Law Center News:

Navajo Fight Against New Uranium Mines - Jun 19 , 2008 Read articles and listen to interviews about the Law Center's May 12th Oral Arguments before the 10th Cuircuit court.

PRESS RELEASE Navajos Vow Fight Against New Uranium Mines - Apr 19, 2008 Read press release on Law Center's May 12th Oral Arguments before the 10th Cuircuit court.

Oil Pit Rule Victory! – May 9, 2008 Good news for goundwater.

Law Center Responds to NRC Speech - Mar 14, 2008 Staff attorney, Eric Jantz responds to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Commissioner Pete Lyons' self-congratulatory speech to the National Congress of American Indians in Washington, D.C.

Navajo Fight Against New Uranium Mines Explained May 12, 2008 - Listen to Eric Jantz speak to KSFR News Director Bill DuPuy about his oral argument before the US Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Go to the KSFR May 12th podcast to hear the interview.

Apr. 30 , 2008 - Listen to Max Lindberg of PlanetSave interview Law Center attorney Eric Jantz regarding the lawsuit and our role in other uranium related issues. Go to PlanetSave to Hear Interview

Navajo's Fight to Stop Uranium Mining in the Press:

Canaries in the Uranium Mine In These Times, June 23 2008

Uranium Frenzy in the West Mother Jones, June 19 2008

Uranium Mining Concerns Indian Country Today, May 19 2008

Judges Express Surprise at Mining Plan
New Mexico Independent, May 13 2008

Mining Challenge Heads to Court
Santa Fe New Mexican, May 13 2008

Court Hears Uranium Mine Challenge Casper Star-Tribune, May 13 2008

Mining Challenge Goes to Court
Gallup Independent, May 12, 2008

Group Challenges Uranium License
Casper Star-Tribune, May 12 2008

What Nuclear Renaissance?
The Nation, May 12 2008

NM Firm [HRI] Challenges EPA Ruling on Uranium Mining Permit
Santa Fe New Mexican, May 10 2008

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:: PRESS RELEASE :: Navajos Vow Fight Against New Uranium Mines

Apr. 19, 2008 - Santa Fe, New Mexico—For the first time in United States history, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will be challenged in Federal appeals court for its approval of a source materials license for an in situ leach uranium mine.

The Navajo communities of Crownpoint and Church Rock, New Mexico, with the assistance of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC), Eastern Navajo Dine against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM) and Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC) will fight the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and Hydro Resources, Inc., demanding that they stay off of Navajo lands in New Mexico. NMELC will present oral arguments on May 12 to a panel of Federal judges in Denver asking that the NRC decision to allow mining be set aside.

“The importance of our hearing on May 12 cannot be overstated,” states Eric Jantz, New Mexico Environmental Law Center attorney. “We are talking about the land, water, air and health of two whole communities. There are people on this land grazing their cattle and hauling their daily drinking water.”

ENDAUM is the first community group ever to fight the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on a source materials permit for an in situ leach uranium mine. This fight is becoming even more significant, as the price of uranium has increased tremendously during the past seven years, rising from $7/lb to $68/lb. Subsequently, the state of New Mexico has seen a dramatic rise in the number of exploratory permits requested by mining companies during the past year, with a dozen applications currently under review.

Hydro Resources, Inc. has four proposed mines in the Church Rock-Crownpoint region. In 2006, the NRC approved the license for all four sites. The New Mexico Environmental Law Center filed a lawsuit in 2007 against the NRC to overturn the license. The NMELC argues that the NRC has violated the Atomic Energy Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and its own regulations when it issued decisions on numerous issues. The NMELC’s clients are appealing the following points:

• Hydro Resources failed to prove that it will protect groundwater from contamination by uranium and other toxic heavy metals
• The company failed to ensure that the health of residents near the mines would be protected from damaging radioactive air emissions
• Hydro Resources’ proposed financial bond for the site is inadequate to ensure that the site(s) would be cleaned up in the event that the company is unable to undertake reclamation of the land and/or water impacted by the mining

Because of the NRC's bias in favor of industry, a victory for NMELC’s Navajo clients would set a major precedent in New Mexico.

Read complete Press Release in PDF format

Click below for high resolution images

Church Rock Bus	Church Rock Sheep Grazing	Mr. King w/ Cattle
Church Rock	Crown Point Well	Mr. Mitchell

INTERVIEWS ARE AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST

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OIL PIT RULE VICTORY – GOOD NEWS FOR GROUNDWATER

May 9, 2008 - With help from the Law Center, New Mexico’s groundwater will be safer, due the release of a stringent new “oil pit rule” on May 9. Oil pits hold wastes from oil and gas wells, which can include carcinogens such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene.

At the 18 day hearing in November 2007, the Law Center and its client, the Oil and Gas Accountability Project (OGAP) presented witnesses who testified about the health risks of oil pit contamination and the economic competitiveness of closed-loop systems. The hearing resulted in 5,000 pages of transcript – and a resounding victory for our state’s water, wildlife and human health.

Here are some of the new requirements:

• For the first time, all pits must be lined with heavy-duty liners, unless issued a special exemption.
• When groundwater is less than 50 feet from the pit, companies must use “closed-loop systems” (above ground tanks) rather than pits.
• Waste can no longer be spread onsite, but must be sent to an approved landfill. The pit must be reclaimed unless the site is specifically exempted.

