[Video] Voices from #WhiteMesa, Part 2: "We Are One People"

"On Oct. 12, members of the #UteMountainUte Tribe held their annual #SpiritualWalk opposing the #WhiteMesaUraniumMill in Southern #Utah.

"The mill, which processes uranium and other substances, sits on sacred land just north of the tribe’s reservation boundary and is the only one of its kind in the U.S.

"Local organizers with White Mesa Concerned Community and their supporters organize the walk each year to raise awareness about the mill and demand it be shut down and cleaned up.

"Participants rallied before walking five miles to the mill site. Unicorn Riot heard from participants and organizers along the route."

Watch: vimeo.com/1023001512

#UnicornRiot #EnvironmentalRacism #Greenwashing #NuclearWeapons #UraniumMining #UraniumMills #NuclearIndustry #AtomicBombs #Downwinders #Environment #WaterIsLife #Ute #HaulNo #EnergyFuels #WhiteMesaUte #RadioactiveDust #RadioactiveContamination #ExtractiveIndustries #CorporateColonialism #ReaderSupportedNews #DefendTheSacred #AirIsLife #UteMountainUte #NoUraniumMining #UraniumMills

[Video] Voices from #WhiteMesa, Part 1: "Don't Nuke My Culture"

"On Oct. 12, members of the #UteMountainUte Tribe held their annual #SpiritualWalk opposing the #WhiteMesaUraniumMill in Southern #Utah.

"The mill, which processes uranium and other substances, sits on sacred land just north of the tribe’s reservation boundary and is the only one of its kind in the U.S.

"Local organizers with White Mesa Concerned Community and their supporters organize the walk each year to raise awareness about the mill and demand it be shut down and cleaned up.

"Participants rallied before walking five miles to the mill site. Unicorn Riot heard from participants and organizers along the route."

Watch: vimeo.com/1023001432

#UnicornRiot #EnvironmentalRacism #Greenwashing #NuclearWeapons #UraniumMining #UraniumMills #NuclearIndustry #AtomicBombs #Downwinders #Environment #WaterIsLife #Ute #HaulNo #EnergyFuels #WhiteMesaUte #RadioactiveDust #RadioactiveContamination #ExtractiveIndustries #CorporateColonialism #ReaderSupportedNews #DefendTheSacred #AirIsLife #UteMountainUte #NoUraniumMining #UraniumMills

[Thread] #Indigenous #SpiritualWalk in #Utah #Protests Last Conventional #UraniumMill

By Alex Binder, Unicorn Riot November 1, 2024

#WhiteMesa, #Utah — "The #WhiteMesaMill was built in 1979 with plans to process #uranium ore for 15 years. With the facility now well past its initial operational lifespan, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, other Indigenous tribes and allies continue their call for it to be shut down and cleaned up. On October 12, over 75 people participated in an annual spiritual walk in opposition to the mill, which is the last conventional uranium processing plant in operation in the United States.

"Participants met at the White Mesa Community Center in southern Utah at 11 a.m., then walked five miles north on the shoulder of U.S. Highway 191 to rally outside the mill. Throughout the hours-long walk, Unicorn Riot spoke with attendees about their opposition to the 45-year-old mill owned by Energy Fuels Inc."

Thread contains links to the four videos...

unicornriot.ninja/2024/indigen…

#UnicornRiot #EnvironmentalRacism #Greenwashing #NuclearWeapons #UraniumMining #UraniumMills #NuclearIndustry #AtomicBombs #Downwinders #Environment #WaterIsLife #Ute #HaulNo #EnergyFuels #WhiteMesaUte #RadioactiveDust #RadioactiveContamination #ExtractiveIndustries #CorporateColonialism #ReaderSupportedNews #DefendTheSacred #AirIsLife #UteMountainUte #NoUraniumMining #UraniumMills

Some good news! Though potential contamination from long-term storage needs to be addressed (what else is new).

#EPA to Relocate Toxic #UraniumMine Waste from #NavajoNation

By Neely Bardwell, January 08, 2025

"The Environmental Protection Agency will move #uranium mine waste from #ChurchrockNewMexico to the #RedRock regional landfill where it can be safely stored forever.

