings.
Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Nastri, I just have a few questions. I am really
curious. To one of the chairman's questions, your answer was,
we need time. I can understand that, but while time passes, Mr.
Nastri, people get sick, people die, people develop kidney
disease, children, babies are born with birth defects, bone
cancer develops and gets worse, lung cancer, leukemia, while we
wait.
Mr. Nastri, I would like to ask you about the Navajo homes
built with radioactive materials. Earlier we hard that the
Navajo Nation, EPA has a list of 80 to 90 homes they suspect
may have elevated levels of radon. In other words, they believe
these homes may be radioactive. They aren't sure how many of
these homes are currently occupied.
Let me ask you, for the record, the Navajo Nation EPA says
that it provided a list of these homes to U.S. EPA in 2001. Is
that true, and has U.S. EPA had a list of these homes for the
past 6 years?
Mr. Nastri. I am not aware of the list that was
encompassing 80 to 90 homes. I am aware of 2 lists, one
encompassing 28 homes, 2 of which we took immediate action for
the removal; another list that was developed by our Office of
Radiation Indoor Assessment that was 33 homes. I understand
there is some anecdotal information about other homes. But that
information has never been provided to us in a written format
list that I am aware of.
Mr. Cummings. So you are saying you know of at least 50, if
I got your numbers right, 50 some?
Mr. Nastri. Correct.
Mr. Cummings. You said 20 some and 30 some. And so what has
been done with regard to those other homes? You said you did
some removal for two. But what happened to the other 40
something?
Mr. Nastri. Of the 2 lists, the 28 and the 2 were done in
the early 1990's, I believe. The two that were destroyed were
the ones that posed risk to the residents that was above
acceptable limits. The 33, that was done separately by our
Office of Radiation Indoor Assessment. We actually are working
with Navajo Nation to get that list so that we can address and
identify what needs to be done.
So we just received that list within, I believe, the last
year or so.
Mr. Takata. In 2006.
Mr. Cummings. How many were on that list?
Mr. Takata. Thirty-three.
Mr. Cummings. But you had a list, you got that list last
year, and the other list, when did you get that? You talked
about two lists?
Mr. Takata. In 2006. Would you like me to clarify those?
Mr. Cummings. Yes, please.
Mr. Takata. OK, so there was one list----
Mr. Cummings. Can you come to the mic and tell me who you
are?
Mr. Takata. I am Keith Takata and I work for Mr. Nastri.
Mr. Cummings. You play a major role here.
Mr. Nastri. Mr. Takata is my Superfund Division Director
and is responsible for a lot of the work that goes on in the
Navajo Nation.
Mr. Cummings. Wonderful. Welcome.
Mr. Takata. Sir, let me try to clarify the list. There was
a list of 28, that was a list that EPA developed. Out of that
list of 28, there were 2 homes that had high levels. And we
destroyed those homes and provided new homes. So that----
Mr. Cummings. So you all went out, when you looked at the
28, you examined all of them, is that right?
Mr. Takata. Yes.
Mr. Cummings. And found that 26 of them did not have levels
up to what you consider dangerous, is that right?
Mr. Takata. Right, and then the two did, and we destroyed
those two.
Mr. Cummings. OK.
Mr. Takata. Then there is a separate list of 33 that was
done in a study. I am going to clarify the dates here. The
study started in 2001 and ended in 2006. We got the report in
2006. That is the list of 33. Those are suspected homes with
levels of contamination. But they haven't actually been--what
we used was field monitoring equipment to assess them. So the
next step is the Navajo Nation has agreed to go out and sample
those homes and we have let them know that if any of those
homes have high levels, that we will go out and clean them up.
Mr. Cummings. Do we know whether people are living in those
homes?
Mr. Takata. No, actually, that was one of the things that
needs to be done when the Navajo Nation goes to each home, they
need to figure out what it is being used, what the current use
is, and what the levels are.
Mr. Cummings. It is interesting, I was listening to the
chairman talk about they went through so many changes in
getting that little bit of dirt that they had here a little bit
earlier, and everybody was all upset and all concerned, and the
Capitol Police and what have you. I am just wondering, we are
waiting for a study to be conducted, the study is taking from
2001 to 2006, I think you said. Hello?
Mr. Nastri. Yes.
Mr. Cummings. 2006. What happens to those folks, let's
assume there are people living there. What happens to them
during that time? I am just curious as to whether you would
have your families in that environment for 5 or 6 years?