In December, Oil Conservation Division (OCD) chairman Mark Fesmire told the Santa Fe New Mexican that in the past 15 years the OCD had investigated 800 instances of oil and gas well-related contamination, roughly half were due to oil pits. He expects that with this new rule that contamination will “drop down to nothing.”

“It’s a good rule,” affirms Law Center Staff Attorney Eric Jantz. “For a relatively small investment, there will be a significant positive impact on the environment.”

However, industry rhetoric against the new rule was, at times, toxic. Senator Pete Domenici and state legislators supported oil and gas producers, who bemoaned that the proposed rule would drive them out of the state. New Mexico Oil and Gas Association President Bob Gallagher lamented that the State “is not just kicking the cash cow in the stomach. [It’s] gutting us.”

When OCD announced the release of the new rule, Fesmire stated, "We can produce oil and gas in New Mexico in an environmentally sound manner. The adoption of this new rule is a significant step forward in preventing future legacy issues and protecting our environment." As of May 12, the Independent Oil Producers Association of New Mexico was not yet convinced, and is considering a lawsuit against the State. The Law Center will be ready to defend this important rule if necessary.

Read the NM Oil Conservation Commission's New Pit Rule

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Law Center Responds to NRC Speech by Eric Jantz

Mar. 14 , 2008 - On March 4, 2008, Nuclear Regulatory Commission Commissioner Pete Lyons gave a self-congratulatory speech to the National Congress of American Indians in Washington, D.C. In his speech, Commissioner Lyons boasted about the job the NRC was doing in consulting with Indian tribes on NRC regulated projects.

Among the accomplishments in consultation he attributed to the NRC was holding meetings to explain the regulatory approach the NRC would follow in licensing uranium processing projects in the vicinity of Indian lands, particularly Navajo lands. He was thrilled to learn that some of that information had been translated into Navajo.

Unfortunately, the “successes” cited by Commissioner Lyons are nothing more than NRC business as usual. And business as usual at the NRC is usually bad for tribes and the general public.

Take Commissioner Lyons’ example of consultation with the Navajo Nation and holding public meetings in Gallup. This process hardly qualified as “consultation” as that term is generally understood when applied to Indian tribes – that is, a give and take process between two sovereign governments on more or less equal footing. Instead, the process the NRC engaged in was little more than the NRC lecturing the Navajo Nation and its people about what would be done to them. From the Navajo perspective, I suspect that being told you and your land will be destroyed by uranium processing wasn’t well received, even if it was communicated to them in their own language.

Moreover, Commissioner Lyons’ representations about NRC interactions with the Navajo people could be taken as disingenuous. If the NRC was truly committed to meaningful consultative relationships with the Navajo Nation (and other tribes) it could start by respecting tribal sovereignty. However, the NRC has had several opportunities to respect the Navajo Nation’s ban on uranium mining and processing within Navajo Indian Country, but has so far refused to do so. Indeed, NRC administrative judges have ruled that the Diné Natural Resources Protection Act is irrelevant to NRC licensing proceedings.

Further, Commissioner Lyons noted that uranium processing operations, which are regulated by the NRC, are taking place “in the vicinity” of tribal lands. While there are many proposed processing operations near tribal lands, there are also numerous proposed operations on tribal lands. The NRC, however, has ignored tribal laws and policies governing resource development on these lands. Additionally, activities regulated by the NRC, that occur “in the vicinity” of tribal lands, are often sited in areas deemed culturally important to tribes, for example,

Mt. Taylor (Kaweshtima to the Acoma people, Tsoodził to the Navajo). Rather than acknowledge the sacredness of the landscape and its importance to surrounding tribes by discouraging uranium development in the area, the NRC has fully supported the “full steam ahead” agenda of the uranium mining industry.

Finally, rather than taking responsibility for the NRC’s part in the public health and environmental nightmare visited upon the people of northwestern New Mexico from past uranium mining and milling, Commissioner Lyons was quick to point out that the NRC does not regulate uranium mining or abandoned uranium mine sites. In fact, the NRC considers radiation from uranium mine waste “background radiation”; treating waste exactly like radiation from the sun or from natural outcrops of uranium bearing rock. In other words, the NRC’s position is that your dying family members and contaminated water and air are not its problems.

As critical as I am of Commissioner Lyons’ speech to the NCAI, he alone should not be faulted for the misinformation in his speech. He is simply one person, albeit one in a leadership role, in a regulatory agency that has abdicated its role as a protector of public health and safety for the role of a nuclear industry cheerleader. We should see Commissioner Lyons’ speech not only as a feel-good public relations piece for the NRC, but also a rallying point for resistance to the NRC’s and the nuclear industry’s agenda. We should critically analyze the words spoken and hold the NRC accountable for the actions that are masked by the words. And we should insist, as citizens whose tax dollars support the NRC, that our elected representatives guide the NRC back to a role in which its primary goal is to protect the public, not the nuclear industry.

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Spotlight on New Mexico: Yesterday, Today and NMELC

By Sebia Hawkins, and Shelbie Knox

Mar. 11 , 2008 - New Mexico is the fifth largest state in the United States with a population approaching 2 million people. Its incredible scenic vistas and landscapes, fascinating history and culture, and abundance of sunshine and fair weather have made it a destination spot for travelers and traders for hundreds of years and inspiring the “land of enchantment” description.

Read complete article at Green Money Journal.com

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Here's a great 2 minute video explaining the1872 Mining Law from Earthworks.org

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