"The federal agency signed an action memo to transport radioactive waste at the Quivira Mining Co. Churchrock Mine to a disposal site at the Red Rock regional landfill about six miles east of the Village of Thoreau. The cleanup will begin in early 2025 and continue for 6-8 years.

"For the Red Water Pond Road Community Association (#RWPRCA), which has advocated for waste removal since 2006, the decision marks a significant shift in addressing #UraniumContamination on Navajo land.

"'Removing the mine waste from our community will protect our health and finally put us back on a positive track to #Hózhǫ (balance),' said Teracita Keyanna, RPWPRCA executive committee member. 'I think this decision empowers #grassroots organizations like ours and our allies to continue to advocate and educate to clean up hundreds of abandoned uranium mines that threaten our #Diné communities every day.'

"RWPRCA President Edith Hood said the community has dealt with the impact of uranium mining since the late 1960s. Commercial mining began at the site under #KerrMcGee Corporation, which later became the #QuiviraMiningCompany. The operation extracted an estimated 1.3 million tons of uranium ore before closing in 1986. The Navajo Nation currently has more than 520 documented #AbandonedMines, with no disposal facilities for uranium waste within 350 miles of #TribalLands.

"'Many of us suffer chronic health problems and a degraded homeland as a result,' Hood said. 'We advocate for a regional approach to addressing remediation of nearly 100 abandoned uranium mines in the Eastern Navajo Agency. We are committed to making sure the removal of mine waste from our community does not threaten the health and safety of our Diné neighbors.'

"Previous attempts to address the waste proved unsuccessful. In 2011 and 2013, the EPA and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved a plan to place 1 million cubic yards of waste from NECRM on top of the existing tailings pile located half a mile from RWPRC village. Effectively, neither of those wastes were removed from the communities.

"The #RedRockLandfill currently handles municipal waste from McKinley and Cibola counties and Navajo Nation communities as far away as Tuba City. The planned #UraniumDisposalCell will occupy a separate area of the 640-acre site adjacent to the shuttered #Escalante power plant.

"The Northwest New Mexico Regional Solid Waste Authority (#NNMRSWA), which owns the landfill, must show that its operations can protect #GroundWater, air and soil, while safeguarding public health for decades to come. The New Mexico Environment Department will oversee long-term monitoring of the site.

"Chris Shuey, who has documented mining and #milling impacts in the #Churchrock area for 40 years as an environmental health specialist at Southwest Research and Information Center in Albuquerque, said relocating uranium waste is essential for tribal communities.

"'Removing mine wastes from Navajo communities to engineered, regional disposal sites is a #PublicHealth imperative,' Shuey said, noting that more than half of all Navajo chapters have at least one source of unhealthy uranium exposure. 'The federal government must continue looking for suitable sites for long-term disposal of mine wastes to protect current and future Navajo populations.'

"'This decision will remove over 1 million cubic yards of waste that has haunted the #RedWaterPondRoad and #PipelineRoad communities for too long,' EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Martha Guzman said in a statement.

"'This solution is a compromise that will get #RadioactiveWaste in this area off of the Navajo Nation as soon as possible,' Navajo Nation President #BuuNygren said in the EPA statement. 'It’s not everything the three affected communities would wish for but it’s action in the right direction now rather than in the future. Most importantly, this will protect our people from harmful exposure.'"

Source:
nativenewsonline.net/environme…
#NoNukes #NoWar #NoMiningWithoutConsent #NoUraniumMining #UraniumMills #NukingTheNavajo #Genocide #WaterIsLife #NativeAmericanNews #HaulNo

#NuclearRevival? #Diné #Activist Warns Against New #UraniumMining as #AI, #Bitcoin Energy Needs Soar

#DemocracyNow
November 19, 2024

"The search for an energy alternative to #FossilFuels has renewed interest in #NuclearPower production across the globe. Despite nuclear boosters’ promotion of the energy source, Tim Judson of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service [#NIRS] calls #NuclearPower an 'elaborate #greenwashing scheme.' Nuclear is 'not carbon-free,' says Diné organizer #LeonaMorgan, who highlights the fuel costs and #EnvironmentalContamination — particularly within and around #IndigenousCommunities in the #SouthwestUnitedStates — of the #UraniumMining required to produce nuclear power. Because the carbon costs before and after nuclear generation are not factored into energy calculations, says Morgan, 'it’s really not going to solve the #EnergyCrisis.'"

