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A Second Churchrock Spill in the Making?

A banner in a walk July 16, 2009 as part of the 30th anniversary of the Churchrock uranium tailings spill. Photo: Navajo Times – Leigh T. Jimmie

By Leona Morgan
Nuclear Issues Study Group and Halt Holtec

Editor’s Note: Submit your comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement regarding the Churchrock spill cleanup online by December 28, 2020 here  or during an NRC Public Meeting webinar on Dec. 2 or Dec. 9.

On July 16, 1945, the Trinity Test devastated communities in southeast New Mexico. Thirty-four years later at Three Mile Island Generating Station in Pennsylvania, the United States poured extensive resources into the largest and most expensive nuclear energy disaster of that time. Less than four months later, the country didn’t flinch when it came to the second largest ever release of radiation in the world. The United Nuclear Corporation (UNC) uranium mill “accident” was largely overlooked as it happened in a rural, community of color–a form of environmental racism. The Churchrock Spill occurred in a Diné community on the same day and at the same time as the Trinity Test, July 16th at 5:30 in the morning, but in 1979.

In an August 4, 2020 interview, Edith Hood, a Diné elder and matriarch, explains the impacts from the massive uranium spill and abandoned uranium mines and mill that she and others are still fighting to get cleaned up. Hood and her family are residents of the Red Water Pond Road (RWPR) community, north of Churchrock, New Mexico. They live between the former UNC mill, former UNC Northeast Church Rock Mine (NECR), and two former Kerr McGee/Quivira mines. The mill is on privately owned land, and the rest are on the Navajo Nation, near Navajo allotment, state, and federal lands–all within a few square miles.

“We were just children when the drilling companies came in…in the 1960s, to [do] exploratory drilling for uranium. So, by the end of the sixties, there were buildings going up, setting up the mine…United Nuclear on the south side and of course Kerr McGee, which today is known as Quivira.” Hood worked at Kerr McGee from 1976 to 1982. When asked about the dangers of her job, Hood replied, “Never did I hear ‘unsafe’ or ‘dangerous’… if I was educated about this, I wouldn’t probably have gone to work there.”

Since 2008, the U.S. government has been working with the Navajo Nation to clean up 523 abandoned uranium mines and four former mill sites on Navajo Nation. However, there are hundreds of additional contaminated sites, adjacent to or located within the reservation boundary, but not technically on Navajo Nation proper.

The federal agencies working on this cleanup include the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Bureau of Indian Affairs, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Department of Energy, Indian Health Service, Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry, and Centers for Disease Control. The Navajo Nation (NN) agencies involved are NN EPA and Abandoned Mine Lands Reclamation Department. Other partners include NN Department of Water Resources, the University of New Mexico and Northern Arizona University, as well as the Hopi Nation.

Due to its proximity to the RWPR community, the NECR mine has been a high priority from the beginning, yet is nowhere near completion. The residents have insisted that wastes be moved off the Navajo Nation. Some remediation of the NECR mine has been conducted, including removal of contaminated soils from residences to lands that are not on Navajo Nation, but are close enough to be carried back by the wind.

General Electric, which acquired UNC, is responsible for remediation of the former NECR uranium mine and the former mill. The mill operated from 1977 to 1982 and released over 1,100 tons of radioactive sludge into the environment in the 1979 Churchrock Spill, and over 90 million gallons of liquid radioactive waste that flowed at least 100 miles westward into Arizona.

For cleanup of the NECR mine, GE proposes to move and permanently store approximately one million cubic yards of mine waste on top of existing mill waste and to transport approximately 32,200 cubic yards of more radioactive wastes offsite, most likely to the White Mesa Mill in southeast Utah which impacts another indigenous community. The White Mesa Mill is the only operating uranium mine in the U.S. and also doubles a catch-all nuclear waste storage just three miles from the Ute Mountain Ute community.

The former UNC mill site has been undergoing remediation and monitoring, but the offsite contamination from the Spill has never been adequately addressed. The Churchrock Spill was not widely broadcast on national news, like Three Mile Island. Downstream residents were not informed and not aware of the dangers of the liquid, as children unknowingly played in the wastewater. Ranchers also reported burns to their feet and ankles as they went into the water to get their livestock out. Hood recalls about the Spill, “For us in the community…it was not like today where you instantly get messages…we didn’t hear about it for a few days… not really knowing about radiation and the bad stuff that was in that liquid…At the time, it really was not alluring … for most people, not till they get sick, or not until something affects them, especially physically. Then, you know we were in a dangerous place.” Hood continues, “we never heard about the disadvantages or the bad stuff about this. All we knew [was] that mining was good economy for the country, and it’s all in spirit with…making the country look good. They’re making weapons, but you never know what went into those weapons. Till forty years later, you hear about the bad stuff…Our children were getting sick…All the elements that we use were affected.”

