Uranium mine cleanup must be done right

A plan to bury low-level radioactive waste in the Red Rock (solid waste) Landfill needs to be fully explained to Navajo elders, argues Judy Platero, a representative of the affected nearbyThoreau Navajo community. “There’s no understanding of this because all of this language, all of this information that’s being disseminated, is all technical. We’ve asked many times, ‘Bring it to us in our own language,’” she says.

Journalist Kathy Helms reports that plans to finally clean up the former Quivira uranium mine near Church Rock are welcomed, but only if done right and with the full consent and understanding of the local community. The cleanup will require  the removal of 1.1 million cubic yards of radioactive waste rock and sand from within the Red Water Pond Road community. Residents have been saddled with those Cold War remnants for decades.

The proposed removal plan means that an estimated 76,710 truckloads – over 60 truckloads a day – will travel a 44-mile haul route along New Mexico Highway 566 to Interstate 40E, across the Continental Divide to and through downtown Thoreau to the Red Rock Landfill.

(Headline photo: Annie Benally at the Quivira Mine)

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