Uranium mining and community exposures on the Navajo Nation

This presentation will provide the history of uranium mining on the Navajo Nation, summarizing the health impacts to uranium workers, the wide range of potential population exposures that may result from the lack of remediation of abandoned mine and mill sites, and the concerns of community members about the lack of data on health effects among descendants of former uranium workers and among people living in mining-impacted areas. The presentation will also discuss the potential public health risks of proposed new uranium mining in these same Navajo communities. The presenters include staff members of organizations that are partners in the Diné Network for Environmental Health (DiNEH) Project and individuals who live in mining-impacted communities on the Navajo Nation. They will provide demographic information and aggregate health data that characterize the Navajo Nation as a whole and the communities involved in the DiNEH Project study area. Environmental assessment activities initiated by Churchrock Chapter of the Navajo Nation under the auspicies of the Church Rock Uranium Monitoring Project, and SRIC's role in providing organizational and technical support for those activities, will be discussed. Results of CRUMP's assessment of water quality in local wells, uranium-in-soil and soil radiation levels, indoor radon levels, and airborne particulate concentrations are summarized. These data have utility for educating community members about the long-term environmental impacts of past uranium mining, providing scientific data upon which Churchrock Chapter and adjacent Navajo communities have advocated successfully for mine-site cleanup, and informing the DiNEH Project's cumulative exposure model.