The RWPR community has been demanding clean-up of their area and all sites across the Navajo Nation for over a decade, including demands for new housing, funding for education, and a comprehensive health study. “We want the community and the impacted ground cleaned up… We want this concept of ‘hózhó’ back in the community, all across the Navajo Nation, with us included,” said Hood, referring to the traditional Diné teaching which encompasses the Diné philosophy of living in harmony and balance with the universe.

A banner in a walk in 2014 as part of the anniversary of the Churchrock uranium tailings spill. Photo: The Republic – David Wallace

The proposed cleanup action to move mine waste to the mill site requires an amendment to the NRC materials license (SUA-1475) for the mill. GE submitted a license amendment application in September 2018. NRC notified the public of its intent to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS), to conduct a scoping process, and request for public comments in February 2019. NRC held two scoping meetings in Gallup, New Mexico on March 19, 2019 and on March 21, 2019. At these meetings, locals expressed disappointment in the slow remediation process and strong opposition against moving mine waste on top of the mill waste, which they said is in a flood plain and alluded to the possibility of another Churchrock Spill.

On November 17 this year, the NRC announced it’s accepting public comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement of this proposal until December 28th with two virtual public comment meetings on December 2nd and December 9th. The Final EIS is expected in August 2021, and final decision in January 2022.

Since 2009, on the 30th anniversary of the Spill, the Red Water Pond Road Community Association has held an annual public event around July 16th with a sunrise prayer, walk, and talks to raise awareness about uranium mining, the spill, and cleanup. Due to Covid-19, this year’s event was canceled. According to Hood, next year they plan to “carry-on” and welcome “anyone who is doing something to help Mother Earth.”

 

Sources:

“Church Rock, America’s Forgotten Nuclear Disaster, Is Still Poisoning Navajo Lands 40 Years Later”, VICE article by Samuel Gilbert (August 12, 2019)
https://www.vice.com/en/article/ne8w4x/church-rock-americas-forgotten-nuclear-disaster-is-still-poisoning-navajo-lands-40-years-later

The Church Rock Uranium Mill Tailings Spill: A Health And Environmental Assessment
https://semspub.epa.gov/work/06/1000720.pdf

Interview with Edith Hood (starts at 1:31:45)
https://www.facebook.com/537856386561307/videos/633889527249870

Quivira Mines – Red Water Pond Road
https://response.epa.gov/site/site_profile.aspx?site_id=6801

Abandoned Mines Cleanup: Federal Plans
https://www.epa.gov/navajo-nation-uranium-cleanup/abandoned-mines-cleanup-federal-plans

Navajo Nation: Cleaning Up Abandoned Uranium Mines, Northeast Church Rock Mine
https://www.epa.gov/navajo-nation-uranium-cleanup/northeast-church-rock-mine

Uranium-mine cleanup on Navajo Reservation could take 100 years
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/investigations/2014/08/06/uranium-mining-navajo-reservation-cleanup-radioactive-waste/13680399/

UNC–Church RockMill Uranium Recovery Facility
https://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/decommissioning/uranium/is-united-nuclear-corporation-unc.pdf

“Dam Break Investigated; Radiation of Spill Easing”, New York Times Article By Molly Ivins (July 28, 1979)
https://www.nytimes.com/1979/07/28/archives/dam-break-investigated-radiation-of-spill-easing.html

Application for Amendment of US NRC Source Material License SUA-1475, Volume 1, Prepared for UNC and GE by Stantec (10/14/2019)
https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1928/ML19287A009.pdf

Application Documents for Amendment of License SUA-1475 for UNC Mill Site Near Church Rock, New Mexico, Volumes I and II (09/24/2018)
https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1826/ML18267A235.html

NRC Intent to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) and conduct a scoping process; request for comment re: United Nuclear Corporation License SUA-1475 (02/08/2019)
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/02/08/2019-01642/united-nuclear-corporation-unc-church-rock-project