Mr. Nastri. I think there are a number of challenges that
we have to recognize. One of the things that we actually heard
earlier was the tie to the land. People do not necessarily want
to move out from their homes. So even though we have provided
homes, that doesn't necessarily mean that we can get somebody
to move out. That is why it is so important to work with Navajo
Nation, so that we can try to get these actions taken.
Mr. Cummings. But right now, as I close, Mr. Chairman, what
you are telling me is you don't even know whether people even
live in the houses?
Mr. Nastri. That is correct.
Mr. Cummings. What I am saying is that the diseases that I
just stated, kidney, birth defects, bone cancer, lung cancer,
leukemia, I mean, these people could be suffering from these
ailments. But you don't even know whether they're in the
houses. I mean, we do pay you, don't we?
Mr. Nastri. You do pay us, and----
Mr. Cummings. Yes, so in other words, you are paid by the
U.S. Government?
Mr. Nastri. Yes, I agree to that, we are paid by the U.S.
Government. We are paid to work with Navajo Nation. That is
what we are doing. We are giving them funding so they can build
their capacity and infrastructure. We are trying to address the
very concerns that you asked.
Mr. Cummings. I see my time is up.
Chairman Waxman. Just on this question of time, in 1975,
that is when I came to Congress, over 30 years ago, Joseph M.
Hans, Jr., an EPA radiation expert, was sent to inspect an
abandoned uranium processing plant in Cane Valley, on Navajo
territory, near the Arizona-Utah line. To Hans' dismay, at
least 17 of the 37 homes tested contained radioactive ore or
tailings. But they didn't have enough money, they didn't ask
for more time, they just didn't have enough money, so nothing
was done.
I guess I am still a little perplexed about whether you
really need time, and that is all you need. Because in 1975,
over 30 years ago, EPA knew about the homes and didn't do
anything about it.
Mr. Nastri. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When I said more time,
I was thinking about the Northeast Churchrock site. Here is my
concern, that if we move too quickly on the remediation of this
site, it is possible that we don't do a good enough job. Either
we haven't transported everything or we haven't built a proper
containment. And for us to move forward, Mr. Takata talked
about moving forward in the spring of 2008, I believe the
correct time that we had looked for in an answer was March
2008, then have May 2008 to go final, having gone through the
public participation process.
That was the time that I referred to, because I am very
cognizant that if we move too fast, now that we have developed
all this information, that we fail at the end. I just want to
make sure that we do this right.
Chairman Waxman. So you are talking about only one specific
area?
Mr. Nastri. That is correct. I was only speaking of the
Northeast Churchrock mill site.
Chairman Waxman. But in other areas, like this one I cited,
it was 1975 when they found 17 of 37 homes that were
radioactive and that were a problem. What happened there? Do
you know?
Mr. Nastri. I don't know what happened in 1975. But I do
know, and Mr. Takata can reiterate, we have a standing offer to
the Navajo Nation that if they are aware of activities or a
situation that warrants immediate action, we can use our
authorities, we can do it on a site by site, specific basis,
assess that and take appropriate action. And we have done so
and will continue to do so.
Chairman Waxman. Well, all I can say is, EPA has been aware
for 32 years of this houses. This man named Hans was an EPA
employee. He found the problem. And you are waiting for the
Navajos to tell you what to do? That doesn't sound right to me.
Mr. Nastri. I agree with your assertion. It doesn't sound
right. We have identified those sites, we took action where we
thought that there was risk. If there are other sites that we
are not aware of where there is risk that the Navajo Nation is
aware of, those are the sites that we will take action on.
Chairman Waxman. Well, Hans said he wrote to EPA
headquarters in Washington, DC, recommending that the agency
clean up the most contaminated homes or relocate the occupants.
He said, ``You have two risks, gamma radiation, and you have
radon.'' It wasn't acceptable, he said. And his higher-ups said
no. That is the response he got.
He went on to say, ``I still felt uncomfortable,'' so he
urged the Indian Health Service to act. And the response from
the Indian Health Service was the same. ``Finally, we got the
message,'' said Hans, now retired and living in Las Vegas. ``We
didn't have the money to go decontaminating sites.'' And still
he wanted to warn homeowners. Most spoke Navajo and were
uncomfortable with English, so Hans went back with a
translator. And all he could say is, you have a problem. He
could offer no hope that the Government could fix it.