Watch / listen / read transcript:
democracynow.org/2024/11/19/co…

#NoNukes #NoNukesForAI #RethinkNotRestart #NuclearNotCarbonFree
#ViewerSupportedNews #BigTech #Corporatocracy
#CorporateColonialism #NoMiningWithoutConsent #NoUraniumMining #HaulNo #UraniumMills #WaterIsLife
#AirIsLife #NoNewNukes #NoNuclearWeapons #NuclearColonialism #EnvironmentalRacism
#NativeAmericanActivists #DinéActivists

The Dirty Secrets: #Whales, the #GrandCanyon and #WarCriminals

by #BrendaNorrell, #Censored News
November 22, 2024

"People who travel the world will tell you two things that they really love: Whales and the Grand Canyon.
The majestic Orca whales are now at risk from the massive oil tankers departing the shores of British Columbia with thick crude oil from Alberta tar sands in Canada, bound for distant refineries and ports.

"Meanwhile, in the heart of the Southwest, the Grand Canyon, loved by the people of the world, now has a uranium mine spewing radioactive dust into the air, and endangering Havasupai's aquifer and future generations.

"Neither the Appeals Court in Canada, nor the U.S. EPA and Interior have done anything to stop these assaults on the most beloved natural wonders in the world, whales and the Grand Canyon.

"Rueben George, səlilwətaɬ, Tsleil-Waututh Nation, remembers the long fight to halt the Trans Mountain Pipeline, now carrying crude oil from Alberta tar sands to the Salish Sea, which flows off the shores of British Columbia and Washington State to the Pacific.

"George said they thought they were winning their case in Canada's Appeal Court.

"'They said you're right it's going to kill all the Orca whales, you're right -- but we're going to build it anyway,' George said at the Salish Sea Assembly in Seattle in November.

"The uranium mine in the Grand Canyon is now spraying radioactive dust on Havasupai's medicine plants, and into the air for the world's travelers to breathe. The uranium mine, operated by Energy Fuels of Canada, threatens the aquifer of Havasupai and future generations.

"The mine's radioactive truck transport is a deadly risk for Supai, Paiute, Dine', Hopi and Ute on the haul route. The radioactive ore is transported by truck to the Energy Fuels mill in the White Mesa Ute community in southeastern Utah.

"Interior's Deb Haaland, who is Laguna Pueblo and Norwegian, has not only failed to halt the deadly risks and destruction, but has proclaimed that the atomic bomb industry, Los Alamos National Laboratory, will lead the green 'energy transition.'

"Los Alamos Labs produces nuclear weapons and is already poisoning the Pueblo homelands in northern New Mexico with radiation. A federal judge recently halted the push to produce and store more plutonium at the site, citing a risk to the environment."

Read more:
bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/11…

#AlbertaTarSands #TarSands #LosAlamos #EnvironmentalRacism #Plutonium #Greenwashing #NuclearWeapons #UraniumMining #UraniumMills #DebHaaland #NuclearIndustry #AtomicBombs #Downwinders #Environment #WaterIsLife #Supai #Paiute #Dine' #Hopi #Ute #HaulNo #EnergyFuels #WhiteMesaUte #WhiteMesa #Havasupai #SalishSeaAssembly #Salish #OceansAreLife #RadioactiveDust #RadioactiveContamination #TsleilWaututh #TsleilWaututhNation #CanadasAppealsCourt #TransmountainPipeline #RuebenGeorge #BritishColumbia #WashingtonState #NoUraniumMining #NoTarSands #Oiligarchy #ExtractiveIndustries #CorporateColonialism #ReaderSupportedNews #ProtectHaKamwe #NavajoTransitionalEnergyCompany #DefendTheSacred