Official Transcript: NRC Public Scoping Meeting for the Environmental Impact Statement for the Church Rock Uranium Mill Site (03/19/19)
https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1909/ML19092A102.pdf

Official Transcript: NRC Public Scoping Meeting for the Environmental Impact Statement for the Church Rock Uranium Mill Site (03/21/19)
https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1909/ML19091A160.pdf

NRC Seeks Public Comment on Draft Environmental Study on Waste Transfer at Church Rock Site in New Mexico, NRC Press Release (11/17/2020)
https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2020/20-056.pdf

Environmental Impact Statement for the Disposal of Mine Waste at the United Nuclear Corporation Mill Site in McKinley County, New Mexico Draft Report for Comment (October 2020)
https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2028/ML20289A621.pdf

NRC Public Meeting Schedule for Dec. 2, 2020: Draft Environmental Impact Statement for proposed disposal of mine waste at the United Nuclear Corporation Mill Site
https://www.nrc.gov/pmns/mtg?do=details&Code=20201275

NRC Public Meeting Schedule for Dec. 9, 2020: Draft Environmental Impact Statement for proposed disposal of mine waste at the United Nuclear Corporation Mill Site
https://www.nrc.gov/pmns/mtg?do=details&Code=20201276

NRC United Nuclear Corporation Uranium Mill Site Status Summary
https://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/decommissioning/uranium/united-nuclear-corporation-unc-.html

“Poison in the Earth: 1979 Church Rock Spill a Symbol for Uranium Dangers”, Navajo Times article by Marley Shebala (July 23, 2009)
https://navajotimes.com/news/2009/0709/072309uranium.php

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DOE Report on Hazards of Pacific Island  Plutonium Waste Dump Called “Flippant”

Nukewatch Quarterly Fall 2020
Graffiti on Runit Dome, a concrete cap over some 3 million cubic feet of plutonium contaminated waste from nuclear bomb tests, on Runit Island of the Marshall Islands, urges the United States to remove the toxins that were dumped into an unlined bomb crater by the US military. Photo: Mika Makelainen / Yle

Between 1946 and 1958, the US performed 67 nuclear bomb test explosions in the Marshall Islands, equaling 1.6 Hiroshima-size explosions a day for twelve years. The Marshallese people were relocated away from testing sites, but did not escape the radioactive fallout that spread through the islands, causing burns, birth defects, and cancers. Some were purposely allowed to return to radioactive areas to inform US research. In the 1970s, over 110,000 cubic yards or 3.1 million cubic feet, of plutonium-contaminated soil and debris from the bomb tests were collected and abandoned on Runit Island under the “Runit Dome,” an unlined crater—left by a bomb test—covered with a concrete cap.

In 2019, Congress ordered the Department of Energy to address the threat of radioactive material leaking from Runit Dome, and to draft a repair plan. The DOE’s 2020 report claims the dome “is not in any immediate danger of collapse or failure,” but does admit that rising sea levels could affect the stability of the cracked contrete. Groundwater contamination could increase and, the report says, “no definitive data exists on how these events might impact the environment.” The DOE planned a groundwater radiochemical analysis program, though it’s now paused due to current travel restrictions. The DOE claims that rising levels of plutonium found in lagoon waters near the dome are due to existing contamination in sediments, not from materials spreading from the unlined crater. A dome repair plan was not included in the DOE report, although according to the World Health Organization the dome was never a long-term solution.

Since the report was based soley on US government data, critics have demanded an independent evaluation of the dome’s condition. US Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, and Rhea Moss-Christian, Chair of the Marshall Islands Nuclear Commission, accuse the DOE of downplaying the health and environmental risks posed by rising sea levels and storm surges on the dome’s decrepit concrete. Moss-Christian’s commission has condemned the lack of consultation between the DOE and independent scientists or the Marshallese people. The absence of data in the report makes it “disappointing,” said Rep. Gabard, who even called it “flippant.” Moss-Christian said, “So my main takeaway from the report is that many risks are still ‘unknown.’” —CM

—Guam Daily Post, July 29; Los Angeles Times, July 27; and DOE “Report on the Status of Runit Dome,” June 2020.