I am reading from the L.A. Times article by Ms. Pasternak.
It is a superb series. But this is really shocking, when I
hear, you need more time, and this was 32 years ago.
I am going to have Mr. Udall ask his questions, and we are
going to have another round.
Mr. Udall. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Directed to Mr. Gidner here, you are the head of the BIA,
right?
Mr. Gidner. Yes.
Mr. Udall. You are very familiar with the trust
responsibility that the Federal Government has to tribes, I am
sure?
Mr. Gidner. Yes, sir.
Mr. Udall. As you know, the trust responsibility is
something that has existed for a very, very long period of
time. The BIA is at the front of that, of looking out for the
tribes. The trust responsibility was built around the idea that
there were language difficulties and cultural difficulties, and
that the Federal Government was going to be out there looking
out for the tribes.
When you sit here today and listen to this first panel and
then hear this panel talk, how do you feel about the
fulfillment of the trust responsibility? Do you think that you
have fulfilled the trust responsibility, the Federal
Government? How do you feel about that?
Mr. Gidner. I think that is hard to say.
Mr. Udall. Hard to say?
Mr. Gidner. Well, sir, I think----
Mr. Udall. I would hope you would be outraged. I would hope
that you would stand up and say, we are supposed to be
protecting these people. We are supposed to be out there on the
line. Have you asked, have you asked any of these agencies to
put money in their budget? Have you asked them to put money in
their budget to remedy these contamination and cleanup
problems, and radioactive homes, as the chairman has talked
about? Have you asked them to do that?
Mr. Gidner. No.
Mr. Udall. You know what I can't believe here, tell me if
this is really true. This just absolutely amazes me. The BIA
staff told the committee staff, our staff here, that you have
no responsibility with respect to any aspect of this issue.
That is the position of your agency? This is the agency on the
front line for trust responsibility. Is that the position of
the BIA?
Mr. Gidner. I would disagree with that broad of a
statement. But I would say with regards to this issue, I think
you need to travel back in time. This started happening during
the development of the nuclear weapons program, continued
through the cold war. I don't know what BIA's role or
position----
Mr. Udall. Wasn't there a trust responsibility back during
the nuclear weapons program?
Mr. Gidner. Yes----
Mr. Udall. I thought the trust responsibility went back to
the treaty era.
Mr. Gidner. Oh, it certainly does.
Mr. Udall. We heard Mr. Arthur say the treaty with the
Navajo Nation was in 1868.
Mr. Gidner. Absolutely.
Mr. Udall. So we have had 150 years there where there is a
trust responsibility.
Mr. Gidner. And the trust----
Mr. Udall. Have you all fulfilled it? Do you feel you have
fulfilled the trust responsibility to the Navajo Tribe with
what you have heard today?
Mr. Gidner. I will return to my previous answer, and I
would like to explain, if I could. I think it depends. Because
the trust responsibility is not the responsibility only of the
BIA, it is the responsibility of the entire Federal Government.
And if you look at that----
Mr. Udall. You folks are on the line, though.
Mr. Gidner. Oh, absolutely.
Mr. Udall. You have folks out there on the Navajo
Reservation.
Mr. Gidner. Absolutely.
Mr. Udall. A lot of these agencies, they don't have people
there on the ground.
Mr. Gidner. That is true.
Mr. Udall. So I interpret the trust responsibility to be
your folks on the ground. They contact these--they say, people
are living out here in radioactive homes. There is serious
contamination. What is your agency doing about budget issues?
What are you doing to aggressively take care of this?
Mr. Gidner. Well----
Mr. Udall. Where was the BIA?
Mr. Gidner. I will get to that in just a second, if I
could. When this began happening, we have to remember, the
United States was gearing up its nuclear weapons program. I
just think we should all wonder about that. What would have
happened if BIA at that time had said, sorry, you can't mine
uranium from the Navajo Nation. I think we would still be
having this hearing today, with all due respect, Congressman. I
don't think BIA raising the trust responsibility argument would
have gotten us very far in that context.
Mr. Udall. Well, you know what BIA could have done, sir? Do
you know what the BIA could have done? My father has been
involved in this issue for 35 years with a lawsuit, and
eventually got a law passed by Congress, because those uranium
miners were treated as guinea pigs. They were left, the Federal
Government knew they were working in mines that were dangerous.
