[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 161 (Tuesday, October 23, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2203]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E2203]]


       HEARING ON ``URANIUM CONTAMINATION IN THE NAVAJO NATION''

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 23, 2007

  Mr. KUCINICH. Madam Speaker, I submit for the Record a copy of my 
opening statement delivered before the Committee on Oversight and 
Government Reform on October 23, 2007 on Uranium Contamination.

       I want to thank and commend the Chairman for holding this 
     hearing. Native Americans 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 can see how long 
     disadvantaged 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 such 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 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 5 
     old uranium mills. Each of the mill sites and the mine sites 
     represent a potential groundwater contamination site in 
     addition to being sources 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 materials that are 
     radioactive. Wind-blown dust from the tailings is inhaled. 
     Groundwater is contaminated with uranium and its daughter 
     products. Wildlife and plantlife 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 uranium in the 
     human body. Native Americans are known to experience 
     disproportionately high levels of lead poisoning. And when 
     uranium and lead both make their way into a person, the toxic 
     effect on the kidney could be additive or 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 number two cause of 
     lung cancer in the U.S. 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 the other elements that 
     co-occur with uranium like arsenic and fluoride which are 
     left behind when the 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 the 
     contamination at all of 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 at all of 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 dozens are 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.
       One estimate I've heard is that the entire cleanup could 
     cost around $500 million. That seems unrealistically 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 
     cleanup.
       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 their 
     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 Markstrom and 
     Perry Charley pointed out in their chapter of The Navajo 
     People and Uranium Mining, that the contamination of 
     livestock, of the medicinal herbs they used, and the water 
     bodies their children played in, changed the view of the 
     land. It was embraced and used as the 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 clean and safe.
       Now, almost 60 years after the first uranium contamination 
     began, there are corporations who want to reopen some of 
     these very same mines and extract more uranium for nuclear 
     power plants.
       Never mind the contamination already created that we're 
     still 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 a viable and safe storage facility for 
     the waste that will continue to be toxic for thousands of 
     years.
       I look forward to hearing from our witnesses about plans 
     for cleaning up the contamination in shortest possible 
     timeframe. And I stand ready to do whatever I can to not only 
     help this process along, but to make sure we don't do anymore 
     damage by failing to learn our lessons from the past.

                          ____________________