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Saugeen Ojibway Votes No on Deep Geologic Repository

Nukewatch Quarterly Summer 2020

Saukiing Anishnaabekiing, Ontario—Collectively, the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation and the Chippewas of Saugeen First Nation are referred to as the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON). Our Territory encompasses much of the Saugeen Peninsula, extending down south of Goderich and east of Collingwood. Between the two communities, we have over 4,500 members.

We were not consulted when the nuclear industry was established in our territory. Over the past forty years, nuclear power generation in Anishnaabekiing has had many impacts on our communities, and our land and waters, including the production and accumulation of nuclear waste.

In 2013, Ontario Power Generation committed to SON that it would not build the Deep Geologic Repository (DGR) without our support.

This vote marks a historic exercising of our Aboriginal and Treaty Rights and free, prior and informed consent in our Territory. The Communities have voted against the DGR. The vote results are as follows:

170 yes, 1,058 no, 4 spoiled ballots, 1,232 total votes.

“This vote was a historic milestone and momentous victory for our People. We worked for many years for our right to exercise jurisdiction in our territory and the free, prior and informed consent of our People to be recognized,” said Chief Lester Anoquot of Chippewas of Saugeen First Nation. “As Anishinaabe, we didn’t ask for this waste to be created and stored in our territory, but it is here. We have a responsibility to our Mother Earth to protect both her and our lands and waters. Today, our People have voted against the DGR; this tells us that we must work diligently to find a new solution for the waste,” he said.

“We will continue to work with OPG and others in the nuclear industry on developing new solutions for nuclear waste in our Territory. We know that the waste currently held in above-ground storage at the Bruce site will not go away. SON is committed to developing these solutions with our Communities and ensuring Mother Earth is protected for future generations. We will continue to ensure that our People will lead these processes and decisions,” said Chief Greg Nadjiwon—Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation.

SON will now begin working closely with OPG and others in the nuclear industry to find an acceptable solution for the waste. This process may take many years.

—Saugeen Ojibway Nation Chiefs and Councils, Press Release, Jan. 31, 2020

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Manufacturing Consent: Creation of Cultural Triage to Take Yucca Mountain

By Shoshone artist Jack Malotte. Used with permission.
By Ian Zabarte
Nukewatch Quarterly Summer 2020

The Shoshone have lived in the Great Basin, home to Yucca Mountain, for more than 12,000 years. The Shoshone primary use of the land and water is their identity.

By the time nuclear weapons testing ended, over 1,000 nuclear tests were conducted on Shoshone land and people. In 1992, the Shoshone began to investigate their radiation exposure.

The Native Community Action Council (NCAC) was created to investigate and found, after review of the 1990 Department of Energy (DOE) Off-site Radiation Exposure Review, that Indian tribes received significantly higher radiation dose in fallout than non-Indians. Higher risk of exposures was found based on lifestyle differences that include: diet, mobility and shelter. The NCAC found increased exposure: 15 times greater for adults, 30 times for youth, and 60 times greater in utero. The results were used as a contention at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing of Yucca Mountain for a deep geologic repository for high-level radioactive waste.

Despite spending $10 billion, the administration failed to meet the licensing requirements of the NRC under 10 CFR 960 121.12 OWNERSHIP. Even with the Bureau of Land Management master title plats, the DOE could not prove ownership to Yucca Mountain because the Treaty of Ruby Valley is controlling and, in “full force and effect.” Shoshone title remains unextinguished.

The DOE’s 1990 Yucca Mountain Cultural Resource Study created a study protocol of cultural triage.* Triage is appropriately used in natural disasters to determine where limited resources are used to maximize survival. Cultural triage is defined as, “a forced choice situation in which an ethnic group is faced with the decision to rank in importance equally valued cultural resources that could be affected by a proposed development project.” In Shoshone country, there is no natural disaster to invoke triage; there is no development project that justifies requiring the Shoshone to choose whether water or land is more important. As said earlier, water and land are Shoshone identity. What the Shoshone people experience with the Yucca Mountain radioactive waste proposal is a deliberate act to dismantle Shoshone living lifeways in relation to the land—an ethnic cleansing—for the benefit and profit of the nuclear industry.

The DOE-funded research, organizing the Consolidated Group of Tribes and Organizations in 1988, paving the way for this cultural triage. Tribes unwittingly participated, manufacturing consent for the Yucca Mountain project by their consultation. The tribes involved include the Pahrump Paiute Tribe, an invented tribe, and the Las Vegas Indian Center, an urban social-welfare organization. Both entities were directed by the same individual who is not an Indian enrolled in any tribe. The remaining 14 federally recognized Indian tribes created by the US are “incompetents” under the guardianship of the Department of Interior. Federally recognized tribes, due to their dependency, are unable to give consent to involvement, research on them, or research outcomes.