They knew they were going to get cancer.
And guess what? The entire Federal Government is just like
all of you, sitting there, oh, going along merrily. And they
let this tragedy happen. And if the BIA had spoken up then and
said, we have innocent people that are working in uranium mines
and they are going, based on the scientific evidence and based
on the European experience where there were specific causes of
lung cancer, you are going to have people dying. If one agency
had stood up and said that, maybe, maybe we would have
prevented all of this tragedy, and all of these folks here who
have lost loved ones and breadwinners and it has put them
further into poverty. Maybe that would have been prevented.
But your version of the trust responsibility is what? I
don't understand it. What is your version of the trust
responsibility? Why haven't you been out there saying something
about this?
Mr. Gidner. Well, I think----
Mr. Udall. I give up, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Waxman. Thank you, Mr. Udall.
Ms. McCollum.
Ms. McCollum. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to reflect my
strong agreement with what Mr. Udall has just spoken to. He
only gave up because he was out of time and the chairman
generously offered to give him more. I know he hasn't given up.
I have to say, I wonder if this would have been New York
City where they had found the uranium or St. Paul, MN, or Los
Angeles, right in the heart of a vibrant community, where
people can often more easily rise up against the powers that
be, versus the nuclear weapons program, I don't think the
outcome would have been the same as it was on the Navajo
Reservation, where we frequently see people who are made to
feel powerless against this Government.
And the Native American community certainly reflects
communities, as well as other minority communities, which have
been powerless when our Government or industry has decided,
there is something there that they want or that there is a
place there that would be a good place to bury waste, or to
plant an incinerator. We often find minority groups not being
able to have the resources available for them to fight back,
and the Bureau of Indian Affairs certainly should have been one
of those resources for them.
Mr. Geiser, in one of the five----
Chairman Waxman. Before you leave that point--I will give
you extra time--I talked about this Mr. Hans, Joseph Hans from
EPA, went out 32 years ago and found all these homes and
couldn't get EPA to act. He was going to the Department of
Energy, trying to get them to act. They just said, no, you have
a problem there, but we don't have the resources.
But 200 miles away from the reservation, in Grand Junction,
CO, residents faced the very same problem. And there, the
Government moved with urgency to eliminate the health risks
posed to homes, schools and churches from these same, the
failings from the Climax Uranium Co. What happened was that the
community got together, they went to the State, they demanded
action. They happened to have a very powerful representative,
Democrat Wayne Aspenall, who was chairman of the House Interior
Committee. So they got a thorough cleanup, which ultimately
cost more than $500 million. The Navajos have not had a
community that is powerful, they haven't had a champion like
Aspenall, positioned as he was, to get this money. And there
are widely scattered settlements, people only have a vague idea
of radiation problems.
That illustrates your point. It isn't just theoretical, it
is very real. I thank you, and I will give you extra time.
Ms. McCollum. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
And to your point about time, the Churchrock spill which
you were talking about earlier with our panel happened on July
16, 1979. And they are just getting around to cleaning it up in
2007. So to your point, Mr. Chair, I even think in this
instance we should be just outraged at how long all this is
taking.
Mr. Geiser, I want to go back. One of the five former
uranium mills in the Navajo Nation is the Tuba City mill. Going
back to cleaning these things up. Now, we have heard the
surface cleanup at that site is completed and that the DOE's
effort to clean up the contamination groundwater is ongoing.
However, we also heard from the first panel that there are
properties in the vicinity of the Tuba City mill site that are
still contaminated. There is a dump site where radioactive
material from the mill was apparently buried.
When DOE cleaned up the mill site, this material was not
exposed. However, over time erosion has exposed this
radioactive waste site as a dump site. So we have a problem
there.
Earlier, the Navajo EPA brought in a sample of radioactive
dirt and the sample came from the vicinity. From its gamma
radiation readings, we know that this is very dangerous. It is
right across the street, going to my whole point about how are
we cleaning this up, residential or industrial, this site is
right across the street from where Ray Manygoats lives.
So, Mr. Geiser, does the DOE agree that this radioactive
material in this vicinity probably came from the Tuba City
mill?
Mr. Geiser. From the information we have, yes, it probably
did.
Ms. McCollum. OK. The DOE hasn't been able to clean up this
property because your statutory authorization to conduct
surface remediation expired in 1998. Have you asked Congress to
extend this authority? And if you did, could the DOE clean up
the site?
