When mining companies abandoned their mines, they also walked away from the contamination, leaving many Navajo people with undrinkable water.
Image Credit: US EPA
Transcript of the Audio Podcast:
The fight to clean up abandoned uranium mines… on this CurrentCast.
Navajo lands in Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico were once home to more than five-hundred uranium mines. But in the mid-eighties, the mining companies abandoned the sites – leaving contaminated water and soil.
Lillie Lane of the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency says the water is still undrinkable in many areas.
Lane: “Navajo people have to drive long distances to haul safe drinking water.”
Clean-up began after some funding became available in 2007, but the work is expensive; it’s hard to prove which mining companies are responsible; and many areas are difficult to access. So Lane says widespread cleanup could still be a hundred years away.
Support for CurrentCast comes from the Mitsubishi Corporation Foundation for the Americas. Learn more online at http://www.currentcast.org.
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