The Consolidated Group of Tribes and Organizations has a new name, meeting as the Nuclear Energy Tribal Working Group at the National Conference of State Legislatures. It includes the fabricated tribe that misleads federally recognized tribes to this day with the funding and support of the DOE.

The Shoshone seek collaborators in the persistent struggle to create understanding of the health disparities and to mitigate the cascading effects suffered from radioactive fallout exposure. The Shoshone do not consent to Yucca Mountain or any other part of Shoshone country being used for nuclear waste disposal.

* Native American Cultural Resource Studies at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, 1990, Richard Stoffle

—Ian Zabarte is Principal Man of the Western Bands of the Shoshone Nation of Indians and Secretary of Native Community Action Council.

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Public Weighing in on Environmental Impact of Holtec and ISP CIS

By Leona Morgan
Nukewatch Quarterly Summer 2020

Holtec International in partnership with Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance (ELEA) is currently seeking to license, build and operate a “temporary” dump for high-level radioactive waste—used reactor fuel rods. Their proposal to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) anticipates waste storage for 40 years initially, with 80 years of renewals, totaling 120 years of operation. Since the application for the Consolidated Interim Storage (CIS) facility in southeast New Mexico was submitted in March 2017, opponents have been raising their voices against it.

Completing the licensing application and becoming permitted to operate a CIS is a long procedure. Nonetheless, Holtec has met legal resistance at every step. Recently, the application has been before the Atomic Safety Licensing Board (ASLB), which functions under the NRC. Aside from the ASLB process, Holtec’s National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) evaluation is also moving forward.

Six separate petitioners submitted over 50 arguments to the ASLB opposing the project. These entities formally challenged the legitimacy of Holtec’s application and raised “contentions” about nation-wide waste transports, risks to water, integrity of canisters, legality of the license, exposure to radiation, and environmental justice, to name a few. The NRC/ASLB judges denied all the original contentions. Appeals to intervene by the petitioners were also denied (See “NRC Okays Unlawful Licensing Language in Planned NM Radioactive Waste Site”). Another round of appeals will be filed and a few contentions may be considered. One in particular relates to safety concerns over the proximity of oil and gas production to the dump site. The issue was raised by New Mexico State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard, who also informed the NRC that Holtec neglected to communicate with the State Land Office and misrepresented its ownership of the site.

As part of the NEPA assessment, Holtec’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement was recently published, and the NRC is currently accepting public comments. However, there are no clear plans for public hearings. Community members are concerned that the NRC may hold webcast meetings in lieu of in-person hearings, silencing the voices of the area residents who are most impacted. People of color, mostly Hispanic, would be disproportionately affected if the proposal moves ahead—a clear example of environmental racism.

Terry Lodge, attorney for a national coalition of organizations that was denied intervention by the ASLB, says, “The Draft Environmental Impact Statement answers nearly none of the questions raised by the seven grassroots groups who intervened from across the country. The evidence shows that Holtec may hold [waste reactor] fuel indefinitely, counted as multiple centuries, not 100 years. If there is no final underground repository licensed, Holtec—sitting there with shallow-buried ‘forever’ waste—is it. New Mexico must not lose this fight.”

Two applications for CIS are currently going through the NEPA process. Interim Storage Partners’ application is facing a time line and pattern of opposition similar to Holtec.

Take Action: New Mexico’s and national groups opposing both proposals urge everyone to send public comments by their respective deadlines: September 22, 2020 for Holtec/ELEA, and Sept. 4, 2020 for Interim Storage Partners (Waste Control Specialists/Orano USA). Holtec: E-mail comments to: Holtec-CISFEIS@nrc.gov. Please include the Docket Number—docket ID NRC-2018-0052—in your email subject line, as well as in the text of your emailed comments.  See sample comments here. Waste Control Specialists (Interim Storage Partners): WCS_CISF_EIS@nrc.gov. The Docket ID, NRC-2016-0231, should be included in the subject line of comments.

— Leona Morgan works with Nuclear Issues Study Group and Halt Holtec in New Mexico.

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