Mr. Geiser. The authority was extended several times to get
to 1998. We have not asked since then to reauthorize it. We
would have the capability to remediate that site. It is
directly across from the Tuba City disposal cell. And actually,
the one vicinity property that we did clean up was the quarters
for the people who were doing the milling operation, which is
actually between the site that we are talking about, the Rare
Metals site and the disposal cell. I think you mentioned it was
when we did the survey of that area, some time between 1978 and
1998, the radioactive material was not exposed at that point.
So we believe, through weather action, that came to the
surface.
Ms. McCollum. Can you tell me what that site was cleaned up
to, residential?
Mr. Geiser. That site was, the Rare Metals site was not
cleaned up, because at the time, we did not find any
radioactive contamination.
Ms. McCollum. That is interesting. Now that you are aware
of it, what are you going to do? I mean, when you go back to
the office, don't you, you know, what do you think the DOE
should do?
Mr. Geiser. Well, the Department is prepared to work with
the Congress and should the Congress decide to reauthorize us
to do this type of work, we would be prepared to do that.
Ms. McCollum. And the administration, you would suggest
that the administration put forward a request in order to have
the funding to do it? I mean, the authorization is great. But
as Mr. Udall and I sit on the Appropriations Committee, we know
the money to be able to do the work is just as important.
Mr. Geiser. If we had found the contamination, as described
in the EPA report, back when the vicinity properties program
was being conducted, we would have cleaned up that
contamination.
Ms. McCollum. So now that you know about it, the
contamination should be cleaned?
Mr. Geiser. Yes.
Ms. McCollum. We will be looking for it in the
appropriations process. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Chairman Waxman. Thank you, Ms. McCollum.
Mr. Davis.
Mr. Davis of Virginia. Who is responsible for the cleanup
of the uranium mines and mills that were left behind?
Mr. Geiser. The uranium mill tailings, the four inactive
sites, when UMTRCA was enacted, that was the Department of
Energy's responsibility.
Mr. Davis of Virginia. How about the 1,200 mines?
Mr. Geiser. That was not the Department of Energy's
responsibility.
Mr. Davis of Virginia. Who is responsible for that? Any
idea? It is not Energy?
Mr. Geiser. Right. Currently, the----
Mr. Davis of Virginia. The Navajos didn't cause it, did
they?
Mr. Geiser. Currently, the Environmental Protection Agency
is working with the Navajo Nation on that.
Mr. Davis of Virginia. OK. This should be clear as possible
and ensure the job is done quickly and efficiently, don't you
think?
Mr. Geiser. Yes, sir.
Mr. Davis of Virginia. What kinds of health studies have
been conducted on the Navajo Nation to determine the impact of
uranium mines on the public health in the area?
Mr. Geiser. Sir, that is not my area of expertise. I would
defer to the Indian Health Service or EPA.
Mr. Davis of Virginia. Well, let me ask Indian Health
Service. Anybody?
Mr. McSwain. There have certainly been a couple of studies
done, but they're sort of grants that are looking at specific
areas of radon, for example, with RECEP. There's currently
another study going on that was referenced earlier, which is
the Southeast Institute that is actually looking at kidney
disease related to issues, but not in terms of any large-scale
specific----
Mr. Davis of Virginia. Outside of the panel being assembled
here today, do you all ever get around the table and talk about
this and say, who does what and how might we resolve this? How
many times have you all been together to discuss this, Mr.
McSwain?
Mr. McSwain. This is the first time. I can assure you, I
have taken names and cards.
Mr. Davis of Virginia. Well, Henry, you have done something
good today. [Laughter.]
Mr. Gidner, what specific role does the Bureau of Indian
Affairs assume on a routine basis, and what have you done in
this specific process?
Mr. Gidner. On this specific process, the Bureau of Indian
Affairs has worked with the Office of Surface Mining on sealing
abandoned mines and is currently remediating the Tuba City
landfill.
Mr. Davis of Virginia. I will tell you what I would like to
see. This is something where everybody has a piece of it. But
with a name like Bureau of Indian Affairs, putting everybody
together, even if it is not maybe your specific jurisdiction,
just bringing everybody to the table, to see if we can get some
resolution of this, that would be my view. Do you think you
might be able to do that?
Mr. Gidner. We could do that. We will cooperate with the
other agencies and Navajo Nation EPA.
Mr. Davis of Virginia. I have a feeling if you don't do it,
you will be back here. Mr. Waxman will do it for you.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Chairman Waxman. Thank you. Mr. Cummings.
Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
It is so easy to have a conspiracy of silence and do
nothingness. Are any of you outraged by what you heard from the
first panel? I am just curious. Anybody? You are?
Mr. Gidner. Yes, sir, and I am outraged by the Tar Creek
Superfund site and by 85 percent unemployment on the Oglala
Sioux. Indian Country is hurting, sir.
Mr. Cummings. Did you know about this before you came here
today?
Mr. Gidner. A little bit about it, yes.
Mr. Cummings. And did you do anything about it? Did you
scream? Did you say, there is something wrong with this
picture?
Mr. Gidner. Not about the uranium, specifically, no.
Mr. Cummings. Anybody else outraged? Yes, sir?
Mr. Nastri. Yes, I am outraged.
Mr. Cummings. And did you learn something new today that
outraged you, or were you outraged before you got here?
Mr. Nastri. I think I had a fairly good sense of the
challenges that we face. I certainly asked my staff a lot of
very critical questions about where things were. In fact, I had
a chance to speak with Navajo Nation EPA director, Steve
Etsitty----
Mr. Cummings. And where was that?
Mr. Nastri. A week and a half or so ago.
Mr. Cummings. Did that conversation outrage you?
Mr. Nastri. No. It did not outrage you. The question that I
asked the Navajo Nation EPA director was, I understand we are
going to be testifying. Tell me, what are the things that we
are doing, that we are not doing, where is there a problem from
your perspective. I have been regional administrator for
several years. No one from Navajo Nation has come to me and
said, this is an issue that you need to take care of right
away.
So when I asked the director, he said, Wayne, you know, in
the past, we had an issue. We felt that the studies were taking
too long, and it was very difficult for us to get action. But
that has changed. Certainly in the last few years, we have had
that type of action. But I think the frustration that passed
out with the length of time, with the perception that perhaps
we were being too research-oriented and not action-oriented.
So one of the things that we have said, and that is why I
made the commitment today, sir, is that we have made a standing
offer that we will use our removal authority, if there are
issues that they raise to our attention that we can say, this
is an issue that we can address under CERCLA, then we will do
so.
Mr. Cummings. Anybody else? Yes, sir?
Mr. McSwain. You asked if we were outraged. Certainly when
I got here, I wasn't as outraged as I was before. The reason
for it is, I think Mr. Udall talked about feet on the ground.
The fact is, we have a lot of health care providers out there
on the ground who are attempting to provide the best possible
health care possible. The fact is, people keep coming in and
they are sick and they are ill.
Mr. Cummings. And some of them are dying.
Mr. McSwain. Yes. And we can't stop the reason. That is not
our role. Clearly, we work diligently on the water side of it,
within the scope of our authority. But again, not very
successful, excepting the fact that we are doing a lot of
dancing out there trying to get around these leavings.
Mr. Cummings. I often say, this is the United States of
America, we can do better. I see my time is running out, but I
need to refer back to a November 19, 2006 L.A. Times article:
``In 1981, 10 of the reservation's local governments called
chapters asked the tribe to inspect houses for signs of uranium
contamination. But we had our old nemesis, money, TOE said. His
appeals to the Federal agencies were met with a real lack of
interest. The prevailing attitude was expressed in a December,
1986 memo by Charles Rue, an Indian Health Service official
stationed in the Navajo region. Ticking off mining-related
hazards, he wrote `Radon in homes is another significant but
resource-consuming endeavor.' The tribe had surveyed 96 homes
and found 37 with radon levels above the EPA's safety
threshold. He wrote to his superiors. Many areas near abandoned
mines have yet to be tested, included Monument Valley, where
the Hollidays live.''
But this is the piece that got me, this is the piece. ``But
he recommended against getting involved because of the cost.''
The Health Service, he wrote, ``should only monitor tribal
efforts.'' In other words, he was saying, they should only
monitor the results of the mess that is there, they should only
monitor the lung disease. They should only monitor the
leukemia. They should only monitor the bone cancer. They should
only monitor the birth defects. They should only monitor the
kidney disease.
These are human beings. They share this land with us. It is
just not right. I would suggest that if we cannot have more
empathy for our fellow human beings, maybe somebody needs to
replace you guys and let us have some other people who are
outraged by all of this. I can understand Mr. Udall's concern.
At some point, somebody's got to say, just holler and say, no,
this is not, we are not going to have it this way.
We can say time, let's wait, let's wait, let's wait, let's
wait, and people will die. But if it were our families, if it
were our children, we would go crazy.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Waxman. Thank you, Mr. Cummings.
Mr. Udall.
Mr. Udall. Thank you, Chairman Waxman.
When I said I give up, I was giving up on getting what I
thought would be an answer, some kind of answer that would give
me a little bit of solace, and the other members of this panel
I think were showing some outrage. Mr. Gidner, do you,
reflecting on this, the trust responsibility, do you have a
sense that you want to come out of this and really get this
situation changed and get some resources committed to this? Is
something driving you to do that out of this hearing?
Mr. Gidner. I am in this business, sir, to help Indian
people. I am a Sioux St. Marie Chippewa myself. That is why I
am here. We deal with these issues every single day. Yes, I am
outraged. BIA has less than $10 million in its environmental
budget. We do not have specific expertise in cleaning up
uranium. We clearly cannot be the lead for money or technical
expertise on this.
Now, as Congressman Davis suggested, could we convene the
agencies and the Navajo Nation and work together? Absolutely.
And I would be glad to do that.
Mr. Udall. Good. I hope, and I hear the chairman saying he
is going to continue to be involved in this, and I hope that we
will be able to see some real progress.
Mr. Nastri, you said, when asked a question about doing
something about it, you said, no one has come to you. That
seemed to suggest to me that it was their fault, because they
hadn't come to you, the EPA. It seems to me, when the EPA is in
a relationship with a tribe, which is starting a very new
environmental enterprise, trying to develop the technical
expertise of your agency, which has been going now for 30 or
more years, that you have a responsibility to try to monitor
what they are doing and keep an eye on what is happening on the
ground.
So I hope that the, that no one has come to me, that isn't
suggesting there is some fault on the part of the Navajo Nation
and its EPA and Mr. Etsitty that was here earlier from the
Navajo EPA.
Mr. Nastri. I absolutely agree with you, and I certainly
didn't intend to convey that. As regional administrator, I deal
with 147 tribes, I deal with four States, I deal with all the
U.S. territories and the Pacific. By nature of the beast, so to
speak, issues that are more critical, that are high
significance, tend to rise to my level.
Now, when I do go out and visit tribes, when I go and visit
the States, I am always asking the question, what are the
issues that are outstanding, that we need to be aware of that
perhaps I am not aware of? We always go in with a list of
issues that we think are critical. Are there more things that
we can be doing, are there things that we should be doing
working with other agencies? Absolutely. We certainly deal with
that.
Now, was I apprised of the situation? Sure. The question
that I asked my staff and others that we work with, are we on
the right track, is there something that we should be doing
differently. And that is oftentimes, frankly, in the type of
work that we do, is one of the biggest challenges that I have.
Oftentimes, people want to try to address a solution at a lower
level, and they sort of view it if they raise it, that perhaps
that hasn't been reflective of success.
So oftentimes, we do try to draw out those issues and we
try to seek those. If I don't hear those things, a lot of times
I will make the assumption, OK, fine, things are going well.
Because believe me, when things aren't going well, I hear it.
So when I learned of this hearing, my first question was,
what is going on here? We have been to Navajo Nation twice, and
I have certainly seen some of the lands, but I was always
assured that, we are working on those issues. To hear the
stories that we heard today, it absolutely has to pull at every
one of us. We should all be highly motivated to do something.
And I am glad to hear that BIA is going to move something,
because if they weren't, we would have asked everybody. In
fact, we all introduced ourselves as we met. So absolutely, we
are going to move forward and do what needs to be done.
Mr. Udall. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Waxman. I just want to get one point nailed down.
Mr. McSwain, we heard about this blending of drinking water.
Mr. McSwain. Yes.
Chairman Waxman. That doesn't make sense to me. We have
drinking water that is contaminated and is being blended with
less contaminated water to Navajos living near Cove. Do you
know how many Navajos drink this blended whatever every day?
What was the rationale for mixing less contaminated water with
contaminated water for human consumption? Why not supply the
community with less contaminated water? And is this well the
only site in which IHS is blending contaminated well water with
less contaminated water to provide drinking water for Navajos?
Mr. McSwain. First of all, Mr. Chairman, we do a fair
amount of blending, and the reason for it simply is, that as
any contaminants are that are found in the water, we will go
through a process. The process summarily is we will do
filtering to reduce the contaminant level. If that is not
possible, then we will find a good water source and mix it with
the contaminated site to get the parts per billion down. We are
guided by certainly EPA's guidelines on Safe Water Act rules.
If that is not successful, we completely replace the
system.
Chairman Waxman. Why wouldn't you just replace the system?
We are talking about contaminated water. Do you know all the
studies and possibilities of health hazards from water that
still is contaminated?
Mr. McSwain. Part of it is the fact that, as you well know,
Indian Country is not exactly near-in. They are in very
isolated areas of the Nation. That is the process we have been
using to in fact provide potable water.
Chairman Waxman. Well, it sounds nonsensical to me. We will
pursue it further.
I want to go over some of the things that I think we need
to have done before we end this hearing, before you leave. I
think the Federal Government has a responsibility, but that is
not just you, it is us, too. The Congress has a responsibility
for oversight, and that is the purpose of the hearing today.
But as part of our responsibility, we have to give your
agencies the tools you need to carry out your job.
So I want to ask this question, and rather than have you
respond here, I want you to think about it and come back to us.
What authority and what funding do you need in order to clean
up the uranium contamination of the Navajo Nation and to
address the health problems resulting from that contamination?
I think that we need to have a number of things done
simultaneously. The Federal Government needs to conduct a
comprehensive health assessment of the risk posed to the health
of the Navajo people by the contamination from uranium mining
and milling. Second, the U.S. EPA should conduct detailed site
assessments at the priority mine sites, at least basic
assessments at every abandoned mine site. Rigorous sampling of
groundwater at these sites is essential.
Third, where we have the data, we need to conduct cleanups.
Work has to be initiated or accelerated. And in consultation
with Navajo homeowners, U.S. EPA needs to remove occupied
radioactive homes and provide replacement homes. Major surface
and groundwater remediation efforts must begin at the Northeast
Churchrock Mine site, and the Navajo people shouldn't have to
wait 60 years for groundwater contamination from uranium mills
to be cleaned up.
If the Department of Energy needs an extension of statutory
authority to clean up the Tuba City site, it is our job to get
you that authorization, and we will do it. Going forward, the
Federal agencies need to coordinate your actions and work in
close cooperation with the Navajo Nation government. What I
would suggest to all of you is to have a meeting, to proceed
with trying to figure out how to deal with this problem. We are
going to be in session on December 12th. I am going to ask you
all to come back on December 12th, not for a hearing, but at
least for a meeting, so that we can get a progress report, to
find out where you are, what authorities you need, what help
you need, how it is being coordinated.
I really don't want to hear EPA say it is DOE and DOE say
it is the Indian Health program, and the Bureau of Indian
Affairs to say it is not our job because we don't have the
expertise or the budget. This is a Federal Government
responsibility. All of us need to take it seriously. I know you
have specific budgets and specific statutory responsibility. I
want to remove this from the traditional way of not doing
things with different bureaucracies stymied by the others.
Come in here in December 12th and tell us what you need to
get the job done. Then we will see where we go from there.
So that is my request to all of you, specifically tell us
what authority, what funding, what coordination must be done
between your agencies and with the Navajo Nation.
Mr. Cummings. Will the chairman yield?
Chairman Waxman. Yes.
Mr. Cummings. Just very briefly, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for doing what you just
did, to hold feet to fire so we can get something done. One of
the things that I noticed is that agencies have a tendency to
make promises, and then they wait, they know we are not going
to get back to them for another 2 years. So then nothing gets
done. But I really appreciate your doing what you just did.
Chairman Waxman. Thank you very much. It is not the fault
of each individual agency or each individual witness. It is
everybody's fault that we are not getting this done. We will
jump in the pool with you and take our responsibility
seriously. So let's figure out what to do.
We will see you all on December 12th. It won't be a public
hearing, it will be a private meeting. Then we will decide
whether we need more public hearings after that.
One other thing. I want to indicate to you that our staffs,
on a bipartisan basis, are going to send you further questions
to respond to in writing. We would expect you to answer those
questions so we can have them for the record.
That concludes our business. The hearing is now adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 2:15 p.m., the committee proceeded to other
business.]
[The prepared statement of Hon. Diane E. Watson